Customers can now shop and sip at Chalet following Village Board approval

A long-tenured and well-known Wilmette business is brewing up a change in its operations that ownership hopes will continue to keep customers in good spirits.

Wilmette’s Village Board during its Tuesday, May 13 meeting approved a request from Chalet Home and Garden for a liquor license that will give the popular nursery and garden shop the ability to sell alcohol at its retail store. Trustees unanimously approved the ordinance as part of the meeting’s consent agenda.

The approved ordinance creates a pair of new classes of liquor licenses in Wilmette that relate to customers of larger retailers and the consumption of alcoholic beverages while shopping.

According to a memo from village attorney Jeffrey Stein, Wilmette’s judiciary committee, an advisory subcommittee of the village board, heard requests from local businesses in late 2023 to allow patrons to consume alcohol while shopping.

At the time, the committee recommended approval of a new category that allowed what officials described as “larger stores” to serve alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption and the sale of packaged alcohol for offsite drinking, per the memo.

That category, per Stein, became known as a Class X license; however, the Class X license requires that the business must offer “non-prepackaged foods for immediate consumption in order to also sell alcoholic beverages for both onsite and offsite consumption of liquor,” Stein says in the memo.

Because Chalet does not serve food offerings that match the requirements for the Class X license, the creation of a new classification was needed to fulfill Chalet’s request.

According to village documents, the new classification allows Chalet to sell alcohol for onsite consumption and for carry-out with regulations and restrictions in place, including clauses that alcohol can only be consumed in the shopping areas of the store and may not be taken out of those areas to a parking lot or public right-of-way.

Additionally, further conditions include that the sale and consumption of alcohol may not be earlier than 8 a.m. or later than 10 p.m.

In a letter submitted to the village, Chris Canning, an attorney representing Chalet and a former Wilmette village president, said the business will only sell alcohol during regular business hours, which are typically 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Those hours are slightly extended during the spring and summer and end-of-year seasons.

Chalet, according to Canning, plans to sell bottles or cans of beer, wine, and premade cocktails. The business does not plan to sell beer or cocktails on draft, he added.

Chalet may also sell alcohol for off-premise consumption via the sale of “individual items or as part of a gift basket, picnic basket or host gift,” Canning told the village.

“We believe that granting Chalet’s application will allow Chalet to continue to evolve to meet the needs of shoppers who come to Wilmette,” Canning said.

The Thalmann family opened Chalet in Wilmette in 1917 and the local store — now located at 3132 Lake Ave. — has become one of the nation’s largest garden retailers.

As first reported by The Record, village trustees in the summer of 2023 approved an extensive renovation project that included an addition, a complete facade remodel of the existing buildings and multiple other site improvements.

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.