Ten Years of JULIET.
A few dreams. A few detours. A remarkable number of stories.
Before Juliet was a restaurant, it was a conversation. Before it had an address, it traveled through pop-up dinners, borrowed kitchens, and a few cities across the ocean.
What follows is a somewhat abbreviated history of a restaurant that has never been particularly good at standing still.
And like any good story, it's still being written.
Before JULIET, There Was Union Square.
Long before JULIET opened its doors, Union Square was already a place where people, cultures, and ideas came together.
From its revolutionary history to its bustling markets, immigrant communities, artists, and independent businesses, the neighborhood has always had a talent for reinvention. It's a place where tradition and experimentation share the same streets—and where someone once invented Marshmallow Fluff, just to keep things interesting.
When we began dreaming of JULIET over coffee at the Sherman Café, we were joining a much older tradition: people finding their place in Union Square and imagining what it might become next.
This neighborhood was telling stories long before we arrived. We're proud to have added a few of our own.
2012
Katrina and Josh meet through friends in the Boston restaurant landscape. Josh is cooking at Beacon Hill Bistro, where he previously trained under chef Jason Bond (of Bondir fame). Katrina, newly arrived in the area, is discovering the restaurant industry through the mentorship of JJ Gonson at Cuisine en Locale and Liz Vilardi of Belly and The Blue Room.
Their conversations quickly move beyond food. What would it look like to build a restaurant where creative excellence and meaningful careers for all involved in the team weren’t competing ambitions.
2013-2014
Katrina and Josh begin taking their ideas on the road, hosting pop-up dinners around Boston inspired by their travels, personal proclivities, and lived experiences. A Texas BBQ dinner—complete with two-step dancing lessons—lands them a full spread in the Boston Globe (long more JULIET had a name). Before long, they’re cooking a sold out Persian New Year celebration at The James Beard House in New York City (one of the company’s three visits to cook at the prestigious James Beard House).
In 2014, the pair officially launched Bread and Salt Hospitality and introduce their idea of the temporary restaurant: a pop-up with a fixed address, just not a permanent one. Their first, Bread and Salt at Wink & Nod, becomes a testing ground for the restaurant they hope to build.
Meanwhile, over coffee at Sherman Café in Union Square, they learn that the neighborhood favorite is closing. Its owner introduces them to the landlord.
A few weeks later, the dream suddenly has an address. In subsequent years, Josh (2013) and Katrina (2014) are named to Zagat’s list of 30 under 30 in the restaurant industry.
2015 - Born on the French Riviera (kind of).
One day after signing the lease for their first restaurant, Katrina and Josh board a plane to Europe in search of inspiration.
Paris offers its airy cafés and neighborhood bistros. Seville brings bold breakfasts and a generous approach to hospitality. Barcelona makes a case or unapologetic expression. And Nice, on the French Riviera, plants a seed that will take years to fully bloom.
Back in Somerville, the pair launch Gitana, their second “temporary restaurant,” serving the flavors of southern Spain from the entryway to a music venue for six summer weeks.
Then it’s time to turn their attention to Union Square, where a former neighborhood café is waiting to become something new.
They name it JULIET.
2016—Leap Day, and a Little Restaurant Makes Some Noise
On February 29, 2016, JULIET opens its doors or the first time. Fourteen seats. Breakfast and lunch only. No liquor license yet. Katrina and Josh spend their mornings prepping, their afternoons serving, and just about every waking hour figuring out how to run the restaurant they’ve imagined for years.
JULIET opens small in size but ambitious in spirit. From the beginning, the team challenges industry conventions, paying full wages rather than relying on the lower tipped minimum wage, and working to make exceptional food and meaningful careers part of the same mission.
Things happen quickly.
Bon Appétit names JULIET among the country’s 50 Best New Restaurants. Eater Boston calls it Restaurant of the Year. The Boston Globe describes it as “a jewel-box filled with surprises.” The recognition isn’t limited to the restaurant itself. This same year Katrina is named one of Eater’s Young Guns, celebrating the next generation of hospitality talent across the country.
JULIET’s first dinner service introduces a whole roast fish, inspired by Petit Crenn, a mentor of Josh’s, Dominique Crenn, second restaurant (which would eventually earn 2 Michelin stars). When longtime friends ask to celebrate their wedding at JULIET but request something their mother will eat, a roast chicken and truffles menu follows. By December, the first Feast of the Seven Fishes is underway.
Three menus. One tiny dining room. The beginnings of a restaurant that would never be content to “just serve dinner.”
2017
JULIET begins its first full calendar year with a growing team, a growing audience, and an increasingly ambitious imagination.
The three prix fixe menus of 2016 evolve into a year-round calendar of original menu productions, each exploring a different place, culture ,or story. Food remains at the center, but now it shares the spotlight with wine, cocktails, travel photography, historical essays, original poetry, and a healthy dose of the theatrical.
In 2017 Katrina receives the Legacy Award from Les Dames d’Escoffier, recognizing her emerging leadership in the hospitality industry and Josh is awarded the Julia Child Culinary Stewardship Award from WGBH, one year after losing the same award and being named its runner up to his old mentor, Jason Bond.
