Revoke Hard Water Bar & Grill’s Late Hour and Public Place of Amusement Licenses

The issuance of the Late Hour and Public Place of Amusement ("PPA") licenses to Hard Water Bar & Grill have compromised the safety, security and quality of life of residents of the East Rogers Park community and surrounding areas. The activities discussed in this petition and the behavior perpetuated by the patrons, owners and staff of Hard Water Bar & Grill have become oppressive to the residents of nearby dwellings and a danger to the community as a whole.

Since Hard Water Bar & Grill opened in October 2014, its owners have willfully and repeatedly violated the terms of their liquor license, in addition to city ordinances, including, but not limited to: the City of Chicago Noise Ordinance, the Public Nuisance Ordinance and the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance. Specific incidents include:

• Numerous violent altercations on or near Hard Water Bar & Grill’s property, including large-scale fights requiring response by multiple police vehicles, and resulting in arrests of Hard Water Bar & Grill patrons. At least two of these incidents involved possession and/or use of firearms. For example, on April 4, 2015, patrons of Hard Water Bar & Grill were involved in a shooting immediately after leaving the bar. On the weekend of March 19-20, 2016, an armed car hijacking occurred in the parking lot behind Hard Water Bar & Grill


• Persistent noise ordinance violations resulting in frequent 911 calls by neighbors, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights


• Hard Water Bar & Grill staff and patrons loitering on the patio and yelling for hours after the patio should have been closed


• Patrons of Hard Water Bar & Grill smoking on the patio directly below neighboring residents’ balconies


• Public intoxication and patrons drinking alcohol in the parking lot behind the bar


• Littering on and around Hard Water Bar & Grill’s property; litter often includes liquor and beer bottles, food wrappers, piles of tobacco, drug paraphernalia and used condoms

Community members have complained almost since its opening that Hard Water Bar & Grill was operating illegally as a nightclub without a PPA license, and furthermore, that the location was inappropriate for a nightclub. There are no other bars in the vicinity, and there is a 37-unit residential building housing families with children less than five feet from Hard Water Bar & Grill’s property. After being investigated by the city of Chicago for liquor license violations, and, as a result of that investigation, being closed down by the city for four days (March 28-31, 2016), the bar reopened and continued to operate as usual. With no attempts by Hard Water Bar & Grill’s owners to mitigate the problems the bar had been causing, neighboring residents’ calls to 911 began again on April 1, 2016.

A PPA license was granted to Hard Water Bar & Grill less than a month after the closure in March. Residents in the adjacent building at 1791 West Howard Street were not notified of the new license.

From the time it opened, Hard Water Bar & Grill has had a severe and deleterious impact on the immediate area and the surrounding community. The bar owners have consistently violated the agreements of their liquor license, and have failed to take any corrective action despite numerous opportunities to do so, and despite repeated warnings from police and the Alderman of Chicago’s 49^th Ward. A direct effect has been to make living peacefully impossible for neighboring residents and to make the neighborhood as a whole less safe. The Hard Water Bar & Grill is disrespectful to the community and its business model is incompatible with the lifestyle of the residents in the immediate area. Its Late Hour liquor license and its PPA license must be revoked.