For lack of a margarita, customers have walked out of XOchimilco Mexican Restaurant in Lincoln Square.
When the owners applied for a liquor license and passed inspection last year, they thought it would be a simple matter. Then they found out about the liquor ban.
They learned their business was located in a small, three-block-long dry district. Restaurants across the street could sell liquor, but they could not.
So owners Lucia Herrejon and Epifanio Benitez started a petition drive to ask voters to allow liquor in the precinct. Herrejon went door to door collecting 150 signatures, enough to put the question on the Nov. 5 ballot. A loyal patron even set up a website in support of the ballot initiative.
“A lot of people were surprised,” Herrejon said. “They did not know this was a dry area.”
Small Cheval plans to open a location on the strip and supports the proposal. A nearby Giordano’s could also take advantage of it.
The area in question lies between Lincoln, Montrose, Damen and Sunnyside avenues.
The ban on booze dates back to 1907. As part of a backlash against public drunkenness, domestic violence and increased immigration, Chicago voters that year shut down drinking in 160 precincts, leaving half the city without saloons.
At the time, the Ravenswood Women’s Club campaigned against a proposed beer garden and amusement park called the Tyrolean Alps, according to a librarian at Northeastern Illinois University, Christina Cogswell, who wrote a history of the issue as her thesis.
Ravenswood had been an “aristocratic” suburb, largely of native-born white Protestants, before it became part of the city. Progressives of the time saw alcohol no longer as a medicine, but as a corrupter of character, particularly among German, Irish and other immigrants, Cogswell wrote. The temperance movement eventually led to the nationwide Prohibition of alcohol in 1920.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
The Prohibition Research Committee of New York’s motorbus “Diogenes” stops in Chicago while on a national tour in search of a “drunkard” who has been reformed by the 18th Amendment, photographed June 11, 1932. At the end of their tour, they concluded that there was no man or family that benefited from Prohibition.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Capt. A.C. Townsend, from left, U.S. Marshall Palmer Anderson, Dept. U.S. Marshall A. J. Jostock and a laborer look over confiscated liquor at the federal warehouse, circa April 20, 1925. Townsend and the men were ordered to clear out the federal government warehouse for seized liquor to make room for Army purposes.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
This distillery, discovered by Prohibition agents on the Chicago’s West Side in 1931, produced 5,000 gallons of liquor a day and supplied alcohol to the city’s 20,000 speakeasies.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Patricia Edenton shows off the slogan for The Crusaders, an organization that was formed to stop Prohibition, photographed in December of 1930.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Anna Smith, from left, Betty Brown and Margaret Chapman ride in the National Repeal Week “wet parade” in support of repealing the 18th Amendment on May 16, 1932. The parade was put on by the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Prohibition agents raid a garage at Lavery & Sons on S. Halsted Street on Jan. 11, 1932. They found 537 barrels of beer worth $29,535.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Young bootleggers Adolph Heise, 16, from left, Nick Pappas, 13, Lawrence Farley, 14, and Harry Hammond, 16, sit in front of Officers August Ptack and William Higgins at the Federal Building on Nov. 30, 1928. The boys were caught pulling a wagon containing 24 bottles of beer they were delivering to Hammond’s mother, who also had 21 cases of beer, 50 gallons of wine and two quarts of gin in her possession.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Federal agents pour out 73,000 gallons of beer worth $750,000 during a raid at Standard Beverage Corporation on South Campbell Avenue on July 19, 1924.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
A crowd cheers as a beer truck leaves a brewery at 91st Street and Second Avenue after Congress passed a bill legalizing 3.2 percent beer in April 1933.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Patrons at a Walgreens store soda fountain enjoy the first 3.2 percent beers in April 1933 after Prohibition was repealed.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Capt. A.C. Townsend, left, and U.S. Marshall Palmer Anderson with confiscated liquor at the federal government warehouse in 1925.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Felix Twarogowski, left, and Sgt. Harry Pehrson after a beer raid in December 1928.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
John G. Weisbach of the Prima Company releases the first truckload of six-percent beer in December of 1933.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Sgts. Harry Pehrson, from left, Jeremiah Lucey and J. A. Kilgore during a liquor raid in December 1928.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Prohibition agents M.R. Smith and H.S. Bain in 1926.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
“Lady bootlegger” Mrs. Lila Fein of Cicero is seen in this undated photo.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Sgt. Jeremiah Lucey, center, looks over a bottle of gin while Flora Twarogowski, left, watches during a beer raid in December 1928.
