This Historic West Virginia Restaurant Still Serves Recipes That Have Survived For Generations

Trends come and go. Spaghetti sauce that has not changed since the 1940s? That is forever.

Some restaurants spend all their energy chasing the next big thing.

This West Virginia spot just keeps stirring the pot.

The green booths are still green. The uniforms still look straight out of a black-and-white movie. And the recipe?

Locked in.

No tweaks. No “modern twists.” Just pure, unfiltered comfort.

Presidents have sat in those booths. Boxers, too. But the real legacy is the regulars.

The ones who show up week after week, slide into their usual spot, and order the same thing they have been eating since they were kids.

Some places feed you. This one feeds your soul with a side of spaghetti. And honestly?

That never goes out of style.

Since 1938, Serving Huntington’s Heart

Jim’s Steak and Spaghetti House first opened in 1938 as The Kennedy Dairy Store, a modest spot on 5th Avenue where locals could grab a cheeseburger or a milkshake after a late-night show downtown.

Founder Jim Tweel and his wife Sally built something small but deeply community-rooted from day one.

The restaurant kept growing and shifting with its customers. A key turning point came in 1944, when an Italian immigrant named Roberto Elmoro shared his authentic spaghetti sauce recipe, and the entire menu direction changed.

The name eventually evolved from The Spaghetti House to Jim’s Grill and Spaghetti House, and finally settled into its current iconic name after a 1962 expansion.

Today, the restaurant is managed by Jim’s daughter, Jimmie Carder, alongside other family members. That family-first commitment has never wavered.

Huntington grew around this place, and somehow, Jim’s managed to grow right along with it without losing a single thread of what made it special to begin with.

James Beard Winner, Local Legend

Not every neighborhood restaurant earns a national award, but Jim’s Steak and Spaghetti House is not your average neighborhood restaurant.

In 2019, the James Beard Foundation honored the establishment with its prestigious America’s Classics award for the Southeast Region, a recognition reserved for family-owned spots that define their community through food and character.

What made this moment extra significant was that it marked the very first time any restaurant in West Virginia had ever received a James Beard Foundation award. That is a big deal in the culinary world.

The foundation does not hand these out lightly, and the selection committee looks for places with deep local roots, consistent quality, and an unmistakable sense of place.

Jim’s checked every single box. The award did not change the restaurant or send it chasing trends.

If anything, it simply confirmed what Huntington residents had already known for decades. This place has always been exceptional, and the rest of the country finally caught on.

Local legend status, officially confirmed.

Spaghetti Sauce That Never Changes

Some things in life should never be tampered with, and this spaghetti sauce is absolutely one of them. The recipe traces back to 1944, when Roberto Elmoro, an Italian immigrant, generously shared his family sauce with Jim Tweel.

A slight refinement happened in 1948, and after that, not a single ingredient has been touched.

What makes the sauce so distinct is its smooth, almost velvety texture. There are no big chunks, no aggressive spices fighting for attention, just a deeply savory and comforting flavor that coats every strand of pasta with quiet confidence.

Locals will tell you it is unlike any other spaghetti sauce they have encountered, and they are not exaggerating.

Plenty of people have attempted to recreate it at home, and most come up short. The recipe is carefully guarded, passed down within the family like a treasured heirloom.

Every bowl served today tastes exactly as it did when this sauce first hit the stove back in the 1940s. That kind of consistency is genuinely rare and worth celebrating.

Recipes Surviving for Generations

The spaghetti sauce gets most of the spotlight, but the full menu at Jim’s is packed with dishes that have earned their own loyal followings over the decades.

The ribeye steak dinner is a consistent crowd-pleaser, hearty and cooked with a straightforward confidence that lets the quality of the meat speak for itself.

The haddock sandwich has developed a devoted fan base all its own. Flaky, well-seasoned fish paired with a homemade tartar sauce that people genuinely talk about long after the meal is done.

The cheeseburger takes a uniquely old-school approach, served on grilled toast instead of a traditional bun, which gives it a satisfying, nostalgic crunch.

Then there is the strawberry pie. During the annual Strawberry Pie Week each spring, the restaurant sells more than 10,000 slices, which tells you everything you need to know about how beloved that dessert is.

The coleslaw is sweet, fresh, and refreshingly light. These dishes are not just menu items; they are edible pieces of Huntington history that keep people coming back year after year.

Steak, Spaghetti, and Presidential Visits

There is something undeniably cool about eating at a place where presidents have also pulled up a chair. Jim’s Steak and Spaghetti House has welcomed some remarkably famous guests over the decades, and the walls are covered with photographs that prove it.

