Judge denies Bottled Blonde’s appeal after liquor license revoked

Bottled Blonde, 504. N. Wells St. | Mitchell Armentrout / Sun-Times

Two days after the city revoked the liquor license of the embattled River North bar and restaurant the Bottled Blonde, a judge denied a motion to allow the business to stay open while it appealed.

Circuit Judge Neil Cohen denied the Bottle Blonde’s motion to delay the closure during a hearing at the Daley Center Thursday morning.

“Absent a stay, [Bottled Blonde’s] investment of over $4 million and the employment of over one hundred persons would be lost and an appeal would be futile,” attorneys for the Bottled Blonde said in the petition to let the business remain open.

Two days earlier, police shuttered the business at 504 N. Wells St. after Cohen dismissed a complaint Bottled Blonde had filed against the city.

After he issued his denial, Cohen encouraged Bottled Blonde’s attorneys to file a petition with the Illinois Appellate Court.

“You know how to petition the appellate court,” Cohen said. “You can do it in the next hour.”

Jeannie Gallucci, one of the business’ lawyers, however, said an appeal would be moot.

“The business will be destroyed in that time,” she told Cohen.

In announcing his ruling, Cohen noted a “failure of the Bottled Blonde to do what’s right, procedurally” in the case, which goes back to 2017.

“I’m not here to save the Bottled Blonde or to hurt it,” Cohen said. “I’m here to apply the law.”

In 2017, the city moved to strip the Bottled Blonde of its liquor license after a host of alleged license violations and complaints from River North residents about loud music, unruly patrons and public urination and vomiting.

The city tried again to strip the liquor license last year, though Cohen granted a stay that time that allowed the Bottled Blonde to remain open.

A blue tarp covered the entrance to Bottled Blonde on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019.

Windows at Bottled Blonde, 504 N. Wells St., were decorated for Halloween on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2019.