‘We own brunch’: Southern restaurant opens in Boise with chicken, charm — and 75-cent martinis.

Despite a creative, indulgent menu, Southern restaurant Tupelo Honey keeps its mission simple.

“We own brunch,” executive chef Eric Gabrynowicz says, “and we own chicken. That’s what we strive for.”

The rest is gravy. Drizzled on big buttermilk biscuits.

Loosen your belt, Boise. Tupelo Honey opens Tuesday at 150 N. 8th St. Based on smiling patrons at a weekend preview, Idaho is hungry for this brand of Carolina comfort. Overlooking the corner of 8th and Main streets, Downtown’s second-floor newcomer is poised to expand the city’s dining possibilities — and waistline.

Boise is the 15th location for the Asheville, North Carolina-based chain, which operates mostly in the southeastern United States. Inside the Main + Marketplace building, the transformation — which cost more than $1 million — is jarring. Former restaurants Piper Pub & Grill and Shige Japanese Cuisine feel like memories of a different era, even if they just closed last year. “We literally took it down to the studs and built it back up again,” Gabrynowicz says. “There is nothing in here that was here before.”

Towering ceilings, hanging plants and well-designed lighting create an inviting, modern atmosphere. At nearly 5,000 square feet, the bright space has a legal capacity of 161. One-third of the room is relegated to the bar area, which includes two large TVs. The rest of Tupelo Honey contains traditional table seating and comfortable booths.

Is it spring yet? Boiseans and their canine companions are going to stampede the outdoor patio. You can even order treats from a five-item Bone Appetit Dog Menu. (How about three strips of bacon for $3 — with an added peanut butter smear for $1?) The patio is connected to the bar and restaurant by a roll-up garage door and huge windows that open.

Fried chicken, ‘bee dust’

Wait, you can’t find any calorie numbers on Tupelo Honey’s menu? Bless your heart! Actually, one of the flannel-clad servers probably would try to give you an estimate; the service culture is friendly and informative. But you visit Tupelo Honey to splurge. The menu is filled with mouthwatering descriptions of brunch, lunch and dinner possibilities — made from scratch and plated with style.

Order. The. Chicken. It’s brined for nearly a day before being cooked. Choose dark meat ($9.95), white meat ($11.75) or a half-bird ($15.95), then add a “farm fresh” side for $2.50. (The Collards with Bacon are flavorful and crazy rich.) Prefer your chicken roasted? Nice. Get it fried instead. And get it Honey Dusted — coated with Tupelo Honey’s proprietary “bee dust.” Sweet, a little spicy, tender and juicy, this bird is seriously that scrumptious. The recipe involved “tens of thousands of dollars in consulting chefs that just absolutely crushed it,” says Gabrynowicz, a four-time James Beard Award semifinalist.

Craving an over-the-top weekend brunch? Order something eye-popping like a Shoo Mercy Pancake Griddle ($18.95) — whipped butter, powdered sugar and maple syrup smothering cakes topped with buttermilk fried chicken, apple cider bacon and spiced South Carolina pecans. It also comes with two fried eggs. That should do the trick.

Tupelo Honey offers intriguing bites you don’t usually see in Boise. Try the tasty Famous Fried Green Tomatoes ($9.90) — panko-crusted fried green tomatoes, basil and roasted red pepper sauce, served over stone-ground goat cheese grits. Or how about Fried Okra ($7.50) — hand-battered and served with Carolina white dipping sauce?

When Gabrynowicz visited Boise in May, he was surprised to discover a couple of Downtown restaurants already selling shrimp and grits. It won’t stop Tupelo Honey’s version from being popular. “Ours is pretty rooted in southern Appalachia,” he says. Go big at brunch with Shoo Mercy Shrimp & Grits ($22.50), which is served with “forever free” chorizo, sauteed spinach, blistered tomatoes and a fried egg.

What does “forever free” actually mean? The majority of proteins at Tupelo Honey are raised without antibiotics or hormones. Fish is sustainably farmed. The shrimp is wild-caught American seafood from the Gulf Coast.

“We’re not sitting here saying we’re farm to table, but we really do care about the food system, and we care to support (it),” Gabrynowicz says. “By switching to antibiotic-free chicken, we took almost 900,000 pounds of commodity chicken out of the market in the last year and a half.

“We’re trying hard.”

Craft beer and 75-cent martinis

Asheville is home to a huge number of breweries. The Tupelo Honey folks noticed a similar culture in Boise. So the bar offers a solid selection of beers, including brews from notable local players.

Payette Brewing created a special ESB pale ale for Tupelo Honey. Laced with extra honey, it’s an easy drinker. Sockeye Brewing has a rotating tap. And Downtown darling Barbarian Brewing will enjoy a prominent Tupelo Honey presence with two flavors on draft: Little Wolf IPA and Wolf Paw huckleberry hard seltzer. Highlighting local breweries is a way to “give people cool reasons to come to us — other than just amazing, awesome Southern food,” Gabrynowicz says.

Signature craft cocktails are equally important. The Frozen Cherry Bomb Frose ($11.75) will rock during hot summer months. It’s like a delicious Slurpee for grown-ups: Rose, Licor 43, lime, mint and a cherry.

Want a spectacle? Order the Mountain Smoke ($15). This house blend of whiskeys, rosemary simple syrup and bitters comes on a single, large cube in a big glass. Before you sip the elixir, a bartender will cross the room, trailed by plumes of smoke. Using a big mad-scientist’s flask, he’ll dump coffee bean and rosemary scent into the glass. Everyone else in the restaurant will stare — then order their own.

Feel like getting trashed, errrr, day drinking for cheap? Bust out three quarters. Tupelo Honey sells a 75-cent Seersucker Martini during weekday lunches until 4 p.m. Order an entree, salad, sandwich or lunch combo, and you also can purchase 75-cent martinis. (Try the $12 lunch combo: a half sandwich, half salad and a side).

That martini price is, like, insane. Will boujee Boiseans be capable of handling this deal? The escalator back down to 8th Street could prove daunting.

“We limit to three, obviously,” Gabrynowicz says. “But for us, it’s an opportunity to get people in for lunch and try to impress them with our food and our service.”

Tupelo Honey offers several $3 mimosa and bloody mary options from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and Sundays. Happy hour, which runs daily from 3 to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to close, includes $2.50 select drafts, bottles and cans; $2 off draft craft beers, $1 off signature cocktails; $5 frozen cocktails; $6 glasses of select wine; and 1/2 off select bottles of wine.

The happy-hour food menu includes tempting dishes priced at $4, such as — you know it — Famous Fried Green Tomatoes and Fried Okra. There’s also a $2 Fried Cauliflower Taco.

And get this: If you want to jazz up your taco with, uh, fry sauce, go ahead — be a local yokel and ask for it. Idaho’s favorite condiment is one of the discoveries Gabrynowicz made during a culinary reconnaissance mission to Boise in May.

Idaho finger steaks, on the other hand? You won’t find those served at Tupelo Honey — even if he considered it. For maybe a second.

“We don’t want to bastardize where we come into by being kitschy with you all,” Gabrynowicz says. “We want to ingratiate ourselves into the community, and in our mind, that’s by Southern hospitality. And Southern hospitality is giving people what they expect, what they need before they know they need it, and giving it to them with a smile on their face.”

▪ Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to close Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Online: tupelohoneycafe.com. Reservations: Opentable.com.

This story was originally published November 11, 2019 at 12:41 PM.