These are not rumored visits; they are documented moments in the restaurant’s storied history.

Beyond John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 stop, former Presidents George H.W.

Bush and Bill Clinton also visited during their respective campaigns. The restaurant has welcomed boxing legend Muhammad Ali, musician Billy Joel, and even entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, among many others.

That is a wildly diverse guest list for a family-owned spaghetti house in Huntington, West Virginia.

What draws all these different people to the same table is the food itself, simple, honest, and unforgettable. Fame and influence apparently do not make you immune to craving a great plate of spaghetti or a perfectly cooked steak.

Jim’s has a way of leveling the playing field, making every guest feel equally at home in those green booths.

Where JFK Dined Back in 1960

Few restaurants can claim a specific booth where a future president once sat, but Jim’s has exactly that. During John F.

Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, he stopped in for a meal, and that visit has been commemorated ever since with a framed black and white photograph hanging directly above the very booth where he sat.

For many diners, getting to sit in the JFK booth is a small but genuinely exciting part of the experience. There is something quietly powerful about sharing a space with that kind of history, even if all you ordered was spaghetti and a slice of pie.

The photograph transforms that corner of the dining room into something more than just a seat.

Kennedy’s visit underscored what Jim’s has always been: a true community gathering place where people from every background feel comfortable. The fact that a presidential candidate chose this spot over flashier options says a lot.

It was not about spectacle; it was about good food in a welcoming room, which is exactly what Jim’s has delivered for generations.

Green Booths, Vintage Uniforms, Big Flavor

The moment you step inside Jim’s, the atmosphere does something to you that is hard to put into words. Green vinyl booths line the dining area, worn in the best possible way, the kind of comfortable that only comes from decades of real use.

Overhead, lighting fixtures from the 1960s cast a warm glow that makes everything feel a little softer and a lot more welcoming.

For many years, the waitstaff wore crisp white uniforms with neatly pinned hair, a beloved detail that added to the restaurant’s classic diner character.

In late 2018, the uniforms shifted to black slacks, white shirts, and green aprons, partly because sourcing the original dresses became increasingly difficult.

The change also allowed for a more diverse staff while keeping the restaurant’s signature color scheme intact.

Even the restaurant’s expansions were handled with extraordinary care. Artists were hired to recreate the original wallpaper, and new seating was matched carefully to the existing booths.

Jim’s could have modernized aggressively, but instead chose to honor what made it visually special. That restraint is part of what keeps the atmosphere feeling genuinely timeless rather than artificially nostalgic.

From Dairy Bar to James Beard Glory

The journey from a humble dairy bar to a nationally celebrated James Beard award winner is not a straight line, and Jim’s proves that the best stories rarely are.

It all started in 1938 with cheeseburgers, milkshakes, and ice cream cones served to neighbors heading home from dances and movie shows.

Nothing about that beginning hinted at what was coming.

The real turning point arrived six years later when Roberto Elmoro’s spaghetti recipe entered the picture. That single recipe redirected the entire identity of the restaurant and set it on a path toward something genuinely distinctive.

Through a series of name changes and expansions, the core commitment to quality food never drifted, even as the menu and space evolved around it.

By 2019, when the James Beard Foundation announced Jim’s as its America’s Classics winner for the Southeast Region, the moment felt both surprising and completely inevitable. Surprising because not many people expected a West Virginia spaghetti house to land on that stage.

Inevitable because anyone who had ever tasted the food already knew it deserved exactly that kind of recognition. Great food has a way of eventually finding its audience.

The Secret’s in the Unbrowned Meat

Most meat sauces start the same way: brown the beef, drain the fat, add the tomatoes. Jim’s does something completely different, and that difference is everything.

The ground chuck goes into the pot raw, combined directly with the other ingredients without any pre-browning whatsoever. It sounds unconventional, and it absolutely is.

From there, the mixture gets stirred thoroughly to break up the meat before going onto low to medium-low heat for at least three hours, uncovered.

That slow, patient cooking process allows the beef to gradually release into the sauce, creating an incredibly fine, loose texture that feels nothing like a typical chunky meat sauce.

The flavors meld together in a way that fast cooking simply cannot replicate.

The result is a sauce with a smooth, velvety richness that coats pasta perfectly and delivers a deeply satisfying savory depth. Plenty of home cooks have tried to reverse-engineer it, armed with guesses and good intentions, but the authentic version keeps its secrets well.

Some techniques are only truly mastered through decades of practice in the same kitchen, and this sauce is proof of exactly that.

Address: 920 5th Ave, Huntington, WV 25701, United States