Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant (Media Preview)

Last week I was invited out to the media preview event for the new Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant located in the St John’s Town Center. This has been a place I have been waiting for to open. I have heard wonderful things from friends who have been to them in other cities, so I was anxious to see for myself. Our location is where Whiskey River used to be and has been completely transformed. The restaurant is stunning! Our location is actually their third largest!

We started our evening with a glass of Blanc de Blanc and a tour through the restaurant. There are 2 bar areas, one when you walk in and one around the corner with table seating as well.  The first bar area is in the main store area, where you can purchase wines, food items, and desserts to go (more on that later). This is the tasting room bar.

 

The second bar has more of a restaurant vibe to it with all of the extra tables in the area. I can see this being the after work hot spot to grab a drink before you head home.

 

The main dining room is sophisticated and modern, with booths as well as tables. They have this awesome barrel of wine located right in the middle.

We were then taken into one of the side rooms to sample a few of their appetizers. These rooms are part of the dining room, but they also have dividers that transform them into private dining areas. We sampled a few different food items, but my favorites were the Mexican Drunken Shrimp (wrapped in bacon!!) and the Asian Pork Belly Tostadas. We also sampled their LUX wine.

 

After the sampling we went up to the bar in the tasting room for a wine tasting. We sampled a few different ones, but the ones that stood out to me were the White Sangria, Ice Wine, Sparking Moscato, and Riesling. The wine tasting starts at $7 and you can add a truffle from the dessert case for $1. I’m thinking that I will be there quite often with friends. That is an amazing deal.

I ended up buying a bottle of the White Sangria and a few truffles to take home. I was pleasantly surprised with how everything was reasonably priced. The wine was $13.99 and the truffles were $2.99 each. I couldn’t wait to get home and tear into the truffles. I ended up with the Dark Chocolate Truffle and a Pistachio Truffle. Both were amazing but I really enjoyed the dark chocolate truffle. It didn’t have a very strong dark chocolate taste, but it still had a very rich chocolate flavor. I want one right now just thinking about it.

 

Overall I think this is going to be a great addition to Jacksonville and the Town Center. Everyone was very friendly and attentive during the media preview and I really enjoyed the wine tasting. All of the wines we tasted were delicious and it was hard to pick a favorite. It seemed that we would be in love with one, then when the next one was poured we loved that one even more! I am really excited about Cooper’s Hawk and I’m looking forward to going back and having dinner, and wine of course.

 

  CHEERS!