Last night we had Dorey's birthday dinner and she chose Julep's at 1719 East Franklin St. We had the benefit of knowing our waiter Kent, so we got some special treatment. The first thing to know is parking can be a problem, but once you find a spot, it's worth the trouble. We started with cocktails. I'm a boring date and just had a nice glass of white wine. Kent suggested Dorey get a Cosmopolitan and Chris decided to pay homage to the restaurant name and ordered a Mint Julep. I had never tasted either before but both were very good. Not my style, but liquor usually isn't. I think I could drink Kent's Cosmos, but the Mint Julep was too strong for me. Chris liked it though :)
Next he brought us fried green tomatoes. There were 4 large slices of tomato, breaded nicely and fried to a crispy, not greasy, perfection. These were drizzled with a zingy peppadew aoili. I'm not familiar with the peppedew pepper bit's it has a sweet, slightly spicy flavor that went perfectly with the tomatoes. This dish was so good in fact, we ate everything short of picking up the plate and licking it! After the tomatoes, Kent brought us corn bread that was delicious. Not too sweet, but just sweet enough! Next we had soups/salad. I don't want to bore you, but... they had beets! These were shaved red beets, served with oranges and goat cheese with a granny smith apple vinaigrette. mmm... beets... It was a fresh beautiful salad. The presentation was a work of art. Have I mentioned that I love beets? Let's move along. Dorey had butternut squash soup. Another on my list of most favored vegetables and the soup was a thing of beauty. It was smooth and creamy and luscious. It had candied bacon and cream on top. You simply can't go wrong if there's bacon involved. Chris' soup was a crab bisque. Where the tomatoes were the highlight of the dinner collectively, this was the low point. (low being compared with amazing food, so, not bad, just less good) The soup had a lovely semi spicy broth with chunks of crab, but was too salty for us. Dorey liked it and it was a good soup drizzled with sherry. Just not our favorite of the evening. Onward to the entrees. Dorey and Chris argued over shrimp and grits, and crab cakes. Having tried shrimp and grits in most restaurants in Richmond Chris won and got the Julep's version. Dorey had the crab cakes... I read everything on their menu carefully and was intrigued by spaghetti squash with eggplant ragout and grilled broccolini. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but it was so very tasty. I know there's no meat, but I didn't miss it at all. Perfect combination of flavors and a nice heat from the spices and sprinkled with Cabra La Mancha cheese which is a goat cheese from Maryland. Who knew? The evening was a wonderful culinary success and after all that food we found ourselves in a serious food coma. No dessert for us. We were in desperate need of happy pants. Juleps, for my wallet is a special occasion restaurant, but well worth it. Total for 5 cocktails, salad/soups and entrees $160, Bon Appetit!
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