Through its darkened windows, West Lakeview Liquors still looks like a world class beer store.
It’s a tidy shop where the latest local beer releases remain stacked in a well-assembled island just inside the front door, gleaming stemmed glassware and classic beer books sit waiting to be bought and a yellow sign behind the cash register declares “We’re hiring.” A ceiling fan continues to spin slowly.
It looks as if the owners have just stepped away for a moment.
But the moment has stretched to two weeks and counting as the trailblazing store — where the founders of Pipeworks Brewing and Off Color Brewing cut their beer industry teeth as employees — has slid into mystery.
Amid social media speculation and radio silence from the store itself — plus a bright orange sticker slapped on its front door reading “BUSINESS CLOSED BY ORDER OF CITY OF CHICAGO” — questions have swirled as to the store’s fate.
West Lakeview Liquors, 2156 W. Addison St., was closed by the city on May 21 for operating without “the necessary Liquor, Tobacco or Retail Food Licenses,” according to Isaac Reichman, spokesman for the city’s department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.
Reichman said the licenses in question expired Dec. 15. A BACP enforcement team visited the store April 29 to find that West Lakeview Liquors was still operating without the licenses. After issuing a warning, officials visited the store again May 21 and shut it down.
“In order to reopen, West Lakeview Liquors will need to obtain the proper licenses, which will require them to pay all debts and late fees associated with the business and pay for the proper licenses,” Reichman said in an email.
Though the orange sticker on its door has been torn down, the shop has remained closed.
West Lakeview Liquors owner Kristina Bozic did not respond to emails. However, her father, Kosta Bozic, said the store is likely to open again eventually.
“I guess she’s working on it,” he said.
Kristina Bozic splits time between Chicago and Oaxaca, Mexico (where there may or may not be another West Lakeview Liquors; at the very least there has been a bare bones website and Facebook page for such a store, though both have been deactivated).
Kosta Bozic said his daughter will return to Chicago “in a week or two” after which time West Lakeview Liquors will eventually reopen “as far as I know.”
The elder Bozic started West Lakeview Liquors as a garden variety liquor store in 1988. His daughter took over the shop in 2002 according to published reports and “made it what it became,” Kosta Bozic said.
In addition to a world class selection of beer and spirits and hosting regular tastings, West Lakeview Liquors is one of a handful of places around the world, and the only one in Chicago, to host Zwanze Day each fall, which celebrates the release of a rare lambic ale from legendary Belgian brewery Cantillon.
Throughout the saga, West Lakeview Liquors has been silent, and unresponsive to curious consumers on social media. However it did take time to post on Facebook on May 30 about Constellation Brands, maker of Corona, Modelo and other leading Mexican beer brands, agreeing to pay a fine for alleged illegal practices.
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