“We needed to get again to the roots of cooking,” says Philip Krajeck of his new restaurant Junior, which opened earlier this month.
Junior
You’d be forgiven if you end up asking, “Isn’t that what Krajeck already has been doing?” Sure, he’s a James Beard Award semifinalist, chef and the proprietor of two of Nashville’s most acclaimed eating places. Rolf & Daughters opened in Germantown in late 2012, and Folks opened in 2018 in McFerrin Park.
However Junior, constructed on the location of a former Piggly Wiggly on Dickerson Pike (Fancypants shares the identical parking zone), is a brand new tackle the kitchen for Krajeck and his achieved workforce. First, it’s small, with 50 seats and plans within the works for a patio that may seat 16. However that’s removed from the one distinction between Junior and Rolf and Folks.
“Simply being smaller, having a centered workforce, having the kitchen be an interactive a part of service, and desirous to get again to the roots of cooking,” says Krajeck. “Within the final 10 years, fermentation, koji, all these items have actually taken over. And we do a number of that at Rolf & Daughters, and we’ve been for a very long time. We perform a little bit at Folks. Right here, we don’t wish to completely eschew these concepts, however we wish it to be about nice sauce making and issues which have custom behind them and take a number of days to prep and get proper.”
Junior
At Junior, every little thing is well-thought-out and intentional, like these sauces. The wine listing has 150 references — not 600, such as you would possibly see elsewhere. The menu is small, with a give attention to fashionable takes on French method, utilizing thoughtfully sourced elements. The kitchen is open to the eating room, so you’ll be able to see cooks at work. There’s a dwell fireplace and an enormous stack of wooden outdoors that can be offering a contact of smoke to sure elements. The employees will make suggestions, hoping to information diners by way of the menu.
“The factor about good eating places is that you just belief them, proper?” Krajeck asks. “Our aim is to construct belief throughout the neighborhood, to the place folks will finally are available and simply belief us. There’s a magnificence in submission in a restaurant that has a transparent perspective on what it’s doing in its content material, the lens of the meals and the beverage and the service and the way in which all of it works collectively. That is the sauce for us. Being smaller and with the ability to spend extra time specializing in individuals who actually wish to craft that have that’s constructed round belief.”
The inside options crimson banquettes, white tablecloths, lacquered wooden, a contemporary ceiling design — a sculptural work in its personal proper — and delicate stemware. Reservations open 30 days upfront, and some seats on the bar can be reserved for walk-ins. Junior serves dinner 5 nights per week, Wednesday by way of Sunday.
