A new restaurant opened up here last week called Bourbon Brothers Southern Kitchen*. My mother, my daughter and I are big foodies and love trying out new restaurants when we can and we jumped on Bourbon Brothers pretty quickly because it’s the first new restaurant to open here in quite a while.

We pulled up to a very nice, farmhouse-looking building with a large wrap-around deck (I’ve always wanted a house like that!). When we entered, we were immediately greeted by a hostess who welcomed us. We were seated right away, although the restaurant was very busy, and provided their menu; a child’s menu for my daughter.

Their menu was limited since they had just recently opened and had not yet had their grand opening. They were still testing and finalizing recipes. While we looked through the offerings I took in the atmosphere. It was a little loud. The entire restaurant had wood flooring and high, wood ceilings so the noise bounced around a bit. We were also seated fairly close to the kitchen and could hear the kitchen crew quite clearly.

The menu, although not the full offering, had a decent selection of traditional Southern dishes with hushpuppies, Gumbo and other appetizers, as well as meatloaf, chicken fried steak and pot roast as dinner entrees. We started off with a crab cake appetizer. It’s jumbo lump blue crabmeat which can be fresh or fried, served with citrus slaw. We chose to have it fried. The crab was very fresh, which is rare to find in land-locked Colorado. There was a bit of celery and onion mixed in with a touch of something to hold it all together. It was quite tasty, not overly done with filler ingredients, and just enough for two people to split.

For dinner, my daughter ordered their mac n’ cheese with fries; my mother ordered the traditional fried chicken with whipped potatoes, country gravy and southern style green beans; I ordered the St. Louis style ribs with jalapeno cornbread and bacon beans.

One thing I was looking forward to trying was the simple side salad with bourbon-bacon vinaigrette I ordered specifically to try the dressing. Unfortunately I tasted neither bacon nor bourbon. There weren’t even pieces of bacon in the dressing. It tasted like maybe it had bacon fat in it, but that’s about it. I was truly disappointed.

My daughter liked her macaroni and cheese, although to me it tasted like they forgot to add the cheese to the roux. They forgot her fries and so when they remembered them they weren’t fresh. The fries are also seasoned and were too spicy for my daughter to eat.

I tried the fried chicken, which was great! The breading was crispy, while the chicken juicy and tender. My ribs were also juicy and tender and the BBQ sauce was great – not too sweet, with a little spice to balance the flavor. I didn’t care for the sides that came with my meal; the jalapeno cornbread was dry and I didn’t get any jalapeno flavor. The beans were very sweet and, again, I found no bacon or bacon flavor.

We decided to order dessert, too, but there was no dessert menu, yet. We relied on the memory of our waiter who did a decent job, but failed to warn us about the size of these desserts. My daughter’s meal came with a chocolate chip cookie served in a tiny cast iron skillet. It was overcooked, but still tasty. We also ordered the triple chocolate layer cake. It was large enough to feed 4-5 people! It was several layers of dark chocolate cake and chocolate ganache with a dark chocolate coating. It wasn’t overly sweet and having the different layers together was very good.

Because the restaurant has just opened, I can’t give them too hard a time as they work out the bugs and kinks. This is the flagship of what the owners hope will become a chain of Bourbon Brothers restaurants across the country. So, the recipes are new, the layout is new and it’s all got to go through a bit of time “in action” to smooth things out.

The food and atmosphere were good enough that I will definitely give it a second chance. I think I’ll just wait until the full menu comes out. After visiting again, I’ll provide an updated review. Who knows! Maybe someday soon, there will be a Bourbon Brothers Southern Kitchen near you.

* I visited Bourbon Brothers Southern Kitchen anonymously, paid for my own meal, and was not compensated for my visit or review.