Fondren Public has new owners — Jimmy and Jessica Quinn — and the path that led them there started with nothing more than a favor.

When Jimmy first walked through the doors to help out his friend and Fondren Public operating partner Brad Drehr, he wasn't thinking about ownership. He'd just spent the previous year building out the team at Hal & Mal's. "I love Hal & Mal's, and I love their organization, but I am 44 years old, and that is a big place, and that was just a lot," he says. Fondren Public felt smaller, looser — "a little bit more laid back" and "game centric," as he puts it.

What started as a favor became something else. Jimmy had spent years bartending, managing, and helping others, and he was prepared to raise the stakes. Brad, after twelve years, was ready to step into something else, and the other partners decided they were ready for a change, too. "We went from maybe 10 percent to like the whole kit and kaboodle, all in less than a year," Jimmy said, adding, "I've built everybody else's bar. It's time to build my own."

A Bar Built on Subtle Change, Not Overhaul

Jimmy didn't come in looking to reinvent Fondren Public. He'd learned that lesson at Hal & Mal's, where he saw firsthand what a longtime institution means to people who've been showing up for years. "No plans to overhaul anything," he says. "It's just to highlight, enhance what exists, and add small things."

That approach shows up in the details: rotating taps, elevating the wine list, sharpening the cocktails just enough to feel polished while staying affordable. "Just because we are a neighborhood, quote-unquote, dive bar, doesn't mean that we have to be dirty and gritty," Jimmy says. "It just means approachable and welcoming and affordable."

That welcoming instinct shows up in who's filling the room lately, too. The American Outlaws Jackson chapter has made Fondren Public their home base, hanging their own scarves and soccer memorabilia around the space. "I didn't do any of this," Jimmy says of the decor. "I have allowed my regulars and the people that have been coming here for years; they put up these flags, they built the scarf boxes." The Jackson Gay Men's Chorus, JXN Roller Derby, and a weekly reality TV watch party have all found a home at FP the same way.

Food is on the horizon, too. A recent special-event menu — barbacoa nachos, hot wings, an andouille sausage and pimento cheese plate — gave a glimpse of what's possible. "It was received very well," Jimmy says, though a permanent program is still being worked out, with ideas like beer floats already in the mix. Game staples like shuffleboard, cornhole, giant Jenga, Connect Four remain the heart of the place, with a jukebox and pool table possibly on the way.

A Partnership Built on Trust

Behind the bar's new chapter is a partnership Jimmy doesn't downplay. He and Jessica have spent a decade running a bartending and catering service together. "We have always worked very well together," Jimmy says, summing up their balance simply: "I'm the ideas person and the big dreamer, and she's my reality."

It was Jessica's financial footing that made the purchase possible, a fact Jimmy has joked about openly. But both credit it as a true partnership. "It's the hard work of both of us, staying on track and coming up with a plan for this place," Jimmy says. "Even though Jess will not be working here, she is definitely an integral part of this place." Jessica agrees: "You're very much an ideas person, and I'm the grounding person. Those have to both be present in order for something to continue to function and work and hopefully keep growing."

For Jessica, moving back to Jackson came with a quiet hope: "It was important to me that if I was going to stay in Jackson, that I was able to contribute in some way," she says. "I love Jackson," she adds. "I like living here. I like dining here, drinking here. Spending my money."

Their advice to anyone weighing an unexpected opportunity: "Always take a meeting," Jimmy says. "Don't give an answer right away. Chew on it, talk to your partner. It might lead to something that you never even thought of before and enrich your life in a way that you never would know unless you actually just do it."

For the Quinns, that meeting led to a bar, and now Fondren Public has two new names behind the taps, pouring a little more of themselves into the neighborhood with every round.