Esquire by Cooper's Hawk - Chicago
Cooper's Hawk has locations all around th
e Chicagoland area; this location, in the old Esquire theater on the Gold Coast, is perhaps the most elegant. The stunning Art Deco building built in 1937 is a beautiful way to frame a fantastic lunch or dinner, with a wide and varied menu designed to make anyone feel at home...and well-fed.
Colossal Shrimp and Prime Meatballs kick off the expansive menu for Esquire by Cooper's Hawk, and these big portions of well-prepared food should give you a hint as to what the rest of the menu will look like. These starters, like other menu items, are accompanied by suggestions for wine pairings, which are very helpful given the wide range of food -- and the huge wine cellar (or, rather, glass-enclosed tower) in this spectacular downtown restaurant.
Esquire Baby Wedge and Little Gem Caesar are two of the traditional salads that you might choose to kick off your dinner, and the rest of the menu also follows a relatively traditional, and very satisfying, listing of popular favorites. If you prefer to start with pasta, you have some awesome options, like Three Finger Cavatelli, but many of the people who come to Cooper's Hawk have red meat on their minds. The Esquire Prime Filet Mignon is eight ounces of heaven, elevated with a silky porcini truffle sauce; the Prime Bone-In Ribeye is a truly magnificent piece of meat, served with MightyVine tomatoes and a reduction of Cooper's Hawk Lux Cabernet reduction.
If there's anything at Cooper's Hawk that can compete with the outstanding food, it's the outstanding wine. The menu notes suggests that the two meat-centric dishes just mentioned pair well with their flight of Cooper's Hawk Meritage, Miller & Lux Cabernet Sauvignon and a Paratus cab: memorable. There are, of course, also some very satisfying spirit-free options.
For dessert are many of the after-dinner sweets we've come to love: Key Lime Pie (with strawberry-basil pixie dust) and (somewhat intimidating) Seven-Layer Chocolate Cake.
