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Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants has grown to more than 35 locations in nine states since it debuted in 2005. In that time, it has avoided many of the challenges facing casual dining by positioning itself as both a restaurant and retail operation.
Cooper’s Hawk has regularly posted double-digit sales growth, even as the casual-dining segment as a whole has struggled. The Countryside, Ill.-based brand was the fastest-growing casual-dining chain in the 2018 NRN Top 200 report, besting 61 others in the segment.
According to the forthcoming 2019 NRN Top 200 report, the chain had $282.3 million in fiscal 2018 sales and ended the year with 35 units.
The key to Cooper’s Hawk’s success, McEnery says, is the many ways it integrates into its customers’ lives. At each location, guests can eat in the dining room, purchase wine and artisan food at the adjacent market or sample the chain’s private label wines in its tasting rooms. They can also join the brand’s Wine Club, which has about 350,000 members.
“It’s not just dining,” McEnery told NRN last year. “It’s not just going to have a drink at a bar; it’s very social; it’s very interactive, and people have really seemed to cling on to it. If you look at our P&L, it’s a heavy-duty restaurant operation, for sure. We also sell millions of dollars of wine and merchandise out the front door as well. I think it absolutely is a lifestyle brand. It’s everything.”
The Wine Club, priced at $19.99 a month per member, is a multimillion dollar revenue stream for Cooper’s Hawk, but it also has another key benefit — getting people in the door.
Of the 350,000 Wine Club members, 99% pick up their wine at their local restaurant, often having a drink at the bar, staying for dinner or buying items in the shop while they’re on site.
McEnery has called the Wine Club the brand’s “secret sauce” and said earlier this year it represents 23% of Cooper’s Hawk’s revenue.
“We put the Wine Club member in the center of everything we do,” McEnery said.
McEnery has built a leadership team to build credibility in both the restaurant and wine worlds. The menu of steaks, seafood and burgers — each with a recommended wine pairing — is developed by executive chef Matt McMillin. Winemaker Rob Warren leads the sourcing and production of 750,000 cases each year for the company. Master sommelier Emily Wines works to develop wine-focused experiences for the restaurants and Wine Club members.
“Our wine program is very significant,” he told NRN last year. “We are very much in the wine business.”
The chain has added five locations a year for the past two years, and plans about half a dozen openings in 2019.The company ended 2018 with 35 units.
McEnery previously told NRN that he uses a “cluster strategy along with limiting new market risk” to select the right locations and ensure success.
“So, if we’re going to open up five restaurants in a year, one of those restaurants can be in a pioneering market or a market that we haven’t done something with before, and the other four would go into markets where we’ve already had locations, and we’re 99% sure they’re going to be successful,” he said.
