Friday, September 17, 7:00 pm
Members $90, guests $115

“The story of Jesse’s and the general store is a happy tale of historic preservation,” according to the Mobile Register’s anonymous Well-Fed Reporter. There’s also a lovely thread about culinary innovation, spun by chef Joseph Gilley…but we’ll get to that.

The backstory begins in the 1800s, when well-to-do Chicagoans, drawn by the purported medicinal effects of the area’s natural waterworks, developed Magnolia Springs. Saunter ahead about 120 years (things move at a leisurely pace along the Magnolia River, where the mail is still delivered by boat) to the grand opening of Moore Bros. General Merchandise. A depression ensued, a world war came and went, men landed on the moon, but at Moore Bros. little changed from 1922 to 1993, as the store was passed down through the family. For as long as most patrons could remember, they were greeted with a smile and some local gossip by Jesse King (an owner’s nephew), who ran the store for more than 60 years. According to local lore, he never missed a day of work.

Times changed when illness and the threat of Wal-Mart shuttered the store. Enter Charles Houser, a Magnolia Springs native who, after making good on entrepreneurial ventures elsewhere, returned to his hometown. Houser bought the general store and the old post office next door, then gutted and rebuilt them, taking care to retain as much of the original structures as possible. Moore Bros. became a grocery once again and the post office was reborn as a deli dubbed Jesse’s. Overwhelming business in the first three days prompted Houser to reenvision the space as a full-fledged restaurant, all the better to showcase chef Joseph Gilley’s delectable regional cuisine.

Gilley didn’t plan on a restaurant career, but a dishwashing job after high school changed that. From his sudsy vantage point, Gilley kept a keen eye on all the goings-on in the kitchen, until, as he casually puts it, he “migrated” to cooking. That proved a happy accident—Gilley found his passion and proceeded to work his way up the line at Jesse’s. He’s been head chef there for four years, and for the past two—when he isn’t “dishing up delectable lunches and dinners,” as one Southern Living writer described them—he’s honing his skills at Faulkner State’s Culinary Program.

“A visit to Jesse’s is a must,” advised Birmingham writer Ann Sherrill. You’re sure to agree.