Road Tips

Burger Star - Omaha

I'm always a little leery when I pick up a local restaurant guide and see a restaurant that is named "Best of" in a poll of local diners.  To me, it usually means the restaurant has some sort of support organization that has the human resources to "stuff the ballot box".  (Like Pizza Hut for "best pizza", or "best seafood" to Red Lobster.)  So, I was a little intrigued by the "Best burger in Omaha" award that went to a one outlet burger joint - Burger Star - considering there area some excellent burger places in the Omaha area.  On a trip to Omaha recently, I stopped in for lunch.

In doing research on the background of Burger Star, I found that even though it's a one location restaurant, it is under the vast restaurant management umbrella headed by Omahan Greg Cutchall - Cutchall Management Company.  The company owns Sonic, Domino's Pizza, Rock Bottom Brewery and Famous Dave franchises in three states, as well as overseeing the franchise operations of Paradise Bakery Cafe locations in Texas, Utah and Nebraska, as well as Tin Star taco bar locations in the greater Dallas area.  The company also has entered the "breast-taurant" business with Twin Peaks locations in Omaha and Des Moines complete with girls in "Daisy Duke" shorts and tight tops tied under the breasts.  Like similar places such as Show Me's, Hooters, or Tilted Kilt, I'm guessing that you don't go to Twin Peaks because the food is outstanding.  (As an aside, my entry on the Tilted Kilt location in Peoria, IL is one of the most read entries on this blog.  Go figure...)

Cutchall Management Company took over an old Joey's Seafood location just off 72nd St., and just south of Pacific (see map) and opened Burger Star in 2008.  The initial year was a little rough for Burger Star as they initially used a machine to stamp out 1/4 pound burgers that were then grilled.  The public didn't go for the taste of the burgers initially, so Greg Cutchall replaced that burger making process with a 6 ounce, hand-pattied Angus beef 80-20 mix to make the burgers more juicy.  Also, they were getting their buns daily from their sister restaurant, Paradise Cafe.  But it was taxing the staff and infrastructure at Paradise Cafe, so they began to get their buns from Rotella Italian Bakery in Omaha.  Things turned around for the restaurant after those little tweaks.  

I walked into Burger Star around 1:30 on a weekday, just after the lunch hour rush.  The place was about a quarter full of customers finishing up their lunches.  A young lady greeted me as I was looking around at the rock and roll-themed decor and she said, "Is this your first visit to Burger Star?"  I told her that it was and she gave me the skinny on ordering.  She pointed to the menu board on the wall above and behind the counter and you had your choice of either a 6 oz "Burger Star" burger or a 12 oz "Rock Star" burger.  (They also have grilled chicken at Burger Star, and, interestingly enough, they have tacos including grilled fish tacos.)  After you choose the type of burger that you want, you get your choice of nearly 20 free toppings including all the regular stuff you'd get on a burger (ketchup, mustard, onions - grilled, fried or raw - pickles, lettuce, tomato, etc.)  They also have mushrooms and jalapenos available for free.  Some burger places will charge for mushrooms or jalapenos.  For .75 cents each, you can add smoked bacon, a fried egg and cheese to the burger. 

I was just going to get a basic 6 ounce burger and I added Swiss cheese, bacon, mushrooms, ketchup, mustard, raw onions and pickles.  After the young lady took my order, she put the order on a clip suspended on a line above her and slid the ticket over to the kitchen.  She asked me if I wanted any of their hand-cut French fries and I declined.  Burger Star doesn't serve beer, so I just got a bottle of water to go along with my burger.  She gave me a number and said, "Find yourself a seat, anywhere you like and we'll bring it out to you when it's done!"  

She took the order she had written, put it on a clip that was attached to a metal zip line above her head, then literally threw it over to the kitchen.  A cook grabbed the order and began the process of making my burger. 

I took a seat in a booth near the fireplace that had a framed guitar above it which was autographed by the Rolling Stones.  They had a number of rock and roll memorabilia on the walls throughout the place including a number of old concert posters (probably reproductions) and pictures of classic rock bands and musicians.  Playing on a television in the corner and piped through the sound system of the place was a Michael Jackson concert from probably back in the 90's.  To me, Burger Star reminded me of a stripped down Hard Rock Cafe.

After about 15 minutes or so, someone from the kitchen brought my burger out to me.  It was served in a basket on a checkered sheet of wax paper.  The burger was piled high with the toppings and condiments that I ordered with it and a toothpick held the top bun in place.  