Chicago Tribune Historical Photo
Millionaire bootlegging lawyer George Remus, center, and his attorney, Harry N. Pritzker, circa June 27, 1928. Remus was one of the biggest dealers in illegal whiskey in the United States. Remus was fighting a murder charge because he killed his wife, Imogene Remus, in 1927 after he was released from prison. While Remus had been in prison, Imogene stole all of Remus’ money, hired a hit man to kill him and ran off with an undercover Prohibition agent.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Roscoe C. Andrews, 26, prohibition director of Illinois, in an undated photo. In 1923, Andrews was dismissed from his duties when he was caught up in an alcohol scandal involving missing liquor from the government warehouse. Andrews maintained that he was innocent.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Mrs. W. J. Graham and Mrs. William B. Fox talk with parade watchers on May 16, 1932, during a National Repeal Week parade put on by the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
A Prohibition raid in 1923 Chicago shows a man emptying mash used to make whiskey, via a hose, out onto the street in front of a group of children.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Men at the Fred Potthast Saloon hoist mugs of real beer just after midnight on April 7, 1933 as Prohibition was repealed. Reportedly within the first 24 hours, more than 1.5 million barrels of beer were consumed.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Capt. A.C. Townsend, left, and agent Joseph J. Wahl look over booze confiscated during a raid in August 1925. Editor’s note: The negative for this photo is damaged.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Patrons line up to purchase bottles of liquor to take home at the Old Rose Distillery Company.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
On Jan. 17, 1920, the party was over — or so Americans thought. Turns out, the enactment of Prohibition was only the beginning of a decade long battle between Chicago’s wets and drys, bootleggers and activists. There were speakeasies, booze raids, rum runners and crusaders. Despite constant enforcement, it became apparent the city would not stay sober. So because Prohibition is still perhaps Chicago’s most infamous era of mayhem, here are the Tribune’s historical photos that capture both the ruckus and the reform. Here, a crowd floods a liquor store in Chicago’s Loop on Jan. 15, 1920, before Prohibition went into effect in the city.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
“Moonshine Mary” Wazeniak, 34, who had turned her La Grange Park home into a saloon, was convicted of selling fatal moonshine in 1923 after serving a shot to patron George L. Rheutan, who later died.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Capt. A.C. Townsend, a prohibition expert, shows off a device used to check beer, circa Dec. 18, 1925. Capt. Townsend was in command of the 11th general prohibition division, with headquarters in Chicago.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Jean Kennedy shows a “Repeal The 18th Amendment; More Beer Less Taxes” flag in June of 1932.
Charles S. Borjes/The Virginian-Pilot
Spectators gather by the side of captured rum runner, Silver Spray, as they watch prohibition agents pour “white lightning” from the five-gallon bottles on the deck into the Elizabeth River, Norfolk, Va., in 1922. The Prohibition Era, which lasted from Jan. 17, 1920, until December 1933, is now viewed as a failed experiment that glamorized illegal drinking and created a violent black market for a product much of America refused to quit.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Thousands of patrons brave cold temperatures for “Free Beer Day” outside the Hall of Science at the Century of Progress World’s Fair in November of 1933. Fair goers finished off 1,000 barrels of beer at the event.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
With repeal official, armed guards accompanied the first shipments of Old Grand-Dad Whiskey to leave a warehouse on W. Grand Avenue for release on Dec. 5, 1933.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Prohibition agents Charles Jones, Thomas O’Brien and Michael Gary, break open some of the 537 barrels of beer they found in a raid on a garage at Lavery & Sons on S. Halsted Street on Jan. 11, 1932. After they were through with their work, a stream of beer flowed down Halsted Street.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Officer William Murphy, left, and Capt. James E. McCann perform a booze raid at 639 Roosevelt Road in this undated photo.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
With a competitor offering nickel beers, Joan Griswold tried to lure drinkers with three-cent steins at her drug store bar in May of 1933.
