Under pressure from bars and restaurants hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will lift the curfew she has imposed on alcohol sales and allow these companies to sell alcohol until 23 time.

Lightfoot was quick to criticize Governor JB Pritzker’s decision to ban indoor service at bars and restaurants due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, but she was also criticized by bars and restaurants for its own restrictions, which in some ways had been more severe than that of the governor. While state rules require bar and restaurant service to end at 11 p.m., the mayor ordered alcohol sales to end at 9 p.m. and establishments to close at 10 p.m.

Now that Pritzker’s new rules are due to go into effect on Friday, the mayor is amending city rules to allow the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants until 11 a.m.

Although Lightfoot is relaxing the rules for bars and restaurants, alcohol sales at liquor stores, grocery stores and other establishments with a packaged product license must still end by 9 p.m., its office said.

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