You’ll find more than beer at Sketchbook Brewing, pending Village Board approval

Cider, wine and liquor may soon be coming to a brewery near you. 

The Skokie Village Board is slated to take a vote next week on whether to allow its local businesses holding a Class G liquor license to serve and sell alcohol they don’t make onsite.

The change would allow Sketchbook Brewing Company, a microbrewery at 4901 Main St., and Take Flight Spirits, a small batch distillery located at 8038 Lincoln Ave., to expand their menus. 

Under existing rules, the two sole holders of the village’s Class G liquor licenses are only allowed to sell what they make onsite: beer at Sketchbook and spirits at Take Flight.

If approved, the new ordinance would allow Sketchbook to sell cider, wine and liquor, and Take Flight to sell cider, wine and beer. 

Village staff recommended adopting the measure and trustees will likely vote on it during their next meeting set for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at Skokie Village Hall, 5127 Oakton St.

Cesar Marron, who co-founded Sketchbook Brewery in Evanston in 2014 before expanding to Skokie in 2020, said he contacted Skokie Village Hall in December to inquire about expanding its liquor license permissions. 

Marron said he wanted the village’s liquor license to expand so Sketchbook can be more “inclusive” to customers who don’t drink beer, so the taproom can serve as a better event venue, and to potentially boost sales as alcohol consumption trends down nationwide.

The brewery co-founder, however, emphasized that the local taproom will continue to specialize in beer.

Sketchbook will likely add cider, one red wine, one white wine and one “bubbly” to its bar menu but wait on adding cocktails, Marron said. 

Customers of the Skokie brewery are often gluten intolerant or don’t enjoy beer and it’s “not good for business” to turn them away, Marron said. Likewise, he’s had to decline requests from customers interested in renting the taproom for events. 

“Those are situations where we have to say ‘No,’ a lot because they bring up ‘Oh it’s a wedding reception; we would like to have wine and a cocktail,’” Marron said. “And we’re like ‘Well, we can’t do that because of our license.’ So we’ve lost so much business to that.”

“I think it’s not just us but it’s Skokie in general losing business because those people are looking for venues that are not a typical wedding venue,” Marron added.

A memo signed by Mayor Ann Tennes recommending the village expand its Class G license states that the move would enable Sketchbook and Take Flight “to expand their business and encourage greater economic opportunity for the licensees.”

The Illinois General Assembly first passed legislation in 2011 to allow craft breweries to distribute directly to consumers, The State Journal-Register reported. The measure coincided, in part, with a boom in craft brewpubs across the country over the past two decades. 

Yet alcohol consumption fell to a record low last year, a recent Gallup poll found. The New York Times reported in October that there have been more brewery closings than openings over the past 18 months, the first time that has happened in 20 years. 

In 2021, Illinois created a Class 3 license that allows certain brewpubs to sell wine and spirits in addition to beer, according to the Libation Law Blog. But some local municipalities, like Skokie, have not yet aligned with the state. 

Marron said he’s heard from craft breweries in other cities whose sales increased by up to 30% after they were allowed to sell other types of alcohol. He anticipates sales at Skokie’s Sketchbook location to rise by 10-15% if it could sell other alcohol. 

The Skokie Village Board first reviewed the recommended approval during their Feb. 3 meeting with little discussion.

If revised, all future breweries or distilleries in the village would have access to the expanded permissions granted to Skokie’s Class G liquor license.

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