Generations of coastal Alabamians knew Magnolia Springs for one thing first: the springs themselves — cold enough, on the drive home from Gulf Shores, to turn you blue. Boaters still idle down the Magnolia River to a deep, cold cove locals call the Cold Hole. But the little town on the river has a second claim these days, and it sits at 14770 Oak Street in a wooden building that has been part of the town for over 75 years.
Jesse’s Restaurant occupies the old Moore Brothers Store building, and the restaurant has done more than preserve it — it has made the history part of the meal.
A Store, a Post Office, a Restaurant
The building’s résumé is the town’s. It opened as Moore Bros. Store in 1922, served as the community’s post office, and remembers all of it: memorabilia and furniture from the old store are displayed through the dining rooms, along with the original ice box and the early post office sorting boxes that now frame the dining areas. Ask a server — they give the tour unprompted.
The restaurant’s name honors the best employee the store ever had. Jesse King worked for Moore Brothers and reportedly never missed a day of work in more than 60 years, service the State of Alabama recognized with an official day in his honor — the framed proclamation hangs in the restaurant.
The Coltharps’ Steakhouse Play
Charles and Janie Houser bought the building in 1998 and opened Jesse’s in 1999, restoring a vital piece of the town’s center. In 2012, Steve and Angie Coltharp took over and set a stated goal: make Jesse’s the most talked-about steakhouse on the Gulf Coast. A decade-plus in, the kitchen’s method is unchanged — unique cuts of dry- and wet-aged steaks, bone-in selections, and fresh fish brought in daily, on a menu that still finds room for everyone.
The lunch menu shows off the same kitchen at a friendlier register: a creamy mushroom soup with sherry, a house-smoked beef brisket sandwich with Swiss and caramelized onions on a toasted baguette, dipped in au jus, with parmesan fries built for the same treatment. Heavier appetites land on the beef tenderloin stroganoff — carrots, mushrooms and shallots over house-made pappardelle with horseradish crème fraîche — and the meal ends properly with pecan-nutmeg bread pudding, vanilla ice cream and whisky cream.
Not Just a Steakhouse
Part of Jesse’s enduring appeal is the room itself. Businessmen, Gulf tourists, a single diner with champagne at the bar, and locals back-slapping with the staff all share the same dining room — the casual-fine-dining mix the restaurant’s reputation is built on, in a town that bills itself as one of the coast’s last quiet places.
The Coltharps’ motto, as they put it, is to be “always working to make Jesse’s better than we were yesterday.” The expansion to Fort Morgan — Jesse’s on the Bay and the Cold Hole below it — extended the brand to the water without moving the anchor: Magnolia Springs remains the original, and the Oak Street room remains the destination for anyone collecting the coast’s true classics.
Plan the Visit
Jesse’s Restaurant is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., at 14770 Oak Street in Magnolia Springs — an easy drive from Fairhope, Point Clear, Gulf Shores and Foley. Reservations are encouraged, particularly for weekend prime-time tables. Come hungry, ask for the history tour, and take a moment with the ice box: in a dining scene that reinvents itself every season, a restaurant that grew out of a 1922 general store and a post office is worth savoring slowly.