Illinois' Cooper's Hawk Winery is opening a restaurant on the southeast side of Brookfield Square on June 27. The location is the sixth since the Countryville, Ill.-based winery opened its first restaurant in 2005, and will reportedly bring an estimated 125 jobs to the area.
The winery, founded by Chicago native Tim McEnery, produces more than 125,000 cases of wine annually, including pinor noir, pinot, gris, grenache blanc and dozens of other varietals. It also produces fruit wines.
The Brookfield restaurant is more that 10,000 square feet and seats about 250. There is also a patio and a "Napa-style" tasting room.
The menu, created by Chef Matt McMillin – who recently served as a judge on Bobby Flay's "Throwdown" and helped launch a number of restaurants as a partner in the Lettuce Entertain You group – includes starters like Mexican drunken shrimp ($12.99) and entrees like red wine and mustard short ribs ($20.99), soy ginger salmon ($19.99) and Dana's parmesan crusted chicken ($16.99).
"Our goal is to make it fun and easy for people to learn more about wine and food, try new flavors and expand their palates," said McEnery.
"We’ve brought together some of the best talents in winemaking and the culinary arts to create inventive, flavorful food and wine pairings. At the same time, we want to be approachable and affordable."
Wine plays a large role in the restaurant's design and concept, and bottles range from $17 to $39 a bottle and are also available by the glass. Cooper's Hawk also has a monthly wine club.
The restaurant and tasting room will serve lunch and dinner daily and will be open Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., and Sunday, 11:30 a.m. until 9.
Reservations are recommended.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