The burger patty was sort of a misshapen chunk of meat that was flat grilled and stuck out from the sides of the bun.  I have to say that the burger certainly looked promising.  

But the first bite told me something else.  The burger was severely overcooked.  It was dry and almost tough to chew and subsequently swallow.  I'm guessing whoever was running the grill that day literally pressed all the juice out of the burger during the cooking process.  This was not the taste or juiciness that you'd find in an 80-20 mix of ground beef to fat.

The bun was very good, however, and had the burger not had the life cooked out of it, it would have been a very good compliment to the beef.  But even the soft and chewy Rotella bun couldn't save this burger.  And that's too bad.  

I suspect that the management group that owns Burger Star had a little bit to do with the place getting "Best Burger in Omaha" awards.  I've had some excellent burgers in Omaha over the years - Stella's, Louie M's Burger Lust, Dinker's Bar (click on the links to see my entries on those places) - and the burger I had at Burger Star wasn't close to any of those places.   I know I should give restaurants a second chance, and maybe I will with Burger Star.  But their burgers should be consistently good that whether it's your first visit or your 100th, they're the same.  I just have to say that I was disappointed in my burger at Burger Star.   

Christy Creme - Council Bluffs, IA

Midwest Living magazine listed their favorite burger places across the region earlier this year (click here to see the article).  One of the places was in Council Bluffs, IA, just across the river from Omaha - a little ice cream parlor called Christy Creme.  After a morning meeting with one of my dealers in Omaha, I was heading back east and decided to find Christy Creme to try one of their burgers. 

Christy Creme is an institution in the Council Bluffs area - it's been in business since 1954.  Generations of families have come here for years for ice cream, burgers and other snacks.  And do not mistake Christy Creme as the same as the Krispy Kreme donut shops - they don't serve donuts.  

The "Christy" behind the name belongs to founder Art Christiansen and his wife, Jeanne.  They decided to build a little ice cream place in the front yard of their home on N. Broadway, what was then the Lincoln Highway, one of the main routes in and out of Council Bluffs at the time.  The original Christy Creme was nothing more than a small building with walk-up service.  The Christiansen's would open sometime in February each year and would stay open until sometime in mid-November, closing only for the Independence Day holiday.   

The original Christy Creme location (right).  The picture looks like it was taken in the 60's.

The Christiansen's were helped out by their four children in the summertime.  The shop was so small that they had to store the supplies for the business in their house.   

In 1972, Art and Jeanne Christiansen decided to retire and they sold the business.  The business went through a handful of owners over the next four years with no one being able to duplicate the magic the Christiansen's started with the business 20 years before.  The Christiansen's son, Dave, and his wife, Sue, moved back to Council Bluffs from Texas to buy the business and make it a family-owned business again.  Today, Dave Christiansen's son-in-law and daughter manage the day-to-day operation.  And now Dave Christiansen's grandkids now work in the business.  Since his grandmother helped out his parents in the 50's, there are now five generations of the Christiansen family who have worked at Christy Creme since it opened nearly 60 years ago.  

In 1995, the Christiansen's tore down the original roadside stand and replaced it with a new modern facility that allowed for sit down dining inside.  Due to flood restrictions, they had to build it up higher and back from a road a little bit. 

The Christiansen's are also promoters withing the community.  For two days during August, they have a "Dog Days" promotion that allows customers with their dogs to get a free ice cream cone for their pooches when they buy an ice cream cone for themselves.  Also, Christy Creme sponsors an annual bike ride - One Lap of the Bluffs - that takes participants on a 20 mile-plus ride on the bike paths around the Council Bluffs area in early October.  Money that is raised for the event is earmarked for the American Cancer Society in memory of Sue Christiansen, who tragically died of cancer a few years ago. 

I punched in the address for Christy Creme on my GPS and it took me along Broadway until it veered north.  I found it on the right side of the road with a nice parking lot just off of Broadway (see map).  It was before the noon hour so there was only one other customer in the building when I went in.  However, before I left there was a tour bus that pulled up in the parking lot that was full of people.  I'm glad I got in there when I did. 

The inside of the Christy Creme is bright and well lit with a handful of booths along the wall.  Green and white tiled floors keep the color scheme the same as the outside of the building.  Articles on Christy Creme are framed along the wall above the booths.  Along the upper part of the wall in the kitchen/serving area are a number of knick-knacks including a number of coffee cups with advertising on them.  I never really figured out what the coffee cups were all about.  

