New Gulf Coast Seafood Restaurant Shakes Up the Midtown Scene With a Jimmy Kimmel Connection — Josephine’s Replaces an Old Favorite

Whether you call yourself a Southerner by birth or just happen later in life to find yourself residing south of the Mason Dixon line, you might want to consider heading to Josephine’s, a new Southern-style Gulf Coast restaurant in Houston, for a taste of a varied food with roots that spread far and wide. Created by the Azuma group, Josephine’s resides in the former spot where Izakaya once stood in Midtown. (Izakaya fans don’t despair, we’re told that the powers-that-be are searching for the right locale in Houston to relocate the popular restaurant.)

Josephine’s features Gulf Coast food that celebrates the Southern long-held family traditions of Mississippi-born executive chef Lucas McKinney and Louisiana native Joseph Ramirez, the new restaurant’s general manager. Named after Lucas’s great-grandmother with a nod to a steamship with the same name that shipwrecked in the Gulf of Mexico, Josephine’s serves ingredient-forward Gulf Coast food.

“We’re serving what we know,” Lucas says. “We’re proud to be stewards of Gulf Coast ingredients and traditions — honoring generations past while creating new traditions for the future. We love telling stories of the people we learned from, the people we source from and the people who inspire us.”

Lucas moved to Houston in 2018 and worked for Chris Shepherd as part of the Georgia James opening team, was sous chef at Hay Merchant and chef de cuisine at GJ Tavern. In addition, he spent a season as the chef at Jimmy Kimmel’s Southfork Lodge in Idaho before returning to Houston. Ramirez — a native of Metairie, Louisiana — was most recently managing the Houston’s famed Japanese restaurant Kata Robata.

With Josephine’s decor fashioned by Nest Interiors, the popular dumpling bar has been transformed into an oyster bar featuring both chilled and roasted Gulf Coast oysters. The dark reds and color-splashed murals inside have been replaced with rustic wood accents, painted tin ceilings, hex mosaic floors and vintage light fixtures. Cozy banquettes run throughout the indoor and outdoor seating areas, while a gallery wall is filled with collected art and mementos from Lucas’ and Joseph’s families.

The Josephine’s menu features seafood sourced predominantly from the Gulf. This includes smoked redfish dip ($15), blue crab fingers ($18) and a royal red shrimp salad ($18). Snacks — think house-made biscuits with onion jam ($12) and hushpuppies with a pickled jalapeno tartar sauce ($12) — will be served alongside a selection of small plates meant to be shared. In a nod to Lucas’ days cooking in Oxford, Mississippi, the chicken on a stick — an Ole Miss tradition — is a deep-fried chicken tender on a stick (easier for walking from party to party) served with buttermilk ranch for dipping ($13).

In addition to classic po’boys, Lucas is particularly excited about the crabmeat melt po’boy dubbed The Biloxi inspired by the Vancleave Special ($18), a blue crab patty with American cheese that originated in the late 1940s at Rosetti’s Cafe in Biloxi. At $1.75, legend has it was the most expensive sandwich that Mr. Rosetti ever sold. You’ll also find a smashed boudin melt ($15) on the menu with pepper jack cheese and onions on Texas toast too.

Fans of a good Southern boil, can indulge in a variety of boiled seafood at Josephine’s from peel-and-eat shrimp to snow crab clusters to crawfish boils served in the classic style or with a wet sauce ($4), all market priced.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the shrimp and grits ($24) studded with bacon and mushrooms in a sauce Creole, the bavette steak ($40) made with R-C Ranch raised Texas Wagyu napped with seafood butter and Southern-style sides like collard beans ($7), red beans and rice ($8), and chicken and andouille gumbo ($10).

Pastry chef Emily Rivas has designed a nostalgic dessert menu featuring Southern favorites like her take on Mississippi mud pie and the oatmeal moon pie. This pie is a hybrid of Lucas’s two childhood favorites — the oatmeal cream pie and the moon pie.

There is also a corn flan topped with cornflake clusters that will be featured when corn is at its peak season.

Josephine’s is located at 318 Gray Street. It is open from 11 am to 3 pm and 5 pm to 10 pm Sundays through Thursdays, and 11 am to 3 pm and 5 pm to 11 pm Fridays and Saturdays.