Now Open for lunch: Julian

​James Beard Award-winning chef Celina Tio’s new Brookside bistro, Julian, began serving lunch last week. The menu changes frequently, sometimes daily, although Tio makes sure it includes favorites from the dinner menu — including the macaroni-and-cheese in a Boulevard Pale Ale cheese sauce and the braised short rib.

Prices are $9 for one course, $12 for two courses and $14 for three. For patrons in a hurry, Tio’s staff will box up dessert — bread pudding, cookies, buttermilk panna cotto or cheese with crackers on a recent menu — to take back to the office.

I stopped in last week and had a great lunch, although we were sitting close to the window in the main dining room and my companion complained that the brushed aluminum chair got so cold that he “froze his ass off before the cheese course arrived.”

​I wasn’t suffering quite so badly, partly because I was paying attention to the wonderful chicken pot pie, under an airy square of puff pastry, and a crisp, satisfying side of celery root slaw. The braised short rib on a puddle of creamy polenta was even better. (And my dogs were thrilled to get the bone later).

And yes, bread pudding is getting to be as ubiquitious around town as creme brulee — but Tio’s version is extraordinary. Almost worth freezing your ass off to eat.

Lunch hours are Wednesday through Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.