Hosting a beer tasting

My tasting group has outgrown our apartments as venues. I'm unsure of doing it at a restaurant or someplace that's not necessarily byob. I can't seem to find anything regarding the legality of it either.

Any help is appreciated.

It's not exactly clear to me what you're asking. Why are you unsure of a tasting at a byob restaurant? That seems to be the perfect option. Let us know what size your group is and we could easily give some restaurant suggestions to accommodate the size.

Note that if you're including any homebrew in the tasting, current Illinois law says homebrew can only be "made solely for the use of the maker, his family and his guests." (Illinois statute Chapter 235, Act 5, Article II, § 2-1) So, technically, homebrew competitions in Illinois are illegal, and maybe even tastings, if some of the participants don't qualify as "guests," (who the hell knows what the specific definition of "guests" is) - although I'm not sure that aspect of the law has ever been enforced.

Right now its looking to be about 15-20 people. Most have expressed interest in doing this in a 'bar' type atmosphere, some specifically mentioning burgers.

As far as I have been able to find there aren't any places that fall into a BYOB category.

If burgers are a must, I'm sure you could find a byob diner type place.

Also, though the odds would be really low, you may get REALLY lucky and find an opening restaurant/bar that is working on getting a liquor license. Red Lion was one such place after they moved, and it was quite awesome to be able to bring whatever beers i wanted and hang out eating pub food. It's not an option anymore since have had their license for quite a while lately.