In 1986 Chester Kiercul opened the Capitol Club at 4244 N. Milwaukee, featuring a band that one patron describes as a Polish Miami Sound Machine, and catering to a crowd of young, newly arrived Polish immigrants. Kiercul billed it as his attempt to run an orderly but upbeat nightclub for the immigrants, but it hasn’t exactly worked out that way. Over the last six years Kiercul has been in and out of court, locked in a bitter feud with neighbors and city officials who want the club’s liquor license revoked. He has even hired a public-relations consultant to help defend him.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Kiercul moved to Chicago from Poland in 1976 when he was 19. “I didn’t speak English and I didn’t have much money. I came here because this is the land of opportunity.” He says he worked two factory jobs to save enough money to open his first club, the Podlasie Club at 2918 N. Central Park. In 1985 he and his partners applied for a 4 AM closing license for the club, hiring a company to gather signatures of support from at least 51 percent of nearby residents, as application rules require. They got the license, but the city later revoked it, stating, “the licensee obtained its late-hour liquor license by submitting a petition that contained less than a majority of the legal voters residing within 400 feet of the premises in that the petition contained forged signatures and other irregularities.” Kiercul says “I didn’t know about the [forged] signatures. I wouldn’t have done that.” City records also show that Kiercul’s old club was a source of continual complaints about fights, prostitution, and excessive noise. “It was a Polish polka place,” Kiercul protests. “It had an older crowd–they didn’t give anybody no trouble at all.”
Yet the irregularities and complaints didn’t stop the city from issuing a liquor license in 1986 for the Capitol Club, which has had problems with its neighbors almost from the start.
Several months later Kiercul dropped the suit, saying his alderman, Pat Levar of the 45th Ward, had told him Stucker was moving out of the neighborhood. Stucker had intended to but didn’t
In 1990 the dispute became citywide news when Channel Two aired videotapes Stucker had made of patrons urinating on lawns, staggering to their cars, and in one case firing a gun. Kiercul accused Stucker of manufacturing the footage and filed another Police Department complaint against him.
Not so, says Reilly. “This administration has revoked over 100 licenses since January of 1991. I don’t know why residents were not notified of the hearing, but even if they were there the commission would not have heard them. Testimony in these proceedings is limited to lawyers from both sides.”
