Fourteen years ago, an Illinois winery chain nobody in Ohio had heard of decided that its very first restaurant outside its home state would go in at Easton. That move has worked out well for Cooper’s Hawk, which now has locations across the country and one of the largest wine clubs in the world.
Now they’re running the same play again, and once again, we’re the test market.
Piccolo Buco by Cooper’s Hawk is coming to The Shops on Lane Avenue in Upper Arlington, according to the shopping center’s website. It’ll be the concept’s first location in Ohio, and more notably, its first location anywhere outside the Chicago area, where its only two existing restaurants sit.
The original Piccolo Buco is a tiny pizzeria a few steps from the Trevi Fountain in Rome, run by chef Luca Issa. Cooper’s Hawk founder Tim McEnery ate there on a trip to Italy, waited in the line like everyone else, and decided he needed to bring it home. Rather than knocking it off, he partnered with Issa directly, and the first American Piccolo Buco opened outside Chicago in 2022.
The pizza is a contemporary take on Neapolitan style with a tall, crisp crust that stays cloud-soft in the middle. It comes uncut, which you rectify with scissors. You then roll each slice up like a cannoli. Apart from the pizza, the menu features Roman standards like cacio e pepe and Mama Luca’s meatballs, all paired against Cooper’s Hawk’s own wines.
Cooper’s Hawk says the project is still in the planning stages with no timeline attached, so no opening date just yet, but we’ll let you know first thing when they announce one.
