For a performer as energetic as Zachary Sullivan, better known as the drag queen Jessica L’Whor, food always comes up in the best possible way. In fact, the restaurant scene has become so important to them, they started a queer restaurant and cooking show called Diners, Drive Ins & Drag inspired by chef and Food Network celebrity, Guy Fieri and his hit series, Diners, Drive Ins & Dives.
Jessica started the YouTube production last year with Denver’s own Champagne Tiger (watch below). Since then, the drag queen has traveled around the country to queer bars and restaurants in New Orleans, Nashville, New York City, and San Diego. When not working on the show, you’ll find Jessica hosting and performing at local venues around town and across the country.
In between gigs we met up with the Chicago native, who has been in Colorado since the eighth grade. We met up at Blue Sushi Sake Grill on 16th Street (formally 16th Street Mall) and ordered the plain sake roll at my behest, as well as Jessica’s roll suggestions including the Hot Popper, Godzilla Bomb, Rainbow, Crunchy Red, and vegan Cowgirl.
When the server questioned if we needed any sauces to go with our order Jessica lit up. “I love sauces, I’m such a saucy girl.” With that, we dug in both to the food and conversation.
I see your name everywhere and you’re a huge presence in Denver and around the country. How long have you been doing drag?
It’s been 12 years since July. Of those years, 10 have been full-time as an entertainer. I call myself a drag entrepreneur because I am producing and doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes influencing now. And visually, social media-wise, I’m international, but I am not personally international. I’ve not performed out of the country yet. Not yet. But it’s going to happen.
Tell us about your YouTube shows Diners, Drive Ins & Drag and Queens Who Eat.
Queens Who Eat is a little less structured. It’s pretty much any kind of food review or food sampling I do in drag. People love watching me eat on Live. Sometimes I can get a couple of my sisters to come and do things with me and we have a good time. Though some queens aren’t as adventurous as I am. We did a Queens Who Eat eggs edition for Easter and we ate a raw egg and a 100-year-old egg. That was vile.
Diners Drive Ins & Drag was a spin off of Diners Drive Ins & Dives from the Food Network with Guy Fieri. I wanted to find a way, especially with how things in the world seem to be negatively focused on queer establishments, to highlight the food and the entertainment in a queer place.
I wanted to find establishments that are queer-owned safe spaces that also have great food and do drag [shows]. Whether it’s a hole-in-the-wall place like we did with Frankie J’s in Nashville, which deserves more attention. Or Urban Mo’s in San Diego, which has a great reputation in the queer scene and is one of those iconic establishments. We’ve done five so far.
How do the shows get made?
The full episodes are on YouTube and I produce it with my team. We do all the filming and production. We go out to these places and sit down with the owners or the GMs and we talk about the history of the bar. Sometimes I get the house queens or the entertainers to come on camera with me.
I make it really clear that I’m not trying to get anything out of them. I actually pay for the food and stuff, and support the business in some way. At all five locations everyone has been beyond hospitable and amazing and just so excited about this.
Correct me if I am wrong, but there aren’t really any food-focused shows set in queer culture are there?
If there are, they’re not really prominent. I’m sure there are contestants and, you know, stuff like that. I’m just excited to get drag more out there and make it more normalized or, like, queerness. The way that I dress [on the show] is really meticulous so that it’s approachable. It’s more businessy. It’s like the host of a TV show rather than, like, a drag queen. It’s familiar and it’s professional in some ways. But it’s also weird and it’s gay.
How did you get your drag name Jessica L’Whor?
Jessica is my favorite girl’s name. When I started dragging I modeled my appearance off of Jessica Rabbit. I wanted to walk out on stage and have people just feel like it was so sexy and beautiful and they couldn’t watch anything but me. I dated a lot of girls named Jessica in high school, which was weird. I wanted to name my first girl daughter Jessica. I will not do that anymore.
I wanted it to sound French and the L’ is a French grammatical thing. I was Jessica L’Rouge for like, three minutes and then decided that was terrible. And then L’Whor was because I was a whore in college. Well, I was very sex positive and I’m still sex positive. I was called a slut a lot and I wanted to embrace it. So I took the E off because there were no other L’Whors in the world. I call myself an illiterate whore because I don’t spell it correctly.
From sex and now on to food, why did you want to meet at Blue Sushi Sake Grill?
So my ex is vegan and this is one of his favorite places. Then I started bringing clients here for work, we’d have double dates, or just bring friends here before we go to concerts. There’s something for everybody, even if you’re nervous about sushi or fish or something. Whether it’s in the appetizers or on the vegan side of things that’s just delicious. It’s really, really good.
How do you like to eat when going out?
I love experimenting with food. The less choices I have to make about something, the better. I prefer to [ask the server], “What are your favorite things?” If you can’t sell it to me, then obviously it’s not your favorite thing. You can tell when they’re excited about [a menu item].
Are there foods you don’t like?
