Oak Parkers will have three new places to wet their whistle in the village, following the Oak Park Board of Trustees’ approval of three new liquor licenses.

Live Café, 163 S. Oak Park Ave., Cajun Boil & Bar, 1109 S. Boulevard, and Oak Park Market, 6209 W. North Ave., were all given unanimous approval by the board. Trustees Andrea Button was absent from the vote.

Live Café already was approved for a liquor license in 2017 to serve beer and wine, but the new license expands the license to other forms of booze. 

“What we’re adding is opportunities for Kalua, Bailey’s, pomegranate liqueurs, blackberry liqueurs to accompany lattes, lemonades and that kind of thing,” Live Café co-owner Resheeda Washington told the board.

Trustee Simone Boutet, who can frequently be found at the popular coffee shop said, “I think everyone on this board hangs out at Live Café, and I appreciate the gluten-free food, too.” 

The café is holding a “Prohibition Party” on Oct. 26, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., to celebrate the new license.

“Come in your ‘Gatsby Garb’ and bring some ‘Flapper Flair!’ Have some ‘Prohibition Punch,’ an ‘Illegal Latté,’ or a ‘Mohogany Manhattan,’ while listening to 90s Hip Hop and R&B (’cause we only love the 20s so much!),” the business notes on its website. 

Live Café’s Natalie Johnson said in an email that 10 percent of the bar proceeds from the party will be donated to Open Arms Ministry. “They are a nonprofit that helps to fight hunger, homelessness and financial poverty,” Johnson said. 

Cajun Boil & Bar got its liquor license in anticipation of the new restaurant opening later this year. Co-owner and operating partner Kurtis Lott said the restaurant plans to offer Louisiana-style specialty drinks like Hurricanes.

“We’re looking to add a little Louisiana flair to the diverse crowd of Oak Park, and we’re looking to have beer, wine and many different spirits to go along,” he said.

Lott said the business hopes to open sometime before Thanksgiving. 

“We’re going to have gumbos and jambalaya and catfish and fried tilapia and fried alligator,” he told trustees.

The third liquor license goes to Oak Park’s newest grocery store Oak Park Market.

The grocery store opened last week and will sell beer, wine and some liquor, according to owner Angelo Palivos. 

Trustee Deno Andrews praised the new store, saying it serves a need in northeast Oak Park. 

“Angelo has made an incredible investment over there. He’s completely transformed the space into a very warm and inviting neighborhood market, lots of organic goods,” Andrews said. “One of the things the community on the Northeast Oak Park Community group on Facebook is there’s no place in northeast Oak Park to go be able to walk and buy a bottle of wine or get a craft beer or anything like that, so the neighborhood really encouraged him to go after this liquor license.”

tim@oakpark.com

Join the discussion on social media!