The menu board is located on a wall in the front part of the kitchen area.  It's angled above three soft-serve ice cream machines - triple the number of machines the Christiansen's used in the original Christy Creme building.  In addition to ice cream and burgers, Christy Creme also a pork tenderloin sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a chicken club sandwich, and they have a patty melt on the menu, as well.  Christy Creme's quarter pound burgers are all processed and ground by Omaha Steaks, the famous mail order meat processor.  I ended up getting a cheeseburger (double cheeseburgers are available).  

They make the burgers as ordered, so it was about a 10 minute wait as they flat grilled the burger and made it up for me.  With everything on it, the bill came to $3.75 plus tax.  

I took the burger out to my car since I had a bottle of water out there.  It was wrapped in green and white checked wax paper.  It was piping hot directly off the grill.

The first bite yielded not much of a taste buzz for me.  The burger was a little dry and overcooked.  I could tell that it was just a processed burger patty - one that you could get from a number of food distributors across the Midwest.  It did have that good flat grill flavor to it and it did have ample amounts of condiments on the burger.  I especially liked the chopped onions - they were extremely fresh and flavorful.  The bun was not much to talk about.  It, too, was a little dry and lifeless.  Quite frankly, the cheeseburger at Christy Creme reminded me of the burgers you can get at most Dairy Queen's.  And don't get me wrong, Dairy Queen makes a surprisingly good cheeseburger.  I'd put Christy Creme's burger on par with Dairy Queen's burger.  But if I had my choice, I'd support Dave Christiansen over going to Dairy Queen anyday.  

Yeah, it was a good burger.  Not a great burger and probably not what I would call a Top 25 burger in the Midwest.  I could name 25 burgers off the top of my head from around the Midwest that would beat out a Christy Creme burger.   But Christy Creme is quaint part of Midwestern Americana and I'm certain the editors at Midwest Living took that into consideration when they came up with their list.  Christy Creme would be worth the stop for just the unique nature of the business.  But I can tell you of three other places I'd rather get a burger in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area.

Jaipur Brew House - Omaha

I worked an event at The Sound Environment in Omaha one evening earlier this year.  I was standing and talking to one of their longtime employees, Jim, just catching up on things when a woman walked in looking for her husband and his friend.  She said, "They're either in here or they're over at the Indian restaurant."

I turned to Jim and said, "There's an Indian restaurant nearby?"

He said, "Yeah, Jaipur!  It's just right over here."

We walked to the front door and he pointed to a building down the way in the Rockbrook Village Shopping Center in which both businesses are located (see map).  It was literally a 50 yard walk to the front door of the restaurant.  Now, I figured that I had been coming to The Sound Environment at this location for over 20 years. Jaipur opened in 1992 and I have driven by the place countless times over the years and never noticed it before.  But, then again, that shouldn't be surprising as my wife has told me countless times over the years that I am not good at noticing things.  

I asked Jim if the food was good and he said, "Oh, it's very good.  And they're also a brewpub."

"A brewpub," I asked him, somewhat incredulous.  "An Indian brew pub?"

He said, "Oh, yeah.  They have a brewing operation in the back.  They make the most outrageous jalapeno beer."  

The event at The Sound Environment was over at 9 p.m. and Jim said that Jaipur served food up to 9:30.  I said, "We ought to try the place out!"  

Jim said, "Oh, anytime I have the chance to eat at Jaipur, I go!"  

Jaipur, named for a city in northern India, was co-founded by Steve Gordon who also co-owned The Oven in Lincoln, also a highly acclaimed Indian restaurant; and L'Orient, a former upscale restaurant in Rockbrook Village.  I have an industry colleague, Bruce Jacobs from Stillpoints, who happened to be at The Sound Environment's event that evening who calls the Oven one of his all-time favorite restaurants.  Bruce told me, "When I drive out to Denver for the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival, I always time it so that I can have a meal at the Oven in Lincoln."  

Bruce told me that evening in Omaha that when he found out that the Oven and Jaipur had been joined at the hip at one point, he tried the food at Jaipur the previous evening.  Is it similar to the Oven, I asked him.  He said, "Oh, yeah.  It's excellent."  

Gordon sold his shares in both the Oven and Jaipur around 2004.  He sold the Oven to Ngawang Rinchen, a Bhutanese native who was once the chef for the Royal Family of Bhutan (you gotta click on the link - the King of Bhutan has four wives - all sisters!); and the Jaipur Brew House was sold to Nepalese native Gyanendra Bhandari who had been the chef at the restaurant for three years prior.  Bhandari continues to be the executive chef of Jaipur, but Sanjay Pandit and Bhojraj Paudel