Citing chronic allegations of underage drinking that have given it the reputation as the place for minors to get a drink in Evanston, the city’s liquor commissioner will decide whether to pull liquor license of The Keg.

“The word goes out to kids … when it is a good time to go to The Keg and your IDs will not be checked,” said Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, who also serves as liquor commissioner.

Friday’s Liquor Control Review Board hearing on The Keg is the latest in a string of issues involving the bar, located at 810 Grove Street. Its liquor license was temporarily suspended in 2005 by then-mayor Lorraine Morton after an Evanston man was shot and killed inside the bar. Then in 2010, Tisdahl ordered The Keg closed for two days after receiving numerous complaints of underage drinking and other incidents.

City attorney Grant Farrar said at Friday’s hearing that about 17 underage drinking citations were issued to Keg patrons on Jan. 6. Farrar also presented screen shots he said from a Twitter page labeled “Kegofevanston” that he said were obtained Jan. 25. Farrar read four tweets posted under that account from 2011.

“The Keg knows no age, especially if you’re under 21,” read one Tweet.

Another: “Underage townies comparing fake IDs, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe we got in.’”

The Keg owner Tom Migon said he does not use Twitter and was unaware of who was behind the posts. A search Friday of Twitter says the account “doesn’t exist.”

Tisdahl and other liquor board members questioned Migon’s efforts to curb underage drinking. Migon’s attorney, Todd Stephens, told board members that Migon has done his best to stop minors from getting in, installing a camera system to photograph patrons and their identifications, and requiring patrons to produce two forms of ID.

“We’re doing everything we can,” Stephens said.

However, a man who identified himself as a doorman for The Keg told board members that he asks patrons for a state identification and a college ID or debit card.

“There’s a flaw in how you define IDs,” responded Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington. “Debit cards don’t get it. They don’t have a picture or a date of birth. If an ID doesn’t speak directly to the age, you’re checking the wrong thing.”

Stephens produced a small collection of what he called fake IDs that he said were collected from the bar’s floor, where he said underage patrons will toss them when they see police enter the bar. He also cited a Tribune article stating that fake IDs being produced in China are flooding the north suburbs and troubling law enforcement with their realism.

“These things are perfect now,” Stephens said, adding that the bar is willing to spend money on advanced ID scanning equipment or on signs warning underage patrons that their identifications will be confiscated and they will be reported to the Secretary of State’s office, where use of a fake ID could be punished with the loss of driving privileges.

“I don’t want this problem,” Migon said. “I have to come up with a new solution to curtail it. If it’s asking for a third form of ID, or putting in a scanner, I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever I can do.”

The problem has transcended the police department’s ability to find a solution, Eddington said. Instead, the police chief told the board that the best solution is to revoke The Keg’s liquor license.

“This is a problem,” Eddington said. Without a license, he said, “my problem goes away.”

“I’m advocating for something substantial, because we’ve been here too often on the exact same topic,” he said.

Board member Patrick Hughes said that he grew up in Evanston, and that The Keg’s reputation as a place for underage drinking is “folklore” known by minors throughout the North Shore.

“I don’t think this is what we want here in town,” he said.

Fellow board member Richard Peach agreed with The Keg’s reputation for underage drinking, and told Migon that he should work to change that image.

“You’ve got to turn the image around,” he said. “People keep showing up there from Lake Forest and Lake Bluff because the word on the street is you can get into The Keg. Fair or not, that’s what you live with. That’s what you have to turn around.”

Faced with the potential loss of his liquor license, Migon reiterated his willingness to do whatever it takes to curb underage drinking at The Keg, even if that means a change to the bar’s name.

“I’m sweating,” Migon said of the potential loss of his liquor license. “I have two little girls. It’s my livelihood.”

“Am I worried?” he added. “Yes. Am I scared? Yes.”

Tisdahl said she was reluctant to close an Evanston business, but she needs some assurance that the problem would be solved.

“It is not OK to throw up our hands and say we don’t know what to do,” Tisdahl said. “Underage drinking is not going to go on in Evanston, and Twitter accounts are not going to tell people to come from Lake Bluff or lord knows where else to drink at The Keg. There is not going to be a reputation that a bar in Evanston is open for underage drinking.”

The mayor is expected to make a decision on The Keg’s liquor license by Tuesday.