Next month, Jeff Harris is bringing the Crescent City to the Queen City when he revives his restaurant Jimmie Lou’s on Nov. 3.
The restaurant, located at 1201 Broadway Street in Pendleton, will serve New Orleans classics like jambalaya, po’boys and beignets when it opens.
Harris, best known for his award-winning restaurant Nolia in Over-the-Rhine, originally opened Jimmie Lou’s in June 2021 inside the Oakley Food Hall. It closed shortly after Nolia opened in late 2022, due to the food hall’s rapid demise. CityBeat broke the news that Harris would be bringing the restaurant back in a new form this past July.
“People would always tell me, ‘Hey, man, we love what you’ve got going at Nolia, but I miss going to Jimmie Lou’s and getting a po’boy,’” Harris said. “There were plenty of times when I thought I was gonna bring it back sooner than this, but nothing ever worked out, so we put it on pause and kept moving forward.”
The restaurant’s name comes from his great-grandmother, Jimmie Lou Green, who helped spark his love of cooking when he was just four years old. The original location was a massive hit all over Cincinnati, thanks to the fact that it was the only place in the city with truly authentic New Orleans cuisine.
“We’re taking people beyond what they know of New Orleans. Like, we’re gonna show you what you’d really get inside the neighborhood,” Harris said in July. “When you come to the city as a tourist, you’re not gonna go inside the neighborhood unless you know someone, right? We’re gonna open those doors. When you cross the threshold, you’re coming from the 513 into the 504, you know?”
Harris is one of Cincinnati’s most celebrated chefs thanks to his work as chef/owner at his restaurant Nolia. Shortly after opening, Nolia was a James Beard finalist for Best New Restaurant in 2023. In 2024, Esquire Magazine named Nolia one of America’s 50 best new restaurants; in 2025, he received a Beard nomination for Best Chef: Great Lakes, and was a finalist for that same award earlier this year.
For more information on Jimmie Lou’s, including reservations, visit the restaurant’s official website.
