One year since opening, Junior still has exactly three cocktails: proper versions of a martini, a Negroni and a Manhattan, batched before service and poured to order.
For someone as obsessive as owner Philip Krajeck, it's a curious detail. That's until you consider the impact on Junior's ambiance, which isn't formal but, at 1,800 square feet, close quarters.
"If we start shaking a ton, I think it's disruptive to the way that the environment is," Krajeck said.
The sound of a cocktail shaker might seem like an awfully small thing to consider when running a restaurant. But Junior has been built on exacting details, from the pate en croute and delicate seasonal souffles to the feather-light red goblets built to hold fantastic, hard-to-find wines.
"We
think too much about everything," Krajeck said.
That degree of consideration aligns with what Bon Appetit said it was looking for when choosing its Best New Restaurants of 2026, a list that Junior landed on among 18 other restaurants across the country.
The magazine evaluated candidates not just on flavor and technique, but also hospitality, ambiance, cultural significance, sense of place and innovation.
But the food is, of course, no slouch. Bon Appetit, in fact, called it "effortlessly intricate."
"Dishes here are chic and composed, like one featuring asparagus, snap peas, and ember-kissed turnips," said Bon Appetit writer Kate Kassin.
"Out of the gate," she said, "Junior exudes a lived-in bravado that shines through the Nashville neon."
What makes Junior stand out?
The accolade underscores what people familiar with the restaurant, including its staff, already know: Junior has entered a new era.
The truth about new restaurants, Krajeck told The Tennessean, is that they take time to evolve.
"When you open a restaurant, you have all these ideas," he said. "You design it, you formulate it, and you have a vision for what it's going to be. And then you get into it. You learn from it as it breathes."
The vision has been fine-tuned under the guidance of Executive Chef Brian Mejia and the rest of the kitchen. At the same time, the front-of-house staff has become so fixated on that wine list that customers no longer have to summon wine director Billy Smith to the table.
"You don't have to rely on Billy because everyone knows so much and cares so much about representing all the wines," Krajeck said.
Smith, meanwhile, has continued to deepen the list and bring wines to Nashville that weren't previously available.
"I think it's the best it's ever been," Krajeck said of the way the restaurant is firing on all cylinders.
For Krajeck, the Bon Appetit recognition feels familiar. Rolf and Daughters landed on the magazine's best new list in 2013, when Germantown looked very different than it does today.
"We were kind of in a dark corner off the side of Werthan, which wasn't fully built out," Krajeck said. "And people were like, 'There's a restaurant over here? There's no parking.'"
Destination dining on the edge of downtown Nashville
More than a decade later, Junior faces its own version of the perception problem on Dickerson Pike. It's only a few miles from downtown and even closer to Krajeck's Folk, but it is still considered something of a destination restaurant.
That's not entirely accidental. Krajeck has followed a similar strategy since Rolf: go where fixed costs are low enough to give an independent restaurant room to survive, then make something good enough that customers will find it.
"The belief is if we make something that's special enough, guests will come," Krajeck said. "A little 'Field of Dreams' mentality, if you will."
That's what led Junior's team to consider an old Piggly Wiggly in Cleveland Park.
The bet hasn't been without some nail-biting. Junior has had slow stretches, Krajeck said, and with them came the inevitable second-guessing.
"You're scratching your head, asking yourself all the questions: 'Am I too pioneering in the neighborhood? Am I doing the wrong thing?'"
But the recognition has kept coming. USA TODAY named Junior its 2025 Restaurant of the Year. Forbes followed with recognition of Junior as one of the country's best new restaurants for 2026. Now Bon Appetit has added Junior to its list.
Still, a year in, the restaurant is still tinkering. Some of the innovation happens long before an ingredient lands on a plate.
About 13 years ago, Krajeck asked Julie and Jim Vaughn of Rocky Glade Farm to try growing agretti, an Italian coastal succulent with notoriously finicky seeds. They found a source in Italy. Krajeck promised that if they took the risk, his restaurant would buy what they grew.
Selecting seeds with farmers may not look much like innovation from the dining room, but the long game can change what's possible to cook here. An unfamiliar crop becomes viable. A farmer gains a market for it. Eventually, an ingredient that was once an oddity becomes something other chefs and customers can find locally.
"That's kind of the beauty of long-term relationships," Krajeck said. "You build trust."
The chef is tinkering with the way people order, too, with plans to introduce an option that starts with a conversation: How hungry are you? What do you definitely want? What can't or won't you eat? From there, the kitchen takes over.
But don't call it a tasting menu. It's not that showy.
He envisions five or six "movements," with some dishes shared and others individual. The point isn't a procession of tiny plates designed to show off what the kitchen can do.
"I just see Junior as about dining," Krajeck said. "It's the experience of sitting at a table in a great room and dining."
Even the wine service follows that logic. Instead of automatically prescribing a pairing, a server might have a conversation with the table, return with three or four bottles and talk through the possibilities.
"We want to do something that's more about like we're adapting to the individual," he said. "It's on a different plane of paying attention," he said.
More about Junior at www.juniornashville.com.
Mackensy Lunsford is the senior dining reporter for The Tennessean. Reach her at mlunsford@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Nashville's Junior became one of America’s best new restaurants