I’m not picky. There’s like five things that I don’t like to eat. Black and green olives, I’ll eat them cooked, but not raw. I don’t like ketchup or yellow mustard. But I do love all variations of mustard, just not yellow mustard. Now, to be fair, every couple of years I do try a fry with ketchup just to see if my taste buds change, and I’m always reminded I just don’t like it.
I don’t like cottage cheese, and it’s the only thing I’ve never tried. I’ve never once tried cottage cheese, it freaks me out and I’m not usually that person. I can’t get past it. If it’s mixed into a lasagna, it’s fine, that’s part of the recipe. But I don’t want people to just sit there and put some pepper and some peaches in it. Who invented that? I don’t have a desire to try that personally. Sorry to yuck your yum to any cottage cheese lovers.
What do you like to use instead of ketchup?
I do love sauces. I’m such a saucy girl. I love A1. I could drink A1. A1 actually sent me a PR package because I told them how much I love them, so they sent me a bring-your-own-bottle.
Have you always loved food?
I wasn’t always that way, I was really picky growing up. My dad had a rule, try something once and you don’t like it, you don’t need to have more. But if you do like it, you never know. So I always tried everything on the table. Even today I try everything and even if I don’t enjoy it, I’ll probably finish it just so I don’t waste the food kind of thing.
Do you have restaurant experience?
I actually took a business class my freshman year of college, which was building a business. The top 10 ideas that were voted on and those people were the CEOs of the pretend company, and I was one of them. Everyone had to build a business with their team, and mine was a restaurant called Who Picks? I made a jingle and everything for it, and we had a whole business set up.
The idea was you had three options to choose from. Option one was completely picking, like, the bare minimum so you could guide your server in the right direction. You had no idea what would come out. The second option is that there’s, like, three brackets that you can choose from to make the meal. And the third one was for the people that have to pick their own meals.
So when dining out do you seek out tasting menus?
I love tasting menus. I love experimental flavors, and I’m not opposed to trying anything.
How about food-eating contests, have you done those?
I did the Oktoberfest sausage eating contest in full drag. It was great. I ate seven sausages in 10 minutes. I came in second place out of 16 people. The person that won ate nine.
Going into our local restaurants scene, what are some of your favorite restaurants?
I personally like Champagne Tiger because I feel like it fits a niche in our queer scene that we were missing. And it’s not that you can’t find food at other restaurants, which I work at, but Champagne Tiger brings food to a different level where it’s the focus. People come for the food and find out that there’s a show just as much as they come for the show and they are so happy with the food.
I think that Chris is really good about listening and observing the community and understanding queer people, finances, and a luxury business. He has the kind of mindset to look at the menu and find something for everybody at a different price point while giving you options if you feel like being bougie and getting yourself some caviar bumps. Or, if you just wanted a lunch special, a fries and sandwich kind of thing.
Have you performed at Champagne Tiger?
Two or three times, not as many as I would like to.
What other places do you love to eat in Denver?
El Five, and I think that was one of my first with Felony Misdemeanor, a drag artist in Colorado who’s a huge foodie as well. That was one that stuck with me since. You know how I like to have servers recommend food to me, well they’re so good at describing it and selling it that it makes me, like, drool while they’re talking about the food.
Chuladas (3939 Federal Blvd., Denver), it’s Mexican and very mom and pop. When all of these prices were skyrocketing around town, the prices there never changed and it’s always been super affordable. It’s home-cooked Mexican food in big portions. Everything is so flavorful and it’s quick. I get the crispy chili rellenos and when I go for breakfast I get steak and eggs loaded with mushrooms and onions and green chile.
I also like Gaetano’s. It takes a little bit longer for food to come out, but I think everything is made right then and there from scratch. Everything tastes like it just was finished and made for you. Get the garlic bread to start for sure. It has a nice lasagna and lunch specials.
Do you eat at work?
I’m really thankful to work at amazing places like Jungle in Boulder. It has one of the best spicy chicken sandwiches and their pickles, even if I’m not eating, I will take two [orders of] pickles to go. I do that every show I do there because they’re the funnest things to snack on on the way home.
What do you eat before a show?
I hate to say it, but I can’t eat before my shows. I have to eat after my shows because my stomach is so sensitive. Like now, this is fine because I am just hosting an event later, but if I were performing I’d get so sick.
When I eat in between my brunch [shows], I have four tomato slices, two scrambled eggs, and half an avocado with no seasoning on any of it. That’s what I’ll eat to give me some energy into the next show, or maybe some fruit. I’m in costume the entire day. The last thing I want to do is obsess over my stomach. I can hold my bladder all day, but I don’t want to.
Is it hard to pee when you’re in costume?
I don’t. Ask any drag queen in the city. I will hold it from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. the entire Saturday. I call it my pee of the day at the end, and it’s the best feeling ever.
What are some of the regular spots you perform at?
I’m at [Hamburger] Mary’s pretty regularly for Saturday and Sunday brunches. I’m at Ostria Marco for brunch once a month. I do events regularly in Longmont at Dickens Opera House and Summit Tacos.
Catch Jessica L’Whor at Hamburger Mary’s this coming weekend, and check out her complete appearance calendar here.
