Another high-end take on southern cooking just popped up in Denver.
Julep Restaurant is now open and dishing out a “Southern sophisticated” menu in Five Points.
The new restaurant at 3258 Larimer St. — right next door to Dio Mio — is a project of chef Kyle Foster, who for six years has worked as a chef and butcher in Denver hot spots like Rebel Restaurant and Colt & Gray.
Foster's wife, Katy Foster, is the owner of Stir Cooking School.
“This has been a labor of love for us and we are thrilled to open Julep Restaurant to the public,” Kyle Foster said in a press release. “Our ‘family to table’ concept is an homage to my Southern roots, bringing simple, good food — and cocktails — to Denver’s culinary scene.”
Before opening Julep, the Fosters visited Dallas, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Kentucky, and Charleston, South Carolina.
“Julep’s menu honors the traditions I learned from my mother, who was born in Savannah, Georgia, and my great-grandfather, a Kentuckian,” Foster said in a statement. “We use his techniques, recipes and stories to keep the family traditions alive and these same traditions serve as the inspiration behind Julep.”
The menu is built for sharing, with small plates ranging from $7 buttermilk rolls to $25 juniper and rosemary rubbed lamb, and family-style Duroc pork chop and cross-cut lamb saddle suppers that serve two to four people.
The cocktail program features southern classics like the Hurricane and a Mint Julep, plus house specials including the Uptown Sour, made with Elijah Craig bourbon, Cointreau, lemon and egg white, and the Cat's Pajamas, made with tequila, grapefruit, lime and honey.
Lunch fare includes a $15 fried oyster po' boy at the upper end and a $10 rutabaga and onion tarte tatin and the low end. Among the weekend brunch offerings: Broadbend country ham and Anson Mills grits with red-eye gravy, Real Dill pickled okra and two eggs for $15 and a crab benedict with a house-made English muffin, smoked tomato and hollandaise for $16.
Julep's 3,200 square feet feels fairly intimate, with a small outdoor patio and a mezzanine that offers a view of the kitchen.
Hours at time of publication are:
5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday
11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday
11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday
Reservations can be made at juleprino.com.
