Our View: BYOB makes sense in DeKalb
DeKalb diners are no closer to having sake with their sushi or Phuket with their pad thai, after the city liquor commissioners this week decided against exploring guidelines for bring-your-own-bottle restaurants.
There was no restaurant asking to be BYOB, so they decided with a 3-2 vote to take no action on the notion.
We're encouraging the liquor commission to be, as they say, pro-active – the opposite of reactive. If you make the guidelines, (maybe) they will come.
BYOB is a restaurant tradition that has been embraced for many years by fine neighbors to the east and by cities big and small across the country. Diners over 21 bring beer or wine to drink with dinner at a restaurant that doesn't have a liquor license. State law even allows diners who aren't interested in draining a bottle to cork it and take the rest home – following certain rules, of course.
BYOB isn't part of the eating-out culture in DeKalb, but it would be a welcome one.
For one thing, it would mean restaurants could attract wine- and beer-savvy diners without the expense and burden of a liquor license. And the city wouldn't have to worry about handing out that many more of them.
BYOB is traditionally a frugal way to dine out – a way to make going out for a night on the town accessible to folks without the $30 to drop on a bottle of burgundy. That means a potential for younger people – of age, of course – to visit local businesses more frequently. Restaurants might find a new clientele niche.
Sycamore created a BYOB license earlier this year when a pizza restaurant approached the city about the concept. No controversy has erupted.
DeKalb has something Sycamore doesn't have in numbers, though – thousands of underage college students. DeKalb would need to craft guidelines that ensured 18- and 19-year-olds aren't imbibing at local restaurants. That and other guidelines are doable, though.
While a BYOB ordinance should be written and considered carefully, it's not rocket science. There are plenty of positives for existing and new businesses. It doesn't always boil down to sales tax receipts; sometimes the fringe and potential benefits outweigh a hard number.
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