The city may have cited a satirical Twitter account authored by a Northwestern student while presenting evidence against The Keg during a liquor board hearing Friday.
After a meeting of the city’s Liquor Control Review Board on Friday, Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl announced she would decide by Tuesday if she will close The Keg, 810 Grove St.
Tisdahl heads the liquor board commission as part of her mayoral duties.
During the Friday hearing, city attorney Grant Farrar said bar owner Tom Migon ran a Twitter account with the username @kegofevanston. Farrar cited posts including “Tuesday equals booze day. IDs are optional. Kidding!” as he tried to prove The Keg is a haven for underage drinking.
NU Intel reported in February the @kegofevanston account was run by a then-NU senior. The news website did not disclose the student’s identity but alleged he started the account and assumed the content was “so outrageous” that “no one would think” it was actually connected to The Keg.
Medill junior Jeffrey Cattel, who wrote the NU Intel article, told The Daily he reached out to the account’s alleged owner, who declined to comment.
Farrar declined to comment to The Daily on Friday afternoon.
City spokesman Eric Palmer also declined to comment Friday but said he would discuss the issue with the city’s legal department.
The Keg was ranked ninth-best college bar in America by Complex magazine in 2011. But earlier this month, more than a dozen people were cited at the downtown bar for underage drinking.
Keg owner Tom Migon told The Daily on Friday it was “not fair” for city officials to cite the satirical Twitter account during its testimony. He declined further comment.
During the hearing, his lawyer said Migon did not even know the account existed until the morning of the hearing.
Tisdahl said whether or not The Keg was behind the social media account, she was still alarmed by the number of recent underage drinking incidents.
The last message on the account, posted Friday morning, said, “it’s been a good run. This was and always has been unaffiliated with The Keg of Evanston and was only meant to be in good fun.”
The account was deleted shortly after that tweet was posted Friday.