Amid all that experimentation, a small culinary tradition is born. One day for brunch the kitchen (without any guidance from Josh) presents an Earl Grey Chocolate Scone. Josh declares that this will be JULIET’s scone flavor for the rest of time. To this day, the EGCS reins.
2018—An Opera, a Magazine, and a Bigger Table
JULIET is growing up, although not necessarily in the most conventional ways.
The team raises its starting wage to $15 an hour, years ahead of the Massachusetts requirement, and begins hosting public roundtable conversations about restaurant finances, workplace practices, and the decisions behind the business. Juliet also publishes of Juliet, a print magazine coming menus, essays, poetry, and stories from inside the restaurant industry.
Meanwhile, Katrina teachers herself to build banquette seating, helping transform the tiny dining room from its original 14 seats into 33.
A roast chicken menu, originally created for a friend’s wedding, becomes a five-day immersive theatrical production. Guests/audience members travel through time, encountering food, music, performance, and an original opera that spills out of the restaurant and into the streets of Somerville.
2018—A Roman Holiday and a Second Restaurant
The year begins in Italy. Katrina and Josh travel through Rome, Sardinia, and Sicily, gathering inspiration for their next adventure: a second restaurant in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood.
On July 1, Peregrine opens inside the Whitney Hotel, bringing the flavors of the Mediterranean islands to a new audience—and creating new opportunities for JULIET’s growing team. In a fitting coincidence, its just steps from Beacon Hill Bistro, where Josh ran the kitchen, and trained under Jason Bond, before JULIET existed.
Meanwhile, back in Somerville, Rome inspires A Roman Holiday, a new JULIET menu production celebrating the food, culture, and irresistible romance of the Eternal City
2020-2022—Everything Changes
In March 2020, the world changes almost overnight. Peregrine is barely 8 months old. JULIET has celebrated its fourth birthday just days prior. Suddenly, the future of both restaurants—and the entire restaurant industry—is uncertain at best.
With dining rooms closed and familiar routines upended, the team finds new ways to stay connected. Cooking classes move online. Murder mysteries become virtual dinner parties. Behind the scenes, the company invests in training, leadership development, and the relationships that have always held it together.
There are difficult decisions, unexpected experiments, and more than a few moments when the next chapter seems impossible to imagine.
But JULIET survives. Not unchanged, and certainly not without scars.
By the time the world begins to open again, one thing is clear: the restaurant’s future won’t look much like its past.
2023-2024—A New Home, and a Homecoming
Seven years after opening in a tiny storefront, JULIET outgrows its original home. The restaurant packs up and moves two doors down Washington Street, trading 997 square feet for a bright new dining room with an open kitchen, a full bar, and just over 70 seats.
The larger space brings new possibilities. Inspired by Nice, the city that captured Katrina and Josh’s imaginations back in 2015, JULIET embraces the spirit of a Niçoise bistro: lively, welcoming, and just a little difficult to categorize. Josh proposes calling it a Nistro. The staff unanimously declines (without Katrina having to say a word).
At the same time, after five years in Beacon Hill, the team makes a difficult decision to close Peregrine and bring its full attention back to Somerville. It’s a homecoming and an opportunity to build something new around the original restaurant identity.
JULIET’s original space finds a limited extension of its life as Juliet Social Club, an intimate wine bar taking advantage of the remaining lease at the original location. Prix fixe menu productions return to the JULIET calendar, alongside new cultural programming.
2025—Regaining the Edge
With the whole team reunited around the flagship restaurant, Juliet begins looking toward the future with renewed purpose.
A new vision takes shape under the working title Regaining the Edge; representing a commitment to the creative ambition, technical excellence, and unusually personal hospitality that defined JULIET from the beginning. New leadership roles give experienced team members greater responsibility for the restaurant’s daily operations and its next chapter.
The JULIET Annex opens new possibilities for private celebrations, cultural gatherings, and collaborations with the community. Meanwhile, A Roman Holiday returns in a newly imagined production, bringing one of JULIET’s most beloved original menus to life in its larger home.
The goal isn’t to recreate the past. It’s to rediscover what made JULIET special in the first place—and find out where that spirit could lead us next.
2026—Ten Years Later. Still Becoming.
Ten years after opening the doors on Leap Day, JULIET is still finding new ways to be JULIET.
The restaurant’s creative calendar comes roaring back to life. Colombian and Venezuelan Monday nights introduce the flavors and traditions of newly promoted (and JULIET’s first) Executive Chef, Andexso Duque. Texas-style barbecue brings two-step dancing to Union Square. Live Latin music fills the dining room, and JULIET becomes an occasional gathering place for dancers discovering the exhilarating, unmistakable style of salsa from Cali, Colombia.
Meanwhile, the restaurant returns to its theatrical roots. Les Pommes Sauvages, the beloved Normandy-inspired production born from a friend’s wedding request, marks the return of immersive prix fixe dining as an experience the transforms the restaurant during special evening presentations.
Behind the scenes, an equally important transformation is underway. For the first time since the pandemic interrupted JULIET’s leadership development, service captains and chefs de partie are once again stepping into expanded roles. Andexso becomes JULIET’s first Executive Chef.
2027 · THE NEXT CHAPTER
There Is No Fate But What We Make.
We don't know exactly what the next ten years will look like.
But then again, we didn't have a damn clue what the first ten would look like either.