The Starbucks across the street from Buffalo Grove High School may add beer and wine to its menu this year, and village officials have created a new liquor license that would allow that to happen.
The coffee giant’s “Starbucks Evenings” program aims to bring customers back to the selected locations at night. There are currently 28 such shops in the Chicago area, Starbucks officials have said, including in Wilmette and Winnetka. Another recently gained early approval in Deerfield.
The Starbucks at 1205 W. Dundee Road could be next: The Village Board added a new liquor license during their Jan. 4 meeting, which will meet Starbucks’ needs if they apply for it.
“We’re in the very early stages of considering our store on Dundee Rd. in Buffalo Grove for the Evenings menu,” a company spokeswoman said in an email. “It’s a long and thoughtful process and the permit filing is just one of many steps we take.”
Buffalo Grove approved an additional license for its Class E category. If Starbucks applies for and receives that new license, it will serve alcohol from 2 p.m. until its 10 p.m. closing. On Jan. 5, community development director Chris Stilling said this Starbucks’s next-door neighbor, Noodles & Co., also has a Class E license.
After the meeting, Village President and liquor commissioner Beverly Sussman said Starbucks had until the end of March to apply for the license. Earning it, she said, will require some additions to their kitchen facilities. Stilling said the store is presently on the standard sanitation-inspection schedule for restaurants.
Outside the store this week, the adjoining patios of Noodles and Starbucks were covered in icy snow — but both had left their tables and chairs out. Noodles’ outdoor seating area is enclosed by a hip-high fence, but Starbucks’s has openings.
With this in mind, Stilling said Noodles possesses an outdoor-cafe license, which permits servers to carry alcoholic beverages to customers seated out there. Starbucks does not have that license, though, and thus must keep its alcoholic drinks inside.
“We’re concerned about the ability to walk out with open alcohol, and then roam the area,” Stilling said.
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