Barry Friedman, owner of downtown bar The Alamo, said the city’s elimination of 3 a.m. liquor licenses has had a big impact on his business.
Police say they are receiving fewer calls to break up fights and keep the peace at bars in Springfield and elsewhere in Sangamon County since last year’s elimination of liquor licenses that allowed patrons to be served until 3 a.m.
But bar owners say they have suffered economically, and they believe the decisions of the Springfield City Council and Sangamon County Board were unjustified.
“It definitely has had a big impact,” said Barry Friedman, owner of The Alamo, 115 N. Fifth St., in Springfield, where bars now can stay open only as late as 2 a.m.
“There’s no more reason to come downtown for the younger group,” Friedman said.
In unincorporated Sangamon County, the latest that bars can stay open is 1 a.m. At one of the former 3 a.m. bars, Dustin Hite, manager of Parkway Pub, 309 N. Dirksen Parkway, said many customers who used to be among Parkway’s late-night patrons have told him they drink at pop-up block parties and 2 a.m. bars in Springfield.
“We don’t see them anymore,” Hite said.
The Republican-controlled County Board voted 21-5 on April 8, 2024, to do away with 3 a.m. bar licenses after a recommendation from its liquor committee. Committee chairperson Cathy Scaife, a rural Springfield Republican, said the committee was concerned about the increasing seriousness of violent incidents at or near the four 3 a.m. bars in the board’s jurisdiction.
The board’s action took effect July 1, 2024, while Springfield’s elimination of 3 a.m. licenses took effect Jan. 1, 2025, after an 8-2 vote by the officially nonpartisan City Council on June 18, 2024.
At the time, owners and patrons of the six Springfield bars with 3 a.m. licenses – four downtown and two on the east side – protested.
But a majority of council members were swayed by Springfield police leaders who said the higher number of calls for police assistance to bars after 1 a.m. were “statistically significant,” even after adjusting for homeless people who were causing problems at downtown bars.
Police inside and outside Springfield said 3 a.m. bars put the public and police more at risk because of the additional time patrons had to become intoxicated and because the late-night bars attracted troublemakers from surrounding counties.
The outcry from patrons and bar owners prompted the City Council to compromise, allowing Springfield bars to serve alcohol until 2 a.m. at the latest.
Police said the changes have had the desired effects, resulting in fewer police calls to the locations that remain open.
The results included an 11% overall reduction in calls for police assistance to the six Springfield bars formerly open until 3 a.m. bars when comparing year-to-date statistics for 2024 and 2025, according to Springfield Police Chief Joseph Behl.
Some critics of the changes have said unruly patrons can cause problems whenever they leave a bar for the night, whether it’s 3 a.m. or earlier. They point to the shooting death of Calvin Bell, 47, of Springfield, who was killed amid what Springfield police called a “large fight” outdoors on March 8 in the 800 block of Stevenson Drive.
Emmanuel K. Watts, 39, of Springfield, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm. Watts has pleaded not guilty, and the case remains pending.
The mass fight occurred as patrons were leaving The Curve Inn, only steps away in Southern View, as that bar was closing at 2 a.m. Southern View officials in late 2024 changed Curve’s previous 3 a.m. closing time to 2 a.m.
One of the former 3 a.m. bars outside Springfield – The Cove, 1616 N. Dirksen Parkway – went out of business in fall 2024, in part because of the “drastic” effect on receipts caused by the 1 a.m. closing time, according to Chad Turner, a former part-owner of the bar.
Third Base Sports Bar, also known as Amber’s Place, at 410 W. Maple Ave., next to Springfield and Jerome, also shut down after the County Board’s decision. The owners of that bar didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Turner, a lawyer who lives in Jacksonville, said the Sangamon County Board was less than transparent with its deliberations and failed to communicate with 3 a.m. bar owners on the issue before the decision. He said statistics didn’t back up Scaife’s claim that violent incidents were increasing at bars with 3 a.m. licenses.
The County Board’s decision killed a sale of the bar that Turner and his business partners were trying to work out with a buyer, Turner said.
In the end, the business and property were sold for $200,000, or half of the amount that the former deal would have yielded for The Cove’s former owners, Turner said. A tavern no longer operates at the site.
Hite, manager of Parkway Pub, said 60% of the bar’s alcohol-related revenue came from sales after 1 a.m. The earlier closing time resulted in layoffs for two people from the eight-person staff, he said.
Rather than restrict bar operations, police could have worked with bars to make sure they were asking potential troublemakers to leave the premises and not overserving patrons, Hite said.
Dan Ward, a part-owner of Mama Lee’s Sandbar, a former 3 a.m. bar at 6111 Mechanicsburg Road outside Springfield, said the 1 a.m. closing time has reduced the number of customers by one-third. No employees have had to be laid off, he said.
Ward said he would have been fine with the 1 a.m. closing if Springfield bars had been subject to the same closing time. He would like to see bars outside Springfield be able to close at 2 a.m. But Scaife, the County Board member, said there have been no discussions on the board about extending the 1 a.m. closing time.
John Hayes, chief deputy of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department, said there was an overall reduction in police calls to the former 3 a.m. bars in the department’s coverage area, based on data for 2023, 2024 and thus far in 2025.
For example, there were 85 calls to Parkway Pub in 2023, with 62 of them after 1 a.m.; 31 calls in 2024, with 11 after 1 a.m., and 21 so far in 2025, with 10 after 1 a.m.
Calls after closing time can reflect a need for police assistance on the property as patrons are leaving, Hayes said.
In Springfield, the most vehement opposition to the City Council vote to end 3 a.m. bar licenses came from the owners and patrons of Clique, 411 E. Washington St., which caters to the gay, bisexual and trans community.
The owners of Clique didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment from Illinois Times. The owner of Unique’s Bar and Grill, 1231 E. Cook St., also didn’t respond. The manager of Celtic Mist, 117 S. Sixth St., couldn’t be reached.
At Gin Mill, 235 S. Fifth St., owner Jason McKemie said his loss of patrons from 2 to 3 a.m. is “hard to quantify.” But he said the City Council’s decision to give all bars in the city the option to stay open until 2 a.m. took away “another tool from our toolbox” that made downtown bars special.
For Friedman, owner of The Alamo, the change, along with the recent closure of several downtown businesses, contributed to a continuing slide in downtown foot traffic.
The Alamo and other downtown businesses are participating in the ongoing Friday Night Live promotion to “get people to remember there are still things going on downtown,” Friedman said. “Downtown is miserable.”
Behl, the Springfield police chief, said the end of 3 a.m. bar licenses hasn’t led to increased attendance at pop-up block parties. He said statistics aren’t readily available on whether the change has led to more dispersed problems requiring police assistance at bars throughout the city.
Behl noted that Mayor Misty Buscher supported the end of 3 a.m. bar licenses.
“The ordinance was passed in the name of public safety for the city of Springfield,” he said. “It aligns with other jurisdictions nearby. With a reduction in calls for service, I would say the change is effective in enhancing public safety, which is Mayor Buscher’s commitment to this city, as well as mine.”