Julep Kitchen & Bar

Julep brings the South to North Main Street in Ellensburg. Kyle and Jillian Johnson, who had managed bars around town for years, opened it during Rodeo week in 2021 in a 1,200 square foot space with a patio. It was Jillian's first restaurant, her family is spread across the South, and it shows on the plate. The restaurant calls itself Julep Southern Kitchen and Cocktail Bar.

Expect chicken and waffles with a peanut butter whiskey syrup, Nashville hot chicken, the Dirty Bird sandwich, filé gumbo, po'boys and grass fed Double Rafter burgers. The kitchen keeps vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options on the menu with dedicated prep equipment, which is rarer in a fried chicken kitchen than it should be.

The bar pours thirteen signature cocktails and five mocktails, and happy hour runs every day from 2 to 5. Julep is 21 and over, inside and out, and dogs are welcome on the covered patio. It opens at 11 every day, with later hours on Friday and Saturday, and it makes a good stop before or after the drive over Snoqualmie Pass.