Hearing officer recommends $1,750 fine for Twin-Cities restaurant defying state COVID-19 rules

Posted on January 28, 2021

*The Normal Town Council, acting at the community’s liquor commission, will decide whether to accept Greenburg’s recommendation. (Photo courtesy: Heart of Illinois ABC)*

NORMAL – A hearing officer is recommending a restaurant and bar in Normal pay $1,750 in fines for serving customers indoors late last year, defying Gov. JB Pritzker’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Hearing officer Todd Greenburg found Joe’s Station House and Pizza Pub at The Shoppes of College Hills in Normal violated terms of its liquor license by not complying with the governor’s executive order.

Greenburg, a former Normal and Bloomington government attorney, listened to evidence at a hearing January 6. He is now finding the business guilty of three violations, proposing a $250 fine for the first offense, a $500 fine for the second offense, and $1,000 for the third offense.

The Normal Town Council, acting at the community’s liquor commission, will decide whether to accept Greenburg’s recommendation.

If the commission agrees with Greenburg’s finding, Joe’s attorney Thomas DeVore told Heart of Illinois-ABC that the business will appeal to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, and if that fails, file a lawsuit.

“It’s absurd to find an executive order is tantamount to a state law,” said DeVore.

‘It defies common sense to suggest as much,” DeVore added.

DeVore also represents Joe’s owners, the Wargo brothers, in a similar matter involving their other establishment, Joe’s Pub on G.E. Road in Bloomington. In that case, the city’s liquor commission fined the owners $600.

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