Darien Responds To Complaints About Bar Noise

DARIEN, IL — Darien's police chief acknowledged late last week that the police department has received complaints about noise at Q Bar from three different phone numbers.

But officers have not witnessed any violations of the city's noise regulations, he said.

See related story: Darien Bar Subject Of Noise Complaints

Patch recently received a message from a neighbor of Q Bar, 8109 S. Cass Ave., about noise from the establishment.

In an interview last week, the bar's owner, Bob Taft, said he had heard about complaints from two neighbors. But he disputed allegations that the music goes beyond 11 p.m., saying his outside bands start shutting down at 10:30 p.m. on weekends.

Because of the effects of the pandemic on restaurants and bars, Q Bar was allowed to have outdoor music through mid-September. Typically, its bands would play inside.

In an email to Patch, Police Chief Greg Thomas said the permission for establishments to have outdoor music during the pandemic does not allow them to violate the noise ordinance. He said police would rather resolve such situations through cooperation, rather than force compliance. Only one of those complaining have left a name, he said.

"I have read some of the complaints either on social media or e-mails, and I have a hard time reconciling some of them," Thomas said in the email. "For example, hearing the band at 3:00 in the morning when the establishment is closed cannot be attributed to the establishment. It would have been better for the person to have called 9-1-1 on that matter, so it could have been investigated at the time."

On the department's call log, he said, officers have remarked that the music came from inside the establishment and could only be heard when opening the door to the beer garden or trash runs. At times, officers said they could faintly hear the music, while in other instances, they stopped on Cass Avenue in front of the bar and could not hear it, the chief said.

"There were a couple of times that music could be heard from the location where the caller was calling from. The music has always ended at 10:30 p.m.," he said.

The police department and the city have met with the owner and discussed steps to continue to have outdoor events through mid-September, emphasizing the sound level of the music must comply with city ordinance, Thomas said.

"The measure of 'loudness' by ordinance is, '...it can be heard by any person or police officer standing on the paved portion of the roadway at the approximate location of said sound,'" the chief said. "We discussed such things as facing the band another direction, placing sound dampening barriers, testing the noise level with an employee physically standing at the curb on Cass Avenue to make sure the noise level is at a permissible level."

In the interview last week, Taft, the bar's owner, said the establishment has a good rapport with the police.