Lexington, KY - While new the Lexington eatery The Julep Cup honors a number of traditions, it bucks a common restaurant practice of keeping the chef in the kitchen and the owner out of it. In fact, it would seem The Julep Cup is owned and managed by a trinity of women who hardly know how (or care) to stay in their place. Executive chef Lindsay Brooks took pride in revamping the dining room dÈcor; reputable restaurateur Lucie Myers steps behind the line to cook a purportedly mean meatloaf every Monday evening, as well as Sunday brunch. And Carol Brooks, Lindsay's mother and newcomer to the restaurant business, finds her place to be just about anywhere and everywhere. "I take care of everything that Lucie and Lindsay are too busy to take care of," she said.
Collectively, the women make up the Jenny Hill Corporation, a newly formed management team named after a historical Lexington woman who, in her day, hardly cared about a "woman's place" herself - rumor has it that Belle Breezing worked at the "bawdy house" of Madam Hill in the late 1800s.
With its deep red walls, Oriental carpets and eclectic scattering of pillows and low-hanging lamps, in a way the atmosphere of the dining room reflects the mystique and sultriness of a place you might expect to find Jenny Hill. But the formal table settings, equestrian memorabilia and well-dressed staff suggest a more timeless, refined ambience. The dinner menu combines tradition and flair, celebrating classic entrees like the Hot Brown ($9.95) and shrimp and grits ($18), while throwing in options of seafood pot pie ($22) or pasta with smoked salmon ($15), just to keep things interesting. Most lunch offerings are under $12, and mirror what you'll find at dinner, with the addition of a selection of sandwiches.
"We wanted to make an old-fashioned restaurant, like in the old days - like Canary Cottage or the Stirrup Cup or the Golden Horseshoe," Lindsay said, listing classic but long-gone Lexington restaurants. "But we wanted to make a place that was affordable, that people don't have to save up to go to. I wanted my friends to be able to afford to come eat here."
The idea to inhabit the space, located on the bottom floor of the Woodland's Condominiums building, former home to CafÈ Jennifer and various incarnations of The Woodland Grill, was not actually their own, but a suggestion from building owner Don Webb. Webb approached Myers at another of her restaurants, a la lucie, and invited her to come check out the space. She dragged along Lindsay, who was at the time torn between staying in Lexington or moving to Birmingham with her fiancee.
"I wasn't sure if I would like it," Lindsay admits, but once she saw the space, and the glory of the large, fully-equipped kitchen, her perception changed. "We started talking about ideas of what we could make it look like," she said, with her mother interjecting, "It just got more and more exciting as we talked about it."
To walk in the door of The Julep Cup is to evidence how much fun the decorating process must have been, starting with the Seahorse Lounge, immediately to the right of the front entrance. Bright seafoam paint and a scattering of eclectic ocean-related memorabilia, including a gigantic mirror with the image of a mermaid smoked in the glass, straight from the auction of a Chinese buffet, enshroud the walls. Private chef and friend of a la lucie Philippe Auber (who was featured in the November issue of this magazine) lent his artistic talents to the seashell-mosaic wall overhanging the bar, as well as a seahorse wall creation made of seashells. A (discreetly placed) sign above the window reading "Ladies: Kindly do your soliciting discreetly" diverts from the seahorse theme, but hints to the Jenny Hill/Belle Breezing era.
"We decided on the Seahorse Lounge because (Lucie) had a whole bunch of mermaid stuff, "Lindsay said. Though some may say it's a bit of a stretch, they found the seahorse theme to be as closely related to the general equine theme as they could muster.
Which brings us to the main dining room, where the dÈcor intends to celebrate the sporting tradition of the horse in its entirety - not just horse racing, but also hunting, steeplechase, polo and dressage.
"We got a lot of donations from our friends and we had a lot of stuff from our houses that we brought in," Carol said. Robert and Evelyn Courtney, new residents of the Woodland's and owners of Crestfield Farm, donated pencil drawings, a painting and other memorabilia from their office. Other decorations are auction scores, or odds and ins from Myers' old restaurant Pacific Pearl.
"As we did it, things clicked," Myers said. The trio is excited to break in the newly built patio (Webb's gift to his new tenets, before he even knew who they would be) once it warms up. The patio, which seats 45, is its own entity - not a sidewalk with some tables and chairs - which is a luxury to restaurants in downtown Lexington, Myers pointed out. As owner of one of Lexington's veteran eateries (North Limestone's a la lucie opened in 1985), she is well versed with the hurdles that downtown restaurants face in the patio department.
The Julep Cup aims to pick up where many of the previous restaurants at the site left off - a focus on simple, quality comfort food in an upscale but comfortable setting.
"Maybe it's because of the [financial] markets, but the idea of haute cuisine has kind of passed," Lindsay said. "People want to go back to the classics."
She recalls a moment of insight when reading a recent issue of Gourmet magazine. "They usually do a 'Best restaurants of the year' list, but this year they did 'Best old restaurants that have survived for the past 40 years.' I think that's sort of insightful. It came out right before we opened and we thought, 'Let's do one of these places that would last for 40 years.'"
Lindsay, who imported sous-chefs Chris Cooper and Brian Adler from St. Louis and West Virginia, emphasizes that her food will be made from scratch. And, due to an almost clamorous customer demand, the kitchen is experimenting with recreating the ever-popular tomato dill soup that was a signature item at CafÈ Jennifer for many years.
"Everyone that's in my kitchen are all people who want to be chefs," Lindsay said. "They want to be there; they're not trying to do this in order to go do something else. They care about food and this is what they do. Which is rare. And really nice."
Veterans of the restaurant business will tell you that excitement about food really gets in your blood. Myers distinctly remembers feeling genuine elation over crab salad at long-gone Clay's in Chevy Chase. Lindsay remembers the "a-ha" moment when her interest in food really clicked: she was a little girl at The Bistro (another zeitgeist of the Lexington restaurant scene). The chef "blew her mind" by making her custom grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chocolate souffles. She was enamoured by the chef and the owners, and the idea of restaurant life altogether.
"[Owner Sandy Fields] always had her swirling diamond rings. I thought they were glamorous; I thought they were glamorous people," she reminisced.
Myers feels that chain restaurants have, in some ways, stripped the industry of its glamour. But, while her first restaurant job was as "curb girl" for the Starlight Delight, her first experience in the kitchen was at the (now almost extinct) regional chain Jerry's. "I was a waitress, but one day the cook didn't show up so they pulled me into the kitchen." After that, Myers tried a stint as a dog groomer, but was steered back into the restaurant business in the early '80s, and has remained put ever since.
Carol, whose parents owned a restaurant and jokes that the kitchen talent skipped a generation with her, may be new to the business but is loving it so far.
"I stay here so many hours of the day and I don't get tired of it. It's the people; it's the community spirit," she said. "It's kind of got a life of its own."
Bartender Kelley Cecil, who has worked at the location for yeas, sticking it out through numerous owners and incarnations, seconds that motion. "I've always loved working here," she said. "It's probably one of the happiest places."
The Julep Cup
Lunch and dinner, every day
111 Woodland Ave.
(859) 266-0300
Reservations are encouraged.