Our Founder

As a visionary force in the hospitality space, McEnery’s Cooper’s Hawk includes 4 distinct components: an upscale casual dining restaurant, full-service bar, private dining rooms, plus a Napa-Style tasting room with retail gift store—all under one roof.

This experiential brand has built a community of more than 874,000 highly engaged wine club members, the largest in the world. Cooper’s Hawk is home to more than 60 core varietals of wines and has earned nearly 600 awards on national and international stages. Under McEnery’s guidance, Cooper’s Hawk has established itself as a proven authority in the wine world, further elevated by its role as the official wine partner of The Actor Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA for the past 9 years, and through collaborations with iconic food and wine celebrities like Padma Lakshmi, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jean-Charles Boisset.

Expanding the Cooper’s Hawk portfolio, tradition meets modernity in McEnery's latest brainchild, Piccolo Buco. In 2022, he partnered with Luca Issa to bring the Roman Neapolitan pizza concept of the same name to Chicagoland. In its short tenure, Piccolo has proven another shining extension of McEnery's community of over 10,650 employees which embody his life's work: to establish a culture of connection while fostering personal development.

Notable awards include Nation’s Restaurant News’ Hot Concept, Breakout Brand, #9 Fastest Growing Restaurant in US and #126 Largest Restaurant Chains, with McEnery himself named among Most Influential Restaurant CEOs in the Country in 2021. Cooper’s Hawk has also received the Pacesetter Award by Restaurant Business for industry leadership and growth. McEnery, a LEAD Award winner and 2019 Golden Chain Award honoree, was a global finalist for Wine Enthusiast’s Innovator of the Year award and was Ernst & Young’s Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year.