The first thing one notices at San Antonio’s Jue Let , chef Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin’s new bar at 2107 Emma Koehler in the Pearl, is that it’s breathtakingly beautiful. When it opens on November 22, guests will be greeted with brocade-lined ceilings, Murano-inspired lighting, and more mirrors than the private suites at Studio 54.

Still, despite all the gloss, the charms of Jue Let aren’t on the surface.

The bar borrows its name from Jue Let , the little-known Chinese cook who helped raise James Beard, the “Dean of American Cookery.” Although filled with champagne-bubble fun, it tells a deeper story about who gets to tell the story of the nation’s cuisine.

“I wanted to celebrate the hidden labor behind so much of what we think of as American cooking,” explains Dobbertin in a statement.

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