Voters have a lot of decisions to make in November: who’ll be the next president, all seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and dozens of judicial races.

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, in the entire city there’s only one referendum question on the ballot that will have binding results, and only a small sliver of the population will be voting on it: a slice of the ninth precinct of the 47th Ward.

That’s where XOchimilco is located. The Ravenswood restaurant has been serving Mexican fare since 2018. As a BYOB establishment, its drink menu is limited.

“You can choose to bring wine, beer, or we have a fresh-squeezed margarita mix we make in house and you can bring your own tequila,” said Lucia Herrejon, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband, manages it and works as a server.

That was fine for a while, but with food prices, making a profit has gotten tougher so the restaurateur decided to apply for a liquor license.

“From what we’ve heard from friends who do have a liquor license, we’ve heard you make like 40% profit off alcohol,” Herrejon said. “And on food you’re making like 10, 8%.” 

She said they jumped through hoops to meet Chicago’s tough criteria.

“You have to get insurance and start paying for insurance as if you had a liquor license,” Herrejon said.

They had to rewire parts of the building to have the proper “exit” signs, and they had to change the direction and latches on doors.

It was, she said, more onerous than opening XOchimilco when she and her husband first took over the space from a previous restaurant.

They passed the city inspection, Herrejon said, but then came an email from their lawyer.

That was the first they learned that XOchimilco is ineligible for a liquor license because it’s covered by a ban that has been in place for more than a century.

A section of the ninth precinct of the 47th Ward — between Montrose, Damen, Lincoln and Sunnyside avenues — has been covered by a choice voters there made back in 1907.

Herrejon said her team learned more about the ban’s history when they met Christina Cogswell, who for a history class in 2019 wrote a paper addressing the ban.

Cogswell wrote that Ravenswood residents petitioned to make the area a “prohibition district” more than 100 years ago amid a burgeoning temperance movement, in a bid to keep the proposed Tyrolean Alps amusement park — to be modeled like the nearby Riverview Park — from coming to the area, arguing that “neighborhoods that have already been invaded by these parks have become the resorts of thieves and rowdies. We do not care to have them in Ravenswood.”

XOchimilco is in the zone those long-ago residents were worried about, along with a Giordano’s and a forthcoming Small Cheval.

But other restaurants within walking distance, like Farm Bar and Il Milanese are outside the borders, so they can and do serve alcoholic beverages.

Herrejon said that’s why she doesn’t buy the argument that making the area “wet” once more will lead to problems and a party-like atmosphere.

“If it was a half a mile, five blocks away, you would be like ‘OK, reasonable,’” she said. “But it’s half a block away, a corner away, from the dry area to where you can cross the street and get a beer.”

This pocket of Chicago isn’t alone.

According to the city’s elections board, Chicago has 1,291 precincts; within them, 350 areas in Chicago are “dry.”

“You’re talking about the ability to sell alcohol at retail,” said former liquor control commissioner Gregory Steadman. “Not consuming alcohol in private, in your home, but the ability to sell alcohol to the general public.”

Steadman worked for the Liquor Control Commission for 16 years — from 2000 to 2016 — and said he has witnessed citizen initiatives to make their neighborhoods dry, usually when residents got fed up by “troublesome liquor establishments that were causing negative quality-of-life issues for communities, and that’s the reason why this was created to give the residents the ability to, if you will, clean up their precinct.”

But the state law that gives residents the ability to go dry, the Illinois Liquor Control Act, also includes mechanisms to reverse a booze ban.

That’s hard work, and though there are two routes, both involve getting residents on board and proving it to officials with petitions, which is what led XOchimilco’s owners to take to the streets to collect at least the minimum 150 signatures from the 497 registered voters living in the “dry” area.

They succeeded, which is why voters in the area will see this question on their ballot: “Shall the prohibition of the sale at retail of alcoholic liquor be continued in the 9th Precinct of the 47th Ward of the City of Chicago (as such precinct existed as of the last general election)?”

At least 51% of impacted voters will need to vote “no” if XOchimilco is to win the ability to get a liquor license.

The somewhat counterintuitive wording of the question — which means that supporters have to vote “no” rather than “yes” — may present an extra challenge.

Even though he doesn’t drink, resident Antonio Mariano said he supports XOchimilco’s cause.

“I think businesses need all the help they can get, because in my neighborhood especially, businesses have been closing left and right,” Mariano said.

A resident named Lucy, who didn’t want to provide her last name, said she’ll vote “no” so the ban can be overturned.

“Prohibition ended in what? 1933?” she said “… Why is it still happening 100 years later? Why should they be punished just for their address?” 

Herrejon said she’s getting shirts and posters made to help promote the effort, plus a media blitz.

No matter the outcome, she said, she’s learned a lesson. She, like a lot of people, used to gloss over referendum questions on ballots. She also said she used to ignore it when a stranger came to her door.

Not anymore.

Herrejon said from here on out, she’s paying attention to elections and answering the door when someone knocks.

Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]