Jazzy’s Bar & Grill brings new life to former Crescent Roadhouse

Owner Jasmine Hernandez renovated the longtime Old Lincoln Highway building and found an early favorite in the pork tenderloin

A building that has stood along Old Lincoln Highway in Crescent for years has a fresh coat of paint, a new name and, on most days, a full parking lot. Jazzy’s Bar & Grill opened in September in the former Crescent Roadhouse, the longtime biker bar on the busy route north of Council Bluffs. Owner Jasmine Hernandez, known to customers as Jazzy, said she and her husband spent a couple of months renovating the building during the summer heat. So many people stopped to ask about the project that she started a Facebook page to announce the opening. The restaurant is her first, and she said her husband was the one who found the building and encouraged her to take it on. “He goes, ‘We’re going to get this, and you’re doing this,’” Hernandez said. “I think he knows how I am and who I am and kind of how I handle business.”

Hernandez said she built the menu around a signature Jazzy burger, but customers have settled on a different favorite. The breaded pork tenderloin has become the restaurant’s most popular item, and she said she now orders far more tenderloins than she ever expected. “I didn’t anticipate for that to be the most popular item, but it really is right now,” she said. Hernandez buys all of her fresh meat from Rustic Cuts in Council Bluffs and said supporting other local businesses was a priority from the start. Jazzy’s fries in beef tallow and cuts and seasons its own kettle chips. The menu also includes buffalo wings, curly fries and onion straws.

Hernandez said she respects the building’s history but wants to give it a new identity. She said customers often ask whether Jazzy’s is still a biker bar. “We are biker friendly. Absolutely,” she said. “We’re community friendly.” She hopes families will stop in on nights when they do not feel like cooking, and that passing drivers will notice the renovated building and decide to give it a try. A fenced beer garden behind the building is still being finished and should be ready by spring.

Bryce Taylor of GLI Insurance Group, whose office sits next door, said the building had long been a Crescent landmark but needed a fresh start. “It’s been a staple of Crescent for ever since I’ve been out here, but just kind of needed this little fresh paint and fresh start for some young owners,” Taylor said. He said customers are coming from Council Bluffs as well as Crescent, and he admitted he has become a regular himself, eating there at least five times in the restaurant’s first weeks. “Being this close to it has not been good for my waistline,” he said.

Jazzy’s is closed Mondays. It is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, and from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Specials include Taco Tuesday and a pot pie special on Wednesdays, and Hernandez said she plans to add a chicken-fried chicken special on Thursdays. She said the key to building the business has been listening to customers. “The people will treat you so great,” she said. “All you have to do is listen to them.”