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Downtown eatery poised to get full liquor license
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MONROE - Pancho and Lefty's Outlaw Grill is expected to be the next restaurant in Monroe to get a full liquor and beer license to serve alcohol drinks.

Robert Duxstad, attorney for KTHOG, Inc., owner of The Roadhouse on 30th Street, told the City of Monroe License Committee Monday that KTHOG will surrender its class B license on the condition that it be granted to Pancho and Lefty's.

The License Committee will review Pancho and Lefty's liquor license application prior to the Common Council meeting June 7.

The committee took no action on the conditional surrender request Monday, including not starting the process of issuing a letter of intent of non-renewal of the license to The Roadhouse.

Committee Chairman Thurston Hanson said he did not want the letter to give the impression that the city is forcing the license surrender.

Hanson and committee members Chris Beer and Sara Conway said they saw no problem with granting the license to Pancho and Lefty's and expect to recommend the council approve the conditional surrender and granting of the license.

Pancho and Lefty's, on the Square, is one of two businesses that has an application on file at the city clerk's office, according to City Clerk Carol Stamm. Pancho and Lefty's application was on file the longest.

The Roadhouse has been under review by the committee since Jan. 5 for possibly violating the city's "use it or lose it" ordinance, passed May 5, 2010, requiring license holders to be closed for no more than 120 consecutive days and to serve beverages not less than 25 percent of the days in a year.

Duxstad said May 3 that active negotiations were in progress to sell The Roadhouse, which involves the transfer of the license to a new owner. Asked whether Pancho and Lefty's was purchasing The Roadhouse building, Duxstad declined to comment.

Pancho and Lefty's is the last of the five eating establishments that went before the council in September 2009 to get one of two new class B licenses, which allow for the sale of alcohol by the drink.

The new licenses were created in May 2009, when the Common Council passed a city ordinance amendment that separated class B licenses from class A licenses, which allow the sale of packaged alcohol, and opened the way for the city to have two more class B licenses, for a total of 25, under state law.

Pancho and Lefty's currently maintains a wine and beer license.