Babe's Adding Beer and Wine to Its Fast-Food Menu

How about a brew with that beef? A Bordeaux with that burger?

It's soon to be reality at Babe's Hot Dogs, which Monday was granted a beer and wine liquor license by the Joliet City Council.

Although a fairly common practice in Europe, it's still fairly rare to find anything racier than Mountain Dew on most American fast-food restaurant menus, which tend to keep things simple and stick to soda as the standard beverage of choice.

Babe's owner Tim Reilly said his motivation was not so much a desire to add a touch of Paris or Munich to his business as to satisfy a long-standing request from many of his customers.

"I had a lot of patrons asking me about it all the time," Reilly said. "Surprisingly, many of them are seniors who say they'd like to come in and have a sandwich and a beer."

Typically, most places that do serve alcohol with meals tend to be restaurants with a waitstaff. However, many municipalities don't have specific rules pertaining to how the beer and wine is served in restaurants as long as the business' main source of income is from food. 

Reilly doesn't see there being much of a problem with people coming up to the counter and asking for an alcoholic beverage. Just as they do in grocery stores, if the clerk at the register is underage, an adult will need to step over, check the ID to ensure the buyer's of legal drinking age and ring up the sale.

It's unlikely Babe's is going to morph into a bar with the menu addition, especially since his plan is to keep the beer and wine list fairly limited, Reilly said.

He plans to go to Chicago this week to purchase the equipment and supplies he needs, and anticipates he could start selling alcoholic libations as soon as next week, he said.

Interestingly, Reilly's plan may put him ahead of the curve when it comes to trends. Several fast-food chains are just beginning to experiment with the idea of adding alcohol to their menus, according to a story posted on InvestorsPlace.com. McDonald's and Sonic are both testing the concept and Burger King has opened "Whopper Bars" in Miami, Las Vegas and Kansas City.

And just last week, Chipotle announced plans to add craft beer to 15 of its Chicago locations, according to a Huffington Post article. 

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