First Look: Dukes `n Boots, Opening This Weekend in Willoughby

Dukes `n Boots from chef Dante Boccuzzi opens May 12 Credit: Douglas Trattner

Dukes `n Boots (4027 Erie St.), chef Dante Boccuzzi’s first foray to the East Side, is nearly ready to welcome its first guests. Located in the heart of Willoughby on Erie Street, the Southern-styled saloon elevates the honky-tonk vibe thanks to warm wood, exposed brick and a menu designed by a Michelin-starred chef.

Heading up the kitchen is chef Emily Campion, who has been working at Ginko and Dante for the past year. She takes the reins of the 60-seat restaurant with an eye on quality, consistency and creativity.

“The food is traditional Southern but done right, refined but approachable,” she explains. “There is a lot of time put into it, the staff is all Dante staff, and the standards are all Dante standards. This is chef’s first restaurant on the East Side, so we want to make Dante accessible to everybody, not just Tremont and Downtown.”

The menu features snacks like housemade pickles, fried green tomatoes, and gravy-smothered fries with pimento cheese, which gets an Italian kick from Calabrian chilis. The cornbread is baked to order, served in a skillet and paired with candied jalapeños and honey butter.

An Ohio-beef smash burger is served on Texas toast and capped with pimento cheese and tallow-cooked onions. There’s a footlong corndog, Nashville-style chicken sandwich, St. Louis ribs, and vegan chicken-fried oyster mushroom sandwich.

But the star of the show is the fried chicken, states Campion.

“We start with the whole fresh bird and go from there,” she says.

The Amish birds are dry-brined overnight before getting the buttermilk and seasoned flour treatment. The crispy chicken comes in orders of 3, 6 and a dozen pieces, all a mix of bone-in white and dark meat. On the side are made-from-scratch sauces like Nashville Hot Chicken, Buffalo, ranch, blue cheese and coffee-BBQ.

For dessert, there’s bread pudding and flourless chocolate cake, both baked to order and served in a skillet.

Out back is spacious 60-seat patio ringed by a rusted-metal fence.

There will be live country-style music Fridays or Saturdays, inside or outside, weather depending.

The restaurant opens Friday, May 12. Going forward, the hours will be 4 p.m.- 12 a.m Wednesday-Thursdays and 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Sunday brunch will start in June.