Draper took over the old Barley's space on West Washington Street and turned a 19th-century downtown building into three things at once: a dinner table, a cocktail bar, and a live-music lounge upstairs called Cat's Pajamas. Chef Patrick Phillips runs the kitchen, and the through-line is Southern cooking rebuilt with more ambition than the classics usually get.
The plates people come back talking about are the shrimp and grits and the fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese, with confit chicken wings, warm burrata, and a coffee-rubbed tenderloin anchoring the shareable end of the menu. The cocktails are their own draw, the Pink Elephant among them, and weekends bring brunch with build-your-own bowls and biscuits benedict.
The room kept the bones of the old building, wood floors, tall windows, and the original staircase, which gives it a worn-in feel it did not have to manufacture. Weeknights run quieter and suit a date or an unhurried dinner, while Fridays and weekends pick up with happy hour, late-night bites, and music upstairs, where the door goes 21-and-up after ten. Local owners Lisa and Howard Dozier opened Draper in 2024, and it took an OpenTable Diner's Choice nod the following year.
Between the kitchen, the bar, and whatever is playing upstairs, most people come in for one of the three and end up working out which one actually brought them back.