Highland residents hope to open coffee shop with gaming room. Council not sold, yet

Highland’s leaders will soon decide if a new coffee shop will be permitted to open with a gaming room as proposed by the owners.

Highland residents Dustin and Laura Barry have applied for a D2 liquor license to open Molly’s Mochas, a license intended for a restaurant with both liquor and video gaming terminals.

Molly’s Mochas will be located at 916 Sixth St. in Highland, the site of a former convenience store that has been vacant for at least 10 years, according to Dustin Barry. They plan a $100,000 renovation, and submitted renderings and a menu indicating they would sell gourmet coffee, sandwiches, soups and salads as well as baked goods and ice cream served both inside and on a patio.

The restaurant would also sell wine and liquor, Barry said. While there would not be a drive-through, there would be a walk-up window for to-go orders. The bakery would include gluten-free foods, which Barry said has been lacking in Highland.

The gaming section would be in an addition onto the building and include six machines, according to the plans submitted to the council.

Jeffery Rehberger, Laura Barry’s brother, spoke to the council on behalf of the proposal last week.

“Every time I’m in Highland, I can’t get a gourmet coffee after 2 p.m. without driving to Edwardsville,” he said. “I was excited to bring this to Highland.”

He said it would not be not a gaming parlor that sells coffee, but a coffee shop that happens to have a gaming room. He said the Barrys are fairly confident the majority of their revenue is going to come from non-gaming revenue, but they need multiple revenue streams to make it work.

“It won’t open without gaming,” Rehberger said. “The business model won’t fly ... It can’t survive on just coffee and other business, but it can’t survive solely on gaming either.”

However, some council members were concerned about the proposal. Councilman Peggy Bellm said she thought it had a “limited menu” without a full kitchen and did not have sufficient parking for the proposed use.

“I don’t see anything that leads me to believe it’s more than a convenience coffee shop,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but then it doesn’t meet our guidelines.”

Councilman John Hipskind also voiced concerns.

“You must understand our concern that this is just a gaming hall,” he said.

Additional viewpoints

Councilwoman Sarah Sloan said she wished more parking was available, and wanted to see a requirement that the majority of its income did not come from gaming.

The council voted 3-1 to table the project to its next meeting with Bellm voting no and Frey absent.

Rehberger suggested if the council is concerned about the gaming, they could put in a requirement that no more than 50 percent of the business’ revenue could come from gaming.

“If you’re going to hold them to these arbitrary requirements, hold them to a sales requirement,” he said.

He pointed out the location is already zoned for every use except gambling and has been vacant for a decade.

“I’m very surprised by the resistance we’ve found,” Rehberger said. “If you think it’s a disguise for a gaming parlor, make the license contingent on a one-year audit of gaming revenue.”

‘Just doing their due diligence’

Dustin Barry said he hopes they can work with the council to bring the project to Highland.

“We saw a need for something in the community, and we figured out how to make it work,” he said.

Barry declined to comment on the council’s concerns, saying, “I think they’re just doing their due diligence.”

Barry said if they get their approvals, the project is ready to go and they could be open as early as spring.