Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant is planning to make its Atlanta debut. The upscale American restaurant with a focus on wine has inked a lease for its first Atlanta location near North Point Mall in Alpharetta.
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| A Cooper's Hawk we visited earlier this year in Scottsdale, AZ |
Founder Tim McEnery opened the first Cooper's Hawk in Orland Park, a Chicago suburb, in 2005. Despite being just 29 at the time of the first opening, investor confidence in the brand has allowed McEnery to expand to sixty-six restaurants across eleven states. The Cooper's Hawk website suggests that beyond Atlanta, the chain has at least five more restaurants in the works including two in Florida, already its second biggest market with fifteen units.
Construction on the Alpharetta restaurant, which will include both a patio and retail wine sales, is expected to begin in the coming weeks with an opening planned for 2025.
Cooper's Hawk operates a central wine production facility in Woodridge, Illinois. Each restaurant stores and displays barrels of Cooper's Hawk wine, where they undergo the aging process from a few months up to 18 months. The restaurant has over the years received over 500 wine awards from various local, national, and international wine competitions, according to the Cooper's Hawk website.
The new Alpharetta restaurant is reportedly one of several the chain has planned for the greater metro Atlanta area. Cooper's Hawk is at least the third out-of-market upscale restaurant to announce or open in Alpharetta following the November 2023 opening of Connor's Steak & Seafood on Windward Parkway and the proposed Eddie V's Prime Seafood on Haynes Bridge Road.
Brixmor, the New York-based real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns Mansell Crossing, is also adding a small format IKEA that should open later this summer. Both IKEA and Cooper's Hawk, along with the planned Tractor Supply, are examples of the interest that remains in the North Point Mall corridor despite the weakness of the mall itself.
Cooper’s Hawk sales rose 15.5% in 2022, and AUVs (Average Unit Volumes) rose to $9.5 million, according to restaurant tracking firm Technomic. (Rumor has it that the Chick-fil-A on North Point Parkway does roughly $16 million annually). Sales for 2023 have not yet been released, but Cooper's Hawk's attractive AUVs and growth prospects likely make it an appealing acquisition target for Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, which acquired Ruth's Chris in 2023.
Have you ever been to a Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant? What is your favorite Alpharetta area restaurant? Where else in metro Atlanta would you like to see Cooper's Hawk open?
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