Tim McEnery had an idea: a restaurant built around wine, a wine club built around community, and a company where people would be treated well. At the time, none of that existed. He didn’t have much money, he didn’t have much experience, and plenty of people told him, pretty reasonably, that it probably wasn’t going to work. Twenty-one years later, Cooper’s Hawk has grown from one restaurant in Orland Park into a company with thousands of employees, locations across the country, and a wine club that has become a genuine community for an enormous number of people. And yet, what’s maybe most impressive about Tim is that he doesn’t seem particularly interested in behaving like someone who has figured it all out. He still talks like a student -- he talks about the people he learned from, the mistakes he made, the things he had to teach himself, and the people he eventually realized were far better at their jobs than he could ever be. And now, apparently because building Cooper’s Hawk wasn’t enough of an education, he’s learning pizza. We explore: having a vision, doing the unglamorous work required to make it real, learning how to let other people carry it with you, remaining curious despite success, and so much more.
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