Brother Juniper's — Restaurant in Memphis

This review is from February 23, 2020:

Very popular place. Here's my experience organized in a list of pros and cons.

Cons: Parking - There's not ample parking and parking near the restaurant can be a daunting task for handicapped patrons.

Checking In - The cute tall blonde guy had the check-in process down. He's not only good to look at, but really good at his job. When others jump in to take over or help, everything goes awry real quick.

Non-Red Meat Options - Beyond Tofu, the only other option was a very rubbery turkey sausage.

Hospitality - To avoid a lengthy wait, I sat at the 6-7 seat bar for a full 2 minutes since you can order food there. Doesn't seem like a long time until you're sitting in very close proximity to people who do not recognize your presence, offer you a menu or a glass of water. This rating is kind of unfair, because short, dark hair dude with the glasses was the only inhospitable person I ran into. I did say tall blonde dude was nice, right? ;)

Orange Juice - They didn't have fresh squeezed OJ. I know. I'm being picky.

Payment Process - If you pay with cash, you pay up front, which can make for several crashes and run-ins, as the cashier is directly next to the front door where people are entering and exiting at a rampant rate. I guess they don't trust the waitresses to handle the green stuff. If you pay by credit card, you pay at the table. Now here's my gripe. They take your card away to swipe it. They still do this? I thought most restaurants had gotten hip with the hand-held swipers so they could charge you at your table?

Pros:

Now to the good stuff.

Food - Outside of the rubbery turkey sausage (maybe it was overcooked?), my food was awesome. Some of the best grits I've ever had. They were different. Not your typical grit experience. They had a little kick to them. I believe my waitress's name was Alexis. She brought my food out popping hot, as soon it was put on the counter by the cooks. The pancakes are so rich, I felt like a glutton trying to consume them. If your eyes are bigger than your stomach, take the ONE pancake, because trust me, it's totally enough!! Hospitality - Like I said, most of the folks were really kind. From the middle-aged woman manning the cash register and phone who made sure I was seated when my name wasn't called and it just oddly fell from the check-in list to my hottie toddy blonde check-in man to my petite lil waitress.

Decor - This restaurant displays some really nice original artwork, presumably from local artists. It made for a great view as I waited for my name to be called by hottie blonde dude.

All in all, this place is nice. Worth the hype? Eh... I don't...

On this day 3/23/25 we decided to skip church and go check out this highly rated breakfast spot. Unfortunately as awesome as the food was (minus the cheese grits) the service was absolutely horrible.

We walked in and had a staring contest with the 3 hostess in the front. I finally asked do we seat ourselves they all replied no but said nothing after that mind you it's 47 degrees outside (cold) we were then asked if we wanted to sit on their patio (outside) 3 other groups came in behind us that were all greeted with welcoming smiles and instantly taken into the lower dining area to be seated. While still standing up front we informed staff that we too want to dine with everyone else indoors and from that point it just got worse.

At this time we were the only African American couple in the room and the stares began, the room got so quiet once we walked in along with some eye rolls. Nothing about this experience felt welcoming, it was a great deal of tension from both staff and guests (not all but a great portion) we both felt like we were not supposed to be there. We were going to leave but then our food arrived which we ended up getting to go boxes and ate in the park in our car instead.

It's very unfortunate to read more reviews of others having very similar experiences. The food was great but unfortunately due to our initial experience we won't be back to patronize this establishment. Not implying anything only sharing our experience and hoping others have a better experience moving forward.

I guess we won't be skipping...

It’s definitely worth going for the meal you will have to wait! The atmosphere is nice but if you do have assets you might want to bring a little bit of cushion to sit on. The Decour is nice but the fruits even better great customer service throughout. L and I enjoyed our food most customers don’t finish which we join that club easily the pancakes I ordered were blueberry she got the cinnamon roll pancake. I almost took hers but I can always go back a later date and sample each. The omelettes or balance just write the other half I’m going to take home and put some of that nice sauce they had from the restaurant on it and put it inside of a burrito, breakfast burrito.

Can you guys make a sample size platter for the pancakes blueberry buttermilk cinnamon roll and pumpkin?! 🥞👀🤤

It was definitely busy after church service but it was good to see people interacting we had a 45 minute wait. Again the food made up for it they also have a good system set up where they are able to send you a text to your phone to notify you when your tables ready. I also outside they have a little set up a fresh tomatoes that you could purchase for a nice price like your own mini farmers market. But it’s overall good energy good atmosphere and try to get there before lunch dinner or overall the rush hour. Our server was great he paid attention to what we need it and was attentive shot out to...