The Casper City Council will decide at tonight's meeting whether to give its last bar and grill license the new Olive Garden restaurant being built on Second Street.

The city of Casper controls four bar and grill licenses, though they've already doled out three of them. On-the-Border on the city's east side has one, as do Dsasumo's and Sanford's, both located downtown. Sanford's will eventually renovate the downtown location to be a Steamboat's Territorial Grill.

When the city council awarded Sanford's a bar and grill license, the requirement that 60 percent of an establishment's sales come from food concerned members who thought more of the restaurant's sales would come from liquor than food.

The licenses allow the flexibility of installing a bar in a restaurant without owning a liquor license, which could cost up to $250,000. The licenses were created and doled out by the state legislature after the Wyoming Association for Municipalities pushed for them, saying they are a good way to entice development.

Just about 10 percent of Olive Garden's sales are from liquor, though, according to information submitted to the city council, and council members

According to an affidavit submitted to the council, the land purchase alone cost more than $900,000 with another $2.2 million for improvements and $750,000 for furniture, equipment and fixtures within the restaurant.

The restaurant would employ between 120 and 150 people, according to Mark Jaronski, a spokesman for Darden Restaurants, parent company of Olive Garden. Jaronski said he hopes for an early 2010 opening.

Mayor Kenyne Schlager said she was excited about Casper having an Olive Garden and said she would support issuance of the liquor license.

Other council members at a meeting earlier this month seemed sure that Olive Garden would be receiving the city's final license, but Ward 1 Council Member Kim Holloway said she wouldn't be supporting the restaurant's application.

"A big company like that is going to scoop up something that it was not intended for," she said. "We have criteria - diversity of cuisine, downtown location, local entreprenuership - I don't think Olive Garden should be given the advantage of having a cheap bar and grill license."

You can reach city reporter Pete Nickeas at pete.nickeas@trib.com or (307) 266-0639. You can read more about Casper politics and government at http://tribtown.trib.com/redtape.