Oh, No!
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Janisch’s neighborhood, the 38th Precinct of the 46th Ward, had been voted dry a couple of decades ago–a piece of history he learned just after signing his lease. To reverse this, he’d need majority approval on a “go-wet referendum,” and to get one on the ballot he’d need a petition signed by 25 percent of the precinct’s nearly 600 voters. But Janisch, former business manager for Improv-Olympic and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America,
Last spring, while breaking in the newly opened kitchen, he assigned the referendum research to a staff member, who went to meetings, collected information, and told Janisch they couldn’t start circulating the petition until August 1. “On July 14, I was curious to know where we were at,” Janisch says. “So I picked up a pamphlet and I read that we could have started on April 1–the ending date was August 7.” Janisch fired the staffer and hurriedly drew up a petition requesting a referendum that would read, “Shall the prohibition of the sale at retail of alcoholic liquor be continued in this 38th Precinct of the 46th Ward of the City of Chicago?” “Hustling my butt off,” he collected 176 signatures and turned it in on deadline.
