Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille: One Sun Shade Standard, Eight Patios, Six States
Perry’s builds the same restaurant in every city, a stone and glass box with a wood ceiling and a patio that has to look like the dining room. The patios face west in Texas, north in Illinois and everything in between, and the brief from Perry’s construction team has never changed: tobacco mesh, bronze hardware, motorized where it matters, and no clear vinyl. Since 2020 we have carried that standard to eight locations, including the first Perry’s in Arizona.
What we built
- Customer: Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, operated by Perry’s Restaurants, Houston, Texas. Our contact throughout has been their director of construction.
- 61 sun shades across eight patios: 55 motorized and 6 hand-crank, all in tobacco Nano mesh with bronze hoods, tracks and weight bars. About 8,000 square feet of shade.
- Where: Schaumburg and Vernon Hills, Illinois. Franklin, Tennessee. Austin and Grapevine, Texas. Richmond, Virginia. Birmingham, Alabama. Gilbert, Arizona.
- Sizes: patio shades up to 26 feet wide and 12 feet tall, with door, transom and sidelight shades inside the glass storefront on the newer builds.
- Architect: Aria Group Architects, Oak Park, Illinois, Perry’s restaurant architect, who sent us the drawings on the first job and reviews our shop drawings.
- General contractor on the Illinois and Arizona builds: International Contractors, Inc. (iCi Builds).
- Shade units built to our measurements. Design, posts, installation and warranty by our own crew on every location.
Location by location
| Location | Installed | Shades |
|---|---|---|
| Schaumburg, IL | 2020, replaced 2024 | 9 motorized, 1 hand-crank |
| Franklin, TN (Cool Springs) | 2023 | 6 motorized |
| Austin, TX (The Domain) | 2023 | 6 motorized |
| Richmond, VA | 2023 | 6 motorized |
| Vernon Hills, IL | 2024 | 7 motorized, largest 25 feet |
| Grapevine, TX | May 2024 | 5 motorized |
| Birmingham, AL | June 2024 | 7 motorized on 14 new posts |
| Gilbert, AZ | May 2026 | 9 motorized, 5 hand-crank |
How it started
The first Perry’s patio we shaded was Schaumburg in 2020, through the general contractor. The relationship with Perry’s own construction team started the next fall with one email after a phone call about Cool Springs in Franklin, Tennessee, and within a week the architect had sent us the drawings. Cool Springs opened in 2023. Austin and Richmond followed the same year, then Vernon Hills, Grapevine and Birmingham in 2024.
Gilbert: the first Arizona Perry’s, built from shop drawings
Gilbert was a ground-up build under a GC, and it started the way the others did, with one question from us in December 2024: which layout are we using, and how did the door area work out at Schaumburg? The answer set a new Perry’s template. Large shades outside the planters, storefront shades inside the glass at the doors, transoms and sidelights, with the door and sidelight shades hand-crank. Perry’s has since carried that template to its next location.
Then the paperwork. The architect rejected product data until we supplied project-specific shop drawings, so we drew every opening and revised twice. The subcontract was signed in April 2025. The glass storefront ran late, so our build measurements waited for it, with a second measure in April 2026. The order shipped in two lots to hold the opening, and the crew installed on May 4 and 5, 2026. Perry’s opened Gilbert in June. Three months later, when another Arizona restaurant group asked for a reference they could walk through in person, this is the patio we sent them to.
What made this one different
Repeatability with no drift. Perry’s wants every patio to read the same, which means the same mesh, the same bronze, the same hood line, in Alabama humidity and Arizona sun. It also means the hard parts repeat: measuring off a storefront that is not finished, shop drawings for an architect, lien waivers and notarized warranties for a GC, and crews that fly in with the posts.
The shades earn their keep in both directions. Mesh at 97 percent cuts the glare and heat on a west-facing Texas patio and still lets the room see out. In Illinois the same shades close the patio against wind off the parking lot and let Perry’s seat it in April.
Specs
| System | Motorized sun shade, keder-track retention; hand-crank at doors and sidelights |
| Fabric | Tobacco Nano mesh, flame-rated to NFPA 701 |
| Largest unit | 26 feet wide by 12 feet tall (Gilbert); 25 feet at Vernon Hills |
| Wind rating | Warrantied to 65 mph, deployed. |
| Warranty | 5 years on motors, 3 years on workmanship |
| Lead time | About 8 weeks from build measurements; measurements come when the storefront exists |
| Installation | Our own crew at every location. Outlet locations only; we do not do the electrical. |
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