Mt. Prospect restaurant prepares to debut new identity

The Black Cow Kitchen & Bar in Mount Prospect is closed for renovations and will reopen soon with a new name and identity.

The new establishment will be called Draft Picks, and it will be a sports bar/restaurant with plenty of TV monitors and a large selection of craft beers.

Owner Spiro Kondos said he hopes to open Draft Picks in early February.

"That area needs this kind of place," Kondos said Thursday. "I think people will really support it. The location is right near places like Melas Park and the golf course."

Kondos said the atmosphere inside Draft Picks will be casual and family-friendly.

Black Cow opened at 912 S. Busse Road in 2011. It was part of the Dining Out Enterprises restaurant group, which includes La Tasca Tapas in Arlington Heights and Jimmy's Charhouse locations in Elgin and Libertyville, among other restaurants.

Kondos said he is partnering with Dining Out Enterprises in the ownership of Draft Picks.

Dawn Fletcher Collins, executive director of the Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce, said she believes Draft Picks will work well at the visible and heavily traveled Golf/Busse intersection.

"It would be a welcomed establishment as far as I am concerned," she said. "There is a fit for it with our residents."