Launch IIS express from Visual Studio without launching the browser or debugger

Question

Before anyone closes this question as a duplicate of this one, note that the question is NOT asking how to start IIS express by pressing F5 and not launching a browser... I am aware of how to do that.

What I'm asking instead is how to start the IIS express server for the current project without pressing F5 OR rightclicking the solution explorer and selecting "View in Browser".

The scenario is this:

1. I open my web project, and right-click the project and select "View in Browser". IIS Express launches the site and I'm a happy camper.
2. IIS Express for some reason or another is closed, but my browser is still open with the website.
3. I want to start IIS Express again so I can continue where I left off in the existing browser, but there is no option to do so. I have to either "view in browser" again and close the new window, or press f5 to start the debugger, which exits IIS express when it I stop it.

So, in this case, is it possible to simply "start" the IIS express server for the current project WITHOUT manually launching a page OR starting the debugger?