Whiskey Diablo, latest concept for DC Cobbs restaurateur Dan Hart, now open in McHenry

Dan Hart didn’t go to college for business administration, hospitality or culinary arts. It hasn’t stopped the entrepreneur from opening restaurants.

“I mostly went to college to run track and cross country,” said the 44-year-old restaurateur, most recently of Bull Valley. His degree is in psychology, but Hart said he has worked in restaurants since his first real job at a Subway in high school, followed by a server job at a Pizza Hut in his Wisconsin hometown.

“It was my first taste of working for tips.”

That psychology degree may have helped him as he tended bar in college and later in 2003 when he moved to Woodstock to manage the Woodstock Public House. He left the food and restaurant industry briefly before coming back and buying the Woodstock D.C. Cobb’s restaurant in 2008, Hart said.

As of last week, his company Hart Alliance is the owner or management company for seven restaurants in McHenry and Kane counties: the D.C. Cobb’s locations in Woodstock, McHenry, East Dundee and Huntley; Hart’s Garage in Pingree Grove; Hart’s Saloon in Hebron; and, as of last week, Whiskey Diablo in McHenry.

Those are not his only businesses. Hart also owns Dan Hart Jiujitsu in Woodstock.

The newest restaurant, at 1325 Riverside Drive in McHenry, opened for a cocktail service Sept. 10, with the dinner menu Sept. 16, and will open at 11 a.m. Monday with its lunch and dinner menu.

The Whiskey Diablo menu moves away from the pizza, burgers and beer his other restaurants are known for to a concept Hart said he’s been bouncing around for the past decade: “traditional Mexican food with an American flare” and a craft cocktail menu. The tortillas are made fresh on-site and guacamole is made table side.

Plans are to keep the volume down, too, so diners can have a conversation while sipping those cocktails, Hart said.

Hart said he hasn’t posted the full menu yet, or even gotten a full website up for the new property, as he works out the kinks.

“We are offering a limited menu now and will expand it” as the restaurant and staff learn what the clientele wants, he said.

The building itself took longer than he’d originally hoped to get open. Located in what was a closed liquor and convenience store, Hart said he spent about $1 million getting the restaurant ready. Improvements include a wall of windows facing Riverside Drive that can open fully or partially. The six tables along those windows have porch swing seats facing tables that are bolted down.

They’ve been the first seats to fill up since the restaurant opened, Hart said.

What he’s heard a lot, even before opening, is why would he open another restaurant barely 4 blocks from another one he owns?

“There is a demand in McHenry for different cuisine,” Hart said. For residents who go out to eat two or three times a week, they might go to his McHenry D.C. Cobb’s one night, then over to Whiskey Diablo on another night. “We will still be able to capture that business.”

Hart said he also wants to attract a slightly older crowd at Whiskey Diablo. “D.C. Cobb’s ... at night we attract a younger crowd” with DJs and live music. While Whiskey Diablo might have an acoustic set now and then, Hart said he plans to focus on clients who want conversation over dinner.

Hart is a very good businessman, and when he says he is going to do it, he does and and he does it right.”

—   Wayne Jett, McHenry mayor

Whiskey Diablo is the second new restaurant to open on Riverside Drive this year, joining The Courthouse tavern, which opened in March. The Fox Hole Pizza and Pub reopened under new management July 1, and Bimbo’s Italian has been a downtown McHenry staple for several years.

McHenry has an agreement with Hart, rebating up to $45,000 of sales tax to Hart to defray the cost of putting in the fire sprinkler system. Hart also received a $30,000 facade grant to offset the cost of the front window system.

“Had it not been for the grant being available, we would have gone a different direction. ... We wouldn’t have done the window system that we did,” Hart said in 2023. That grant has not been paid by the city yet, he added, but is expected now that the restaurant is open.

Having Whiskey Diablo open helps bring more attention to McHenry, Mayor Wayne Jett said, adding that having Hart there is a boon for the city.

“I know he would bring something different to the city, and do it right,” Jett said. “Hart is a very good businessman, and when he says he is going to do it, he does and and he does it right.”

Riverside Drive also has become a destination in the Fox Valley, Hart said. “The city has invested a fortune in the riverwalk and docks, and parking is being addressed. They have done a great job of targeting and improving there.”

Now that he’s gotten the restaurant open, his plans are to “stabilize through at least the end of the year,” Hart said. He does not have plans for more restaurants on the horizon but said he hears from towns and property owners often as they seek new restaurant investment.

He’s not running day-to-day operations at any of the restaurants, and another person actually owns the Woodstock D.C. Cobb’s, but Hart Alliance operates it for them. Hart allows his managers, many who have worked with him for sevearl years, to run the restaurants, and said he focuses on the marketing and fine-tuning operations.

“We are always willing to try new ways to do things.”