Riverside Wine and Spirits could open its doors at 2720 Harlem Ave. within the next two months after Riverside trustees on April 18 unanimously approved creating a liquor license for businessman Nader Yahya.
Village President Michael Gorman was expected to issue the license last week, and the real estate broker representing Yahya said the store could be open within four to eight weeks of the business owner signing off on contracts to renovate the store’s interior.
“I can’t see it taking more than four, eight weeks tops from the time of signing on the people they choose,” said Jack Mansour of Oak Lawn-based ReMax 10.
There were two suitors for the property, one of them a Riverside resident. But Mansour last month made it clear the owner of the strip mall was working only with Yahya on a lease agreement.
On April 18, Village President Michael Gorman stated that trustees were being asked to vote on creating the license for Riverside Wine and Spirits because Yahya was the only one to actually complete a liquor license application.
According to Mansour, the new store will be very much like its predecessor in that commercial space, The Cork, which was a wine-centric store where customers would sample new arrivals.
“It’ll be very similar to what was there,” Mansour said, “wine and spirits, wine tastings. It’ll be a higher-end store.”
Yahya owns two other liquor stores in the Chicago area, one in the city’s Wicker Park neighborhood and one on Ogden Avenue in Berwyn.
A message on Yahya’s cellphone from the Landmark seeking additional information about the business was not returned.
