Cooper’s Hawk almost ready to fly in Arlington Heights

Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant in Arlington Heights will open right after Thanksgiving, said Tim McEnery, the restaurant’s founder and chief executive officer.

McEnery applied this week for liquor licenses for what will be the largest of the company’s eight establishments, located in communities including in South Barrington, Wheeling and Naperville.

The restaurant, wine shop and tasting room will be in the building that previously housed Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, at Algonquin and Golf roads, and will open Nov. 29.

The company will get three liquor licenses to serve all kinds of alcohol in the restaurant, sell bottles of wine in the store and through its monthly club.

The Cooper’s Hawk wine club has 36,000 members, 700 of them in Arlington Heights, McEnery told the Arlington Heights Village Board.

The company originally avoided Arlington Heights for fear locating there would hurt business in Wheeling, he said. However, when the Pappadeaux site became available, McEnery decided it could attract people who would not travel to the other towns.

While the 26,000-square-foot size of the building “keeps me awake at night,” it will allow for hosting parties and banquets, he said.

Hours are expected to be 11 a.m. to midnight during the week and 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends, he said.

Pappadeaux closed in January. In the 1990s the building was the Big Kahuna nightclub.