Turf Room receives third Wine Spectator Award of Excellence

NORTH AURORA – Parker Grabowski, owner of The Turf Room restaurant in North Aurora, is happiest when he sees a glass of wine at each table in his restaurant.

Customers at The Turf Room, located at 1033 Kilbery St. in North Aurora, have plenty of wine to choose from. The restaurant has a selection of more than 600 different wines, including 64 wines that are available by the glass. The Turf Room’s specialty is Napa cabernets.

“We probably have close to over 250 cabernets from Napa Valley alone,” Grabowski said. “That’s our little forte we like to do. It matches our food at the restaurant. It’s American eclectic food.”

Once again, the restaurant has earned an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine, which bills itself as the world's leading authority on wine.

This is the third year The Turf Room has received an Award of Excellence from the magazine after previously receiving the award in 2012 and 2013. The restaurant did not enter last year.

“We were just trying to expand it for a year, really build it, and then apply the next year,” Grabowski said.

The Award of Excellence honors those restaurants that “offer a well-chosen selection of quality producers, along with a thematic match to the menu in both price and style,” according to the magazine.

The Turf Room and Wildwood restaurant in Geneva were the only restaurants in the area honored this year with a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.

There are three levels to the magazine’s wine awards. The “two glass” award is the Best of Award of Excellence. The top award is the “three glass” award, or Grand Award. The Turf Room currently is at the “one glass” level.

“There’s probably only a couple of places in Illinois that have two glasses, and that’s our goal, to get up to that level,” said Grabowski.

Grabowski travels to Napa Valley twice a year to try wines. He believes The Turf Room has one of the most extensive wine lists of any restaurant in Illinois.

“There’s probably only a half-dozen places that have more wines than us,” he said. “We let our customers try a lot of variety of wines that they’ve never heard of, or even been able to try before. We have a lot of wines that are $20 or $25 a glass that are really nice premium wines.”

Grabowski owns Gastronomy Rooms Inc., which operates The Turf Room along with The Saddle Room in Hoffman Estates and The News Room in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Saddle Room also received an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator this year.

By February of next year, Gastronomy Rooms hopes to open its latest restaurant, Hardware, which will be located at the northwest corner of Orchard Road and Oak Street in North Aurora. The gastropub will have a brewery inside of it, Grabowski said.

The hops for the microbrewery will be grown on a two-acre farm outside of the restaurant.

“We will be completely sustainable on our hops probably within two to three years,” he said.

The wheat that is leftover from the brewing process will then be dried and put into breads, pastries and dog bones, Grabowski said. In addition, the building will also house a greenhouse, where herbs, microgreens, tomatoes and lettuce will be grown for the restaurant.

The restaurant will be making as much food as it can, including hot dogs and sausages, as well as curing its own bacon. Bee colonies will pollinate the fruit trees and gardens on the property, he said.

“We’re trying to grow and create as much as we can ourselves, and then use everything we can and not waste anything,” Grabowski said. “You got to use it all.”

The building itself will be constructed out of recycled materials, Grabowski said. A cistern will collect rainwater, which will then be used to water the greenhouse and the hop gardens.

The restaurant’s name is a reflection of all of the work being put into the effort.

“We’re working much harder to produce our wares,” Grabowski said. “You can go buy bacon from somebody. You can go buy sausage from somebody. We’re doing it all ourselves.”

Once demand exceeds a certain threshold, Grabowski said he plans to construct a separate microbrewery on land adjacent to the restaurant. North Aurora Village Administrator Steve Bosco said he is excited about the proposed restaurant and believes it will help boost the economic vitality of that corridor.

“Parker obviously does a great job with The Turf Room,” Bosco said.

Information about The Turf Room is available by visiting theturfroomrestaurant.com or by calling 630-906-9300.