Promising an “upscale” look, a new convenience and liquor store is slated to open at Ridgeland and Ogden in Berwyn this fall — the same location where another business was shut down in January.

Alderman Jim Ramos, 2nd Ward, first was against the opening of the store when he heard the owner had applied for a liquor license. But at a ward meeting Aug. 13, the owner allayed fears of re-creating problems the previous store, Convenient Food Mart, brought to its neighborhood.
The former business essentially became a liquor store, Ramos said.

“They were selling cigarettes to underage minors — and some teenagers would hang out waiting for someone to buy liquor for them,” he said. “Garbage was all over the store. They sold individual bottles and cans and people were dropping them on residents’ lawns as they drove away ... neighbors were complaining.”

When the alderman heard a new owner wanted to open up another convenience store with liquor, Ramos objected but gave owner Nader Yahya a chance to introduce his business. Before the ward meeting, Ramos visited Yahya’s current store, D&D Food and Liquor in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.

“It was very well stocked with a good variety of wines and beers — not cheap-end wines,” he said. “However, I was disappointed with the cleanliness of the store, inside and outside ... but (Yahya) said he would keep a store in Berwyn clean.”

Other promises given at the meeting was that the store would have 40 percent liquor and 60 percent convenient food, Ramos said. And the windows that had been “completely covered with beer and liquor signs” of the previous store, Ramos said, should have more signs for food.

“This will have awnings and (halogen) lights so that it’s not a dark corner,” Ramos said. “Something upscale.”

About 40 residents at the meeting reached an informal consensus of support for the store, Ramos said.

The business license is being processed for Berwyn Food and Liquor, and the 2,500-square-foot location at 6338 W. Ogden Ave.

Yahya said he will have magazines, convenience food such as lunch meat, frozen pizza and chips, and soda.

“All liquor will be fine wine, high-end liquor, imported and domestic beers. We are not going to sell cheap beer,” Yahya said. “No loose beer cans that people buy and throw into the street, no 40-ounce glass bottles, no malt liquor.”

The store’s cash register will include an ID scan in which a license must be swiped in order to complete a sales transaction for alcohol or cigarettes. Yahya said the system will weed out minors and detect fake IDs.

“Everybody who walks in to buy alcohol — whether you’re 70 years old or 18 years old, it doesn’t make a difference — they have to present an ID,” he said.

Eight security cameras will be inside the store, two in the parking lot and one in the alley at the back of the store, Yahya said.

Yahya’s brother, who recently bought a house on Cuyler Avenue in Berwyn, will manage the store.

Convenient Food Mart was the original grocery store at that location and opened in 1960, according to City Collector Debi Suchy, who processes business licenses. The original owner obtained a liquor license in 1974. The store changed hands in 1977 and again in 1998. The store under the 1998 ownership had its liquor license suspended for a month last year and was shut down in January for building violations.