After months of anticipation, award-winning chef Jeff Harris finally revived his New Orleans restaurant Jimmie Lou’s when it opened to the public on Tuesday night.
The prior iteration of Jimmie Lou’s opened in 2021 as a stall inside the Oakley Food Hall. It was the first solo venture for Harris, a Louisiana native who first made a name for himself as the sous chef at Emeril Lagasse’s flagship restaurant before heading to the Queen City after Hurricane Katrina. In 2022, he opened his Global South-focused restaurant Nolia in Over-the-Rhine to much fanfare — Harris and Nolia have three James Beard nominations, among many other awards — but customers kept asking when he’d return to his roots.
“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 back in July. “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.”
Given the frequent clamoring for its return, expectations for the new Jimmie Lou’s have been sky-high — especially since Nolia is consistently ranked among the best restaurants in Cincinnati. Following my experience at opening night, I can say that Harris and his team have smashed those expectations and then some.
The new Jimmie Lou’s really nails the feeling of sitting down for a family meal. The restaurant is cozy, but not too cramped; inviting, but doesn’t feel phony; warm, but not suffocating. And above all else, it’s delicious.
Service at the restaurant was top-notch, especially for an opening night with several first-time servers. Employees from every corner of the space stopped by — even if they weren’t serving our table — to say hello, introduce themselves, talk about their backgrounds, share how excited they were for opening night, and happily discuss their favorite dishes and drink recommendations.
The evening started with a fantastic bottle of red wine from Stellenbosch, which was probably the only thing I had all night that didn’t feel like it came directly from the Crescent City.
As it was time to order and I saw Harris wandering around the space, I asked him to tell me the one thing on the menu that I absolutely had to order. “You gotta get the alligator, bro,” Harris said.
Remoulade isn’t something you’ll likely see on many menus in the Queen City, but I think (well, hope) the alligator remoulade at Jimmie Lou’s will change that. For those unfamiliar, it’s a cold sauce usually made with mayo, Creole mustard, hot sauce and Cajun spices. The version at Jimmie Lou’s features alligator meat and collard greens, served with bread from local bakery Allez.
Following the remoulade, I ordered fried chicken while my partner opted for crawfish grilled cheese. The fried chicken was great — no surprise, since Harris used to serve fried chicken at Nolia on Sundays — and was served with Steen’s cane syrup, a Louisiana staple, which was a welcome addition for somebody like myself with a rampant sweet tooth. But after taking one bite (and later, a second and a third) of the grilled cheese, I immediately wished I’d ordered it instead. The combined flavors of the crawfish, quark and white cheddar on perfectly toasted bread made for the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had.
To cap off the night, I ordered beignets from the dessert menu. It shouldn’t be a shock to learn that they were similarly stellar. Harris presented them to our table while saying “and now for the piece de resistance” in a sly, winking tone. Perfectly puffy with a hearty helping of powdered sugar, it was difficult to disagree.
Harris later told me that they were booked out all the way past Thanksgiving. It’s not very hard to see why.
For starters, there’s not really much authentic New Orleans cuisine in the city, much less at this level of quality and execution. But at this price point ($10-20 appetizers, $20-30 entrees), I can’t imagine why Jimmie Lou’s wouldn’t be at the top of everyone’s list. Harris told me months ago that the restaurant was intended to be the opposite of Nolia’s fine-dining experience, akin to the sort of neighborhood joint you’d walk over to when you’re in the mood for a nice weekend meal. On the very first night, he and his team have already succeeded with flying colors.
For more information on Jimmie Lou’s, including reservations, visit the restaurant’s official website.
