Kosnar Liquors: A Store That Lifted Spirits Is Gone But Not Forgotten

Paul Kosnar rang up a bottle of bright-red colored schnapps for Ed, a regular customer at Kosnar Liquors for the last five years. With a wide grin, Kosnar hassled Ed for being a “newbie” compared to other regulars, despite Ed being a decade or two Kosnar’s senior.

The two laughed, as did a handful of other customers in the store—a common occurrence that turned people into regulars over the decades that Kosnar Liquors was open for business.

But Ed probably didn’t intend to drink that bottle of schnapps; Kosnar said it’s not his drink. The store had sold out of Ed’s usual choice and wasn’t buying any more of it. Ed, like many people who stopped by the store shortly before it closed for good in February, simply wanted to say goodbye.

“People are amazed by how long we’ve been here,” Paul Kosnar said that day. “I think we’ve done that by being nice to the people. You’re a friend to them instead of just an employee. You hang with them, talk to them, know when their kids went to college, and other things about their life. And they come here time after time to talk.”

For 52 years, the Kosnars operated businesses in Orland Park, starting with a pharmacy called Kosnar Drugs, when the village was mostly spread-out farmland. The pharmacy first stood in what is now the antiques district, and later moved to Orland Plaza. In 1959, a liquor license was added. Within a few years, the pharmacy had moved down into what is today, and became its own store.

“I met a lot of people over 20 years,” Paul Kosnar said. “I worked here through high school and college. It’s the only job I’ve ever had. I’m 42 now.”

In the days before the store closed, people who had long since moved away from Orland Park drove long distances to return for a final visit. Others, including some former Kosnar employees, stopped in and exchanged stories about the store. Some remembered how Al Kosnar, Paul’s father, treated people.

Constant Aid

Al Kosnar always answered his calls.

When Orland Park residents needed medicine in the late 1950s and into the ’60s, they called Kosnar Drugs. Al had phones in the pharmacy wired so calls would be directed to his home. Even late at night he would make his way to the store and give people the prescriptions they needed, Paul Kosnar said.

“When calls would come in late—midnight, 2 a.m.—people with sick children and needing a prescription … he would come to the store to give them medicine,” Paul Kosnar said. “That’s how business was run back then. He knew everybody.”

John Hofferica, Al’s brother-in-law, took charge of the liquor section in the drug store in 1959. At that time the liquor section was relegated to a corner in the pharmacy. But it grew in time, and most of the family was working in one aspect or another within the store and pharmacy. Lil Hofferica, John’s wife, did the bookkeeping and ordering. John Jr. and Tom Hofferica, John’s and Lil’s sons, pitched in, as Paul did later on.

In a small-world twist, Al’s future wife, Ramona, even worked there while she was a student at Carl Sandburg High School, though she and Al didn’t start dating until she was in college.

“A lot of employees have come through here, and they still come back,” Paul Kosnar said. “I worked here, too, when I was kid. Nothing has changed in here.”

The pharmacy eventually moved into its own space, leaving the liquor store to expand, and the two businesses continued side by side for 35 years. In 1995, the family closed the pharmacy, and Paul Kosnar took over managing the liquor store.

Longtime Orland Park resident Rich Moses remembers spending many hours just talking with Al Kosnar and others in the pharmacy, when Al wasn’t busy trying to meet someone’s needs. Without a hospital nearby, Al often used his own knowledge as a source of medical advice.

“If you needed something, they’d take care of you,” Moses said. “If you came in here and asked where something was, he’d get it for you. On top of his game all the time. And if they didn’t have something, they found it somehow and had it sent here.”

Moving On

The village is pressing ahead with plans for the Main Street Triangle, a walkable city center with businesses, parks and housing, partly in the space now occupied by Orland Plaza. Recently, an incentive plan to waive several building fees and permits was proposed for businesses that had signed leases as of Sept. 2008 and wanted to relocate within Orland Park.

While a Cook County judge ruled that the village can use the land, the business owners are entitled to compensation. But what exactly will be paid and to whom—between the village, the plaza property owners and the business owners—has been the subject of slowly moving litigation, and settlement talks between all three parties are vague at best.

While the uncertainty contributed to the Kosnars’ decision to close the liquor store, many fond memories were built over five decades, and not just with patrons. The Gee family owned the Orland Plaza back when Kosnar Drugs first opened, and continues to own the property today.

“The Gee family have always been super nice to us,” Paul Kosnar said. “My dad has known them for 52 years, and it’s the same people who are here today. They didn’t rush us to move at all.”

Paul Kosnar has taken a job with the Miller Brewing Company and is still working around the Orland area.

Being in the store just before it closed, with shelves becoming more barren and people poking in asking when the last day would be, the scene could have been grim. But the camaraderie and banter continued all the way to the end.

“Do you want to sell this wine rack?” Rich Moses asked Paul.

“I like that rack—I’ll keep that one,” Paul Kosnar said. “It holds six cases. How about cigars?”

“I don’t smoke,” Rich responded. “Why would I start now?”

“It’s the perfect time,” Paul said with a smile. “They’re all 50 percent off now.”