Restaurant Scene: Chef Julia Sullivan’s new restaurant, Judith, is worth the drive

Judith is beautiful.

That’s the word that kept coming to mind as I drove through the valley of Chattanooga up to the sun-soaked mountains of Sewanee, Tennessee.

Beautiful.

As I entered the light-filled dining room and bar of Julia Sullivan’s new restaurant, deep mahogany woods and marble tabletops glinted in the rising January moon.

Julia Sullivan is an acclaimed chef. Her name is found alongside her Nashville restaurant Henrietta Red on James Beard nominee and semifinalist lists, and she’s been featured in The New York Times’ roundup of “Best Restaurants in Nashville.” She got her reps in working with chefs like Thomas Keller and Dan Barber.

Working long hours in upstate New York at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, she worked on the farm, feeding the pigs and chickens and harvesting produce, before hopping straight into the intense kitchen environment at the multiple Michelin-starred restaurant. Then into the bustling city of New York, she learned about quality ingredients and opulence at Per Se. Julia’s love of seasonality and local ingredients come to fruition in her latest project, Judith.

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A-50 minute drive from downtown Chattanooga to Monteagle Mountain is the University of the South — a truly stunning campus of heavy stone buildings, domed archways and stained glass. Judith Ward Lineback was the first woman to matriculate to the school in 1969. The restaurant is named in her honor.

Those details are intimate, just like the town is to Sullivan. Her dad went to the university, and she grew up coming to Sewanee with her family, hiking to waterfalls and staying in cabins with family friends. When an opportunity to open the space first presented itself, she passed. Then her friend sent her a link again to the building, an old university laundromat, six months later, and this time, everything fell into place.

The building is a long lean line against the backdrop of the mountain town. Open the green-trimmed doors to find a convivial space with absolutely delicious food.

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“It’s comfortable, not casual.” Sullivan explained on the phone, “We want people to have a really excellent, top-notch service, experience and food, but we don’t want it to feel so fancy that you couldn’t walk-in in jeans and sit at the bar and eat some oysters.”

She elaborated that she chose the word tavern when describing Judith to create an experience that locals can stop in for a cocktail after work or someone visiting from Atlanta could have a celebratory dinner. They also have a private event space connected to the restaurant that will be ready for weddings and events.

All the details at Judith were elegant, from the watercolor on the bottle of wine from the Loire Valley, to the house-made sourdough bread.

The wine I had was a Melon de Bourgogne. It had the smell of grapefruit that I find familiar in a sauvignon blanc, but it had the mouthfeel of a buttery chardonnay with just the right amount of funk. Speaking of delicious funk, the chicken liver mousse was the best I’ve ever tasted. It was served with a crown of shallot jam, pickled but sweet that cut through the richness of the mousse. You could slather it onto the warm, toasted house-made sourdough bread that had a great chew to it. If you’re not ready to dive into the chicken liver mousse but would still like to try the divine bread, I’d suggest the anchovy tartine. The cultured butter alone is enough to leave you in a trance, but Sullivan always complements each dish with a beautiful delicate element. Here, she sets the most thin slice of mint leaf and preserved lemon atop the little anchovy, the salty fish folding into the generous butter in perfect harmony.

Don’t let the simplicity of the salad names on the menu fool you — these are complex wonders each deserving attention. Sullivan uses Living Greens hydroponic lettuce to create one with buttermilk dressing. The lettuce leaves were large and dressed to perfection, like the buttermilk had been rubbed into each leaf and then bejeweled with crunchy salt and bright pink radishes. I love an herby salad, and this one was full of herbs: dill, mint, parsley — the gang’s all here! Seeing the herbs together reminded me of a band that’s reunited and you wonder why you ever bothered with one of them solo. What is dill without parsley anyway?

The papparadelle pasta is also made in-house, and the Midway Mushrooms are covered in cream and thyme. The dessert I tried was a vanilla soft serve ice cream with flaky salt, which my waiter, Hunter Swenson, promised would “sparkle in your mouth.” He suggested it pair with a side of crunchy, peppery french fries for a truly nostalgic dipping experience.

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The rest of the evening, my notes on the food descended into blissful, incomprehensible poetry. I wrote something along the lines of an idea for a skincare line called butter and anchovies. And I wrote about the music having the most perfect beat that paired with the food in what I transcribed as a BPB (beat per bite).

What Sullivan is doing at Judith is a testimony to her knowledge on fine dining, and somehow she finds a way to distill that sense of ceremony and celebratory extravagance into something accessible and comforting in the quiet and beautiful heart of Sewanee.

Contact Lyric Lewin at llewin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6215. Subscribe to her newsletter, What To Eat Next.