Charles Krupa/AP
A woman holding an umbrella passes the Carrie Nation lounge in Boston, titled after the namesake of the woman supporting the temperance movement prior to the 1920 ban on alcohol.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
George Groth, a Prohibition department “break-up” man, is shown standing in a trap door leading into a tunnel where liquor was transported in September of 1930.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Police officers Thomas Roach and Patrick Bourke raid an alcohol-processing facility on West Randolph Street on Jan. 8, 1929.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
U.S. Rep. John Philip Hill, of Maryland, was a “wet” leader, photographed in Chicago in 1925. Hill decided to test the patience of the prohibitionist believers (the drys) by planting apple trees and grapevines in his backyard, which he named Franklin Farms. From these trees he made his own liquor, and in 1924, Hill was put on trial for violation of the Volstead Act. The national publicity the trial attracted helped puncture Prohibition.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Captain Richard Gill, from left, and Sergeants T. T. Barnes, John Kratzmeyer, Tom Ryan and Phil Cassin, inspect the fruits of their raid on the A. R. Thompson warehouse at 213 E. Illinois St. , circa Dec. 2, 1930. It’s $5,000 worth of Capone’s liquor neatly wrapped to look like stationary.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
As Prohibition was ending, mountains of beer cases are stacked and ready to be filled Schoenhofen Brewery at 1900 W. 18th Street in March of 1933. The brewery ran two eight-hour shifts to fill 1,000 bottles a day.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Happy patrons at a Chicago restaurant hoist their drinks to celebrate an amendment to the Volstead Act, which allowed beverages to have up to a 3.2 percent alcohol content in April of 1933. This marked the end to Prohibition.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Liquor valued at $50,000 in bootleg prices was poured into the sewer by R.L. Miller, from left, Deputy Sheriff Frank Carsella, George Webster, Deputy Sheriff E. J. Heil, Chief of Highway Police James Devereaux and Sheriff Charles E. Graydon on Dec. 29, 1927. The group destroyed 3,000 gallons of alcohol, 1,000 gallons of whiskey, 500 gallons of gin, 750 gallons of wine and 1,000 pint bottles of ale. Editor’s note: The glass plate negative for this photo is broken in three pieces.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Officer Albert Majeske, from left, John Seevy, John Boland and Captain Willard L. Malone uncover a truck filled with barrels of alcohol in May 1929.
Associated Press
Al Capone attends a game between Notre Dame and Northwestern in Chicago in 1931. Former Alderman A.J. Prignano is on the left.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
The city of Milwaukee held Volkfest on April 17, 1933 in celebration of the end of Prohibition. More than 15,000 attended the festival, which was centered in the city’s auditorium but spilled out onto the streets.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
A Chicago police officer poses by a “rum runner,” a boat confiscated with beer on board in February 1920.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Society ladies Mrs. Charles Garfield King, from left, Betty Brown and Polly Perry, show “Repeal the 18th Amendment” signs for National Repeal Week put on by the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform on May 16, 1932.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
Federal agents raid a liquor establishment on West Adams Street in December of 1931.
Chicago Tribune historical photo
1 of 48
The Prohibition Research Committee of New York’s motorbus “Diogenes” stops in Chicago while on a national tour in search of a “drunkard” who has been reformed by the 18th Amendment, photographed June 11, 1932. At the end of their tour, they concluded that there was no man or family that benefited from Prohibition.
Adolphus Busch, co-founder of what became brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, and a group of brewers had great success running a Tyrolean Alps beer garden and amusement park at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. An influx of German immigrants had opened many such beer gardens and parks in the 19th century in Chicago and elsewhere, featuring food halls, shooting galleries, poetry readings, theater and folk dancing.
But one such park — the nearby Riverview Park — bothered neighbors with late night music and carousing. Following the model of Chicago’s Hyde Park, which had banned drinking, the Ravenswood ladies wanted none of it.
One opponent of such parks called them “the resorts of thieves and rowdies.”
After the City Council tried to dodge the issue, under pressure from residents, the council eventually voted the area dry.
Dry precincts are hardly a thing of the past, however. Chicago has scores of zones where drinking is prohibited around the city. Aldermen regularly approve new zones in response to residents’ complaints.
Present-day 47th Ward Ald. Matt Martin said he supports revoking the prohibition in Lincoln Square.
Martin said he talked to chambers of commerce in the area that support the proposal.
“I feel this would be a very good idea to strengthen business in the neighborhood,” he said.
The only trick is, in an effort to comply with the law, the referendum was written in a backward style: “Shall the prohibition of the sale at retail of alcoholic liquor be continued …?”
That means those who want to allow drinking would have to vote “no.”
“It’s kind of like a trick question,” Herrejon said. “No means yes.”
The added income would help restaurants struggling to make a profit since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It would guarantee the doors stay open,” Herrejon said.