The Cocktail Bar Pitched to Keep Al's Meat Market Open Arrived After It Closed

On a Tuesday night in November 2023, three people stood before the Wilmette Village Board with an unusual idea for 1165 Wilmette Ave. They proposed running Al's Meat Market as a butcher shop from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week and turning the same room into a bourbon bar every evening. As The Record North Shore reported, the plan put a J-shaped bar and a few tables in the front of the house and moved some display cases to the back. The main meat case would stay on the east wall.

"We want to keep this community butcher shop and in order for this institution to remain, it needs to evolve," Molly Veneziano told trustees, according to The Record.

The bar did come to 1165 Wilmette Ave., but the butcher shop is gone. It took two years, a different owner and a liquor license Wilmette had never issued before. Today the storefront is The Mette Cocktail Lounge and Bar, the first downtown business allowed to make most of its money from drinks. Where it sits now says a good deal about how downtown Wilmette's evenings are changing.

A License the Village Had Never Written

Wilmette's history with alcohol is shorter than its downtown. The Record has reported that the village stayed dry for decades after Prohibition and only allowed liquor sales in grocery stores and restaurants after a 1974 referendum. Since then, every on-site license has carried the same limit. Alcohol could make up no more than half of a business's sales.

The 2023 pitch asked for permission to take up to 75 percent of sales from liquor. Village Attorney Jeffrey Stein put the request in context at that meeting:

"This would be a first for Wilmette."

Trustees reacted well to the idea and told staff to draft a new license class, with a draft ordinance expected back in January. The people behind it were Keith and Molly Veneziano, whose R.O.M.E. Sandwich Company pop-up had run out of Al's for three summers, and building owner Mike Chookaszian. Chookaszian is also part-owner of the restaurant group behind Pescadero and Napolita, the neighboring restaurants. They described downtown Wilmette as a place that had already become a nighttime destination in recent years, and they presented the bar as an addition to the restaurants around it.

The butcher-and-bar version never opened. The public record that followed does not say why.

Two Years at One Address

Here is how the storefront got from that pitch to a cocktail lounge, using dates from village records and local reporting.

Al's had its own history before Wilmette. Al Spera opened the market in Winnetka in the 1960s, and his son Joe Spera moved it to downtown Wilmette in 2001. In December 2025, The Record reported that Joe Spera was retiring and that the shop would close in early January 2026.

What the Village Wrote Down the Second Time

The second application came from Jason Sander, a lifelong Wilmette resident, through his company Barsander, LLC. This time nobody proposed keeping a butcher counter in the room. At the November 4, 2025 Judiciary Committee meeting, the village attorney told trustees that alcohol sales would not be incidental to food at this business. He said the owner had been clear that alcohol would be the main source of sales, "which the Village has not allowed in the past." He also reminded the committee that the same idea at the same address had come before it earlier from a different applicant.

The committee minutes list the guardrails trustees could attach to a license like this. They included limiting it to certain zoning districts, capping square footage the way Wilmette already does for its sip-and-shop license, and requiring food prepared on site. On December 9, 2025, the Village Board adopted the ordinance creating a Class Z liquor license for The Mette Cocktail Bar & Lounge, as shown in the board's summary of action taken.

That meeting is the one that changed downtown, more than the opening that came later. Wilmette now has a license category built for a bar where the drinks come first.

What's Behind the Door at 1165

Sander's description to The Record was a "high-end, community focused establishment offering expertly crafted cocktails alongside a curated menu." He said the room would be "vintage-inspired" and promised to honor the historic character of the village. The lease committed the owners to invest between $350,000 and $550,000 in demolition, design, permitting and construction. Chookaszian, still the building's owner, took a minority stake in the business, so the landlord from the 2023 pitch is part of the bar that actually opened.

The tentative menu Sander filed with the village included lobster sliders, burrata bruschetta, seared salmon sushi, steak tartare and hamachi crudo. Sander said the food could work as a full meal or as small plates with a drink. The Mette's website has its current cocktail and food menus and a reservation link. Its reservation page currently shows evening hours Tuesday through Thursday until 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until midnight. Check those before heading over, because posted hours change and the committee minutes record an amended weekend opening time.

The Rest of the After-Dinner Map

The Mette opened on a downtown that already had some evening life. On Central Avenue, Chris and Margie Karabas opened Lucky Jackson's around New Year's Eve 2025. They are the couple behind The Rock House, the coffeehouse and music school at 1150 Central that closed in 2018. The Record described Lucky Jackson's as an "all-day lounge" in Valley Lodge Tavern's former private room, sharing Valley Lodge's bar and kitchen.

The room is 400 square feet with six high-top tables under a starburst chandelier, and the soundtrack comes from Karabas's record collection. "Lucky Jackson's is basically if you could take the basement of my house and bring it into downtown Wilmette," he told The Record. Unlike The Mette, it runs as part of an existing restaurant, which is the kind of arrangement Wilmette's older licenses were written for.

Here is where downtown's evening options stand as November approaches:

• The Mette, 1165 Wilmette Ave.: cocktails first, small plates and fuller dishes alongside, open late on weekends.
• Lucky Jackson's, Central Avenue: a cocktail bar inside Valley Lodge Tavern, closed Sundays and Mondays according to its website.
• The Wilmette Theatre: Wednesday Band Night from 7 to 9 p.m., plus comedy, storytelling and film nights, according to the theatre's site. Its fall cult-classic series has Horror of Dracula listed for November 5.
• Pescadero and Napolita: the restaurants next to 1165 Wilmette Ave. that the 2023 applicants said a bar would complement.

The Same Turnover Is Changing Mornings Too

Downtown is getting busier earlier in the day as well. Sweet Moon Cafe & Bakery took over 1222 Washington Court, near the Metra station, in the space Fuel Fusion left in September 2025. The Village newsletter now lists it as recently opened. The Chicago cafe is known for its honey cakes, and its menu covers Eastern European, Slavic and American breakfast dishes. Wilmette Business Development Planner Lisa Brosnan told The Record that commuters "could really just hop in there before getting on the train."

Two more openings are listed as coming soon. Diane Rakosy Fine Art Studios is moving into 1187 Wilmette Ave., on the same street as The Mette. Buttermilk Café is coming to 200 Skokie Blvd. for breakfast, lunch and brunch. In September, The Record reported that Buttermilk was "weeks away" from opening, without a date.

On the Calendar Through Early December

The Village and Park District calendars give downtown a reason to stay busy into the holidays:

1. Saturday, Oct. 31, 3 to 7 p.m.: village trick-or-treat hours.
2. Oct. 30 through Nov. 8: Wilmette Children's Theater stages Mary Poppins Jr. at the Community Recreation Center, with Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon performances listed on the Park District calendar.
3. Thursday, Dec. 3, 5 to 8 p.m.: the Chamber's Holiday Sip & Shop and Warm Bevy Walk downtown.
4. Saturday, Dec. 5: Holiday Happenings downtown, ending with the tree lighting on the Village Green.

Full details are in the Village's Fall and Winter Communicator, which also lists the other businesses that opened in Wilmette this year.

Downtown storefronts like 1165 Wilmette Ave. help shape what a block is worth to the people living near it. Our team follows these changes alongside the Wilmette homes we represent and the neighborhood itself. If you'd like a read on how the newest openings on Wilmette Avenue and Central Avenue affect a sale or purchase near the Village Center, Jena Radnay welcomes the conversation. Request a Private Consultation.