Jesse’s Restaurant in Magnolia Springs is one of the must-visit places in Alabama with delicacies found nowhere else and a unique dining experience co-owner Nicole Houser hopes has visitors dying to come back for more.

Houser has been in the restaurant business multiple times, but owning Jesse’s is unlike anything else she has ever experienced. Houser started her career working with her father who owned multiple restaurants before she finished college.

“I was raised in a family that owned restaurants. My dad had an Italian restaurant growing up in South Carolina and then two other restaurants. When I was in college, I left college and took off a year and a half and opened up a sports bar with my dad. So I have been in the restaurant business for a long time,” said Houser.

After Houser left the sports bar she was running with her father she took an 11-year hiatus from working, During that time she married Shay Houser from Magnolia Springs and had two children.

It took her husband a long time to convince her to give up life in South Carolina near her family to join him on the Alabama coast.

“My sisters and all of my family are in S.C. I was really hesitant about moving,” said Houser. “I had my husband commute for 18 months back and forth, which was pretty rough. I was petrified to move down here because I was born and raised there. The deal was it would be a year or two years at the most and if I was miserable we would go home.”

Six and a half years later, Houser still lives in this area and loves every minute of it.

“I love it. Living on the water is incredible,” said Houser.

When Houser moved to Magnolia Springs her father in law owned and operated Jesse’s Restaurant and Moore Brothers Market. He ran the business for almost nine years until Magnolia Springs was incorporated and he became its first mayor.

His new job, however, left Jesse’s without management since he did not have time for it anymore.    

“Me, being the only one in the family with any experience got suckered into buying it,” said Houser. “So, here I am. My husband and I have owned it for three and a half years now. I love it. We have made a lot of changes and kept a lot of it the same.”

Despite being co-owners of the restaurant, Nicole Houser has taken on almost all of the management responsibilities since her husband has his own company to run.

Houser may be slightly biased when speaking about her own restaurant, but she thinks the dining experience at Jesse’s is unlike any other nearby. This is also Houser’s first endeavor into fine dining, but she thinks it has gone quite well so far.

“This is my first really good food fine dining restaurant and it is in 100 year old building which I could give or take that. This restaurant has a lot more charisma. It is in the old post office, we have the mail slots. It is a much bigger kitchen and a bigger staff than I have used but it is really the quality of food that makes it so different,” said Houser. 

Houser also said that their off-the-beaten-path location has made it difficult for them to get the word out there that Jesse’s even exists.

But those who do find their way love it according to Houser.

“It is a good unique place. I would say with our new chef Gannon Leary that we have the best food that we have ever had by far. We have been voted the best steakhouse for eight years in a row in Baldwin County in the Mobile Bay Monthly, but our food is much fresher and better than it has ever been,” said Houser.

Houser takes pride in the fact that Jesse’s only serves the freshest and best ingredients, many of which are organic or local products.

Jesse’s does not list any specific fish on their menu because they never know which will be available and the freshest at any given time and frozen, ready made food is not served there, which improves the taste and lowers the cost of food.

“We don’t have much stuff in our freezer here. In all the restaurants that I have worked in before, everything was frozen and pulled out and pre-made sauces. They make everything to order,” said Houser.

Since Houser has taken over, quite a few changes have been made to Jesse’s.

“We have changed the menu a little bit, we have done some renovations in the bathrooms and changed around the bar and we have dressed up the dining room a little bit and put linens on the tables. We made it a little bit nicer even though we still want people to feel casual when they come here and that was another one of the pretty big changes,” said Houser.

Houser enjoys cooking, but generally she leaves the cooking at Jesse’s to her head chef because it would be so stressful.

“You have to be skilled, it is not just cooking back there…I like to be in the kitchen and see the plates come out of the window and make sure they are right. That is where I like to be,” said Houser. “I used to cook when I first started working here. I do go into the kitchen and have the chef teach me how to cook everything. I have little notes in my phone that say, OK, the sherry cream sauce has this this and this and this is how you do it. So if I am ever short staffed I could go back there and make anything on the menu.

“My chef, I can’t compare to him, so I just like to watch, admire and criticize. It is a fun job.”

The typical offering at Jesse’s includes steak, seafood, sandwiches and varied specials.

“We are known for our burgers,” said Houser. “We use all the scraps when we cut up our steaks and filets for the night and grind that so our burgers are really good and we have shrimp and grits on both menus, country fried steak and lots of great salads. At night we are known for our steaks. We have a coffee rubbed steak that is incredible and a blackened stuffed fillet that has crabmeat stuffed in it. It is yummy.”

Jesse’s has also received recognition as having one of the 100 dishes that everyone must eat in Alabama before they die. The Alabama Department of Tourism has included Jesse’s whiskey steak on the list for many years now.

Despite the drive for most to get to Jesse’s, Houser said it is a great destination for a nice dinner. She sees a lot of snowbirds every year and usually sees a lot of people who come in for anniversaries, graduations, proms and Jesse’s is also a popular place to propose.

“We have a lot of people who propose here, which is fun and exciting. Everyone is very excited on a Friday or Saturday night when somebody is getting down on their knee,” said Houser.

Houser thinks part of what makes Jesse’s such a great place is the family atmosphere that her 42 employees create every day. 

Houser has also recently changed what used to be the Moore Brothers Market into a from scratch bakery, pizza parlor and coffee shop. Houser said the market was not able to compete with the dollar stores that were coming into the area.

“It is the only scratch bakery anywhere around. Jennifer Haffner is our baker and she does not have any lard or anything that is not organic in there. She uses all organic, local honey in her granola and makes everything from scratch. You can go in the back and you will not find a boxed cake mix anywhere. She makes everything from scratch,” said Houser.

Houser wouldn’t change her decision to take over the restaurant, despite the fact that she has days where she would like to strangle some people. 

“It takes a definitely crazy special person to be in the restaurant business but I do love it,” she said. “It is a good place. We love it. I want everyone to leave here happy.”

Houser also thinks that Jesse’s has changed since she has taken it over, but in a good way. “It is pretty much the same, just better,” she said.

She also has a hard time narrowing down her favorite dish to just one of the many offered at Jesse’s.

“That is so hard,” she said. “It is all so good. I have a cheese steak named after me, which is pretty good. For dinner I would have to say the scallops are my favorite, the U-10 scallops they are in a vermouth sauce, and all of the steak is good.”

In the future, Houser hopes Jesse’s continues to grow but keeps the same atmosphere and quality that it has now.

“I really want the bakery to take off. There is just nothing like it around here. I would really like people to know they can come get good food here. I just wish people would stop in. we need a little more local support, that would be great if we could do it,” said Houser.

Jesse’s Restaurant and Moore Brothers Market are located at 14470 Oak St. in Magnolia Springs. The restaurant is open Monday through Friday 7 a.m- 7 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information or to view a menu please visit Jessesrestaurant.com.