Nolia’s owner to revive his New Orleans restaurant in new Pendleton location 26%
By Kane Mitten17%
7/31/2026, 2:08:08 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, Halo Effect, and Biased Writer Voice, with Hasty Generalization as the most egregious example at 9% saturation with 77 hits. Analysis detected 883 faulty-reasoning hits from 853 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33.1% and a BS Rank of 26% (18,981 of 25,563 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 74.30% of the article peer group.
After receiving countless accolades for his work as chef/owner at Nolia, New Orleans native Jeff Harris is taking it back to where it all began.
Later this year, the acclaimed chef is reviving his beloved New Orleans restaurant Jimmie Lou’s in the former Razzo space at 1201 Broadway Street in Pendleton.
He originally opened the restaurant — his first ever solo venture — in June 2021 as part of the Oakley Food Hall, but it closed shortly after Nolia opened in late 2022 due to the food hall’s rapid demise.
At Jimmie Lou’s, New Orleans classics like jambalaya, gumbo, etouffee and beignets lined the menu; Harris even had po’boys with Leidenheimer bread imported directly from the Crescent City.
When it opened, it was one of the first restaurants in Cincinnati to truly nail authentic Cajun and Creole cuisine, so it’s no surprise that diners have been clamoring for Harris to bring it back.
Four years later, Jimmie Lou’s will finally make its long-awaited return.
“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 … When we originally got this space, I was planning on doing something totally different.
But when me and my wife walked inside here, we came to the conclusion that this space is definitely Jimmie Lou’s.”
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.
Touches of her influence are all over Nolia, too—the restaurant’s decor uses green as its primary accent color in her honor, and a framed photo of her sits in the window at the restaurant’s bar.
But with the return of the restaurant that started it all, Harris is excited to “go down memory lane” by bringing his hometown back to the Queen City.
Inside the restaurant, Harris is leaning hard into a New Orleans aesthetic.
Fleur-de-lis iconography lines the windows, and the restaurant’s playlist is filled with his favorite artists from the city.
He even plans to bring up some of his favorite New Orleans snacks, like Elmer’s Chee Wees, Big Shot sodas (“I don’t drink soda often, but when I go back home, I’m going for a Big Shot right off the rip.
Pineapple or vanilla cream flavor,” he says) or pig lips and potato chips.
“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.
“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?”
In comparison to Nolia’s fine-dining atmosphere, the new Jimmie Lou’s will be more of a casual spot targeted at locals.
But that doesn’t mean the same fine-dining standards won't be applied.
Harris is specifically seeking out fish “from the Gulf of Mexico only in Louisiana” for the restaurant’s dishes, and will be busting out new entrees that he knows people in the city are searching for — like roasted oysters and Louisiana-style fried chicken — alongside the New Orleans staples that people already expect from the restaurant.
He also plans to have special items that you can only have while seated at the bar.
And speaking of the restaurant’s aim towards neighborhood locals, Harris is already in talks to collaborate with his Pendleton neighbors; he mentioned nearby businesses Hart and Cru, Lucius Q, Urbana Cafe, Cantina and Pendleton Parlor as future partners for special dishes.
“We’re trying to make a special identity for the place and make it ours, but we also want to utilize the whole neighborhood that we’re in,” he said.
“It’s a really nice area.
It’s a nice little walk away from the hustle and bustle of OTR.
When you go over there, it almost feels like you’re in another city.”
While it’s likely that Harris will receive instant acclaim when the restaurant reopens this year, that’s not what he’s focusing on.
More than anything, he wants to put on for his hometown.
“Here, they get to go to another part of the United States without leaving the city, you know?
I want them to be like, “all right, we going to Jimmie Lou’s tonight,” and you already know what you’re getting into.
You will be in New Orleans,” he said.
“And it’s still going to be just as competitive as Nolia, even if it’s more neighborhood friendly.
Hopefully some people catch wind of what we’re doing, but I don’t really care about the accolades.
We just want to put out good food regardless.”
Jimmie Lou’s will reopen in Pendleton later this year.
For more information, follow the restaurant’s official Instagram page.
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