On Jan. 6, Vic and Lesley Hugo opened up Juniper’s, Northern Kentucky’s first gin and tapas bar, in Mainstrasse.
The couple, who previously had worked in the corporate world and didn’t have restaurant experience, founded Crafts and Vines in Mainstrasse in 2016, located a couple of blocks from Juniper’s. A few years ago, they decided they wanted to expand the business, but it made more sense to invent a new one.
“As we thought about other passions in life, one that we really enjoy is travel,” Vic said. “And the places like this that focused on tapas and gin and celebrating the history of great, old architecture were always the places we were attracted to when we’d be in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, all across Europe. There a lot of options with starting a new business, but one option that was played out, at least around here, is the idea of another bourbon bar.”
Amsterdam is the birthplace of gin, aka jenever. Throughout Europe and the rest of the world, many countries make the spirit. There are more than 125 brands of gin, including ones from Japan, South Africa, Spain, and Kentucky.
“Gin is a much more flexible spirit, and the people that make gin make it with a mind to their locale,” Vic said. The name Juniper’s derives from the juniper berry, which gives gin its distinct taste, along with botanicals. As Vic points out, gins are diverse.
“We’ve had a lot of people go, ‘Gin? That’s interesting.’ They have some degree of liking of it or not,” Vic said. “And they’re like, ‘Well, how can you do a gin bar? Aren’t all gins the same?’ I have to kind of throttle myself back, or I’ll spend a half an hour talking to them about how it’s different. But that’s when we do a flight, or we’ll let somebody try something a little bit different to understand that they should approach gin differently than any other spirit out there.”
The cocktail list contains Grass Skirt (gin, mezcal, campari, pineapple, lime, falernum), This Plane (Darjeeling tea-infused gin, aperol, amaro Montenegro, lemon), French 75 (gin, Prosecco, lemon), gimlet (gin, lime, simple syrup), and soon Vic will add his favorite type of a gin and tonic, one made with Spanish gin, peppercorns, whole star anise, and an orange wedge. They also have gin flights with a glass of tonic on the side. If gin isn’t your thing—but it should be!—they offer a beer list consisting of German, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, and domestic beers. Other spirits like rums and tequilas, wines, and even non-alcoholic gin are available.
Juniper’s is located inside the John R. Green Company building, a former school supplies store. Each floor of the building is 4,000 square feet, and the bar/restaurant occupies the first floor. The space is filled with antique furniture, a banquette, and eventually they’ll add a library with a backgammon and chess table. Starting in March, they’ll host Cin City Burlesque and weekend live jazz.
In 2019, Lesley was accepted into the James Beard Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, which became the impetus for opening the bar.
“It helped me refine and define what it has become today,” she said. “That was an amazing program to go through. I’m not a chef. Vic’s not a classically trained chef, but I was able to sit down with some chefs, and they kind of helped guide our back of house. I had some amazing female bar owners who were also in the group, and they helped me formulate the front of house.”
Every week the global cuisine food menu will rotate. So far they’ve offered Czech meatballs, Cincinnati chili vegan meatballs, shakshuka, British sausage roll, deviled eggs, and Jamaican jerk chicken.
“This kitchen is going to be creative,” Vic said. “When we find something we like anywhere in the world, we’ll figure out a way to make it here with local ingredients if we can, or we’ll try and source it. At the end of the day, we don’t want to have a wasteful kitchen. All of our equipment is new and energy efficient. We don’t use any gas. It’s all electric. We cycle our food through. We’re not wasting food, wasting energy, and causing a negative impact to the environment.”
When speaking about their goals for Juniper’s, the Hugos want it to be a welcoming community space, and they support the community through the Covunity Fridge and toy drives. They’d also like to collect more gins, and “figure out excuses to go to Spain on the company,” Vic said.
He added: “We both want to be known for something. Her dad, Ken Harper, was Secretary of State of Kentucky. Part of what was so frustrating at the corporate world for me was one year I had five bosses, and I had to tell them who I was. So now we’re our own boss. We built a reputation for things that are positive for the community. I’d like to be known for introducing food that isn’t available here. Not to down the other folks on the street, but it’s not a slice of pizza. I’d like to be known for building two of the best hangouts in Mainstrasse.”
Cheers to that.
Juniper’s is located at 409 W. Sixth St. in Mainstrasse Village, Covington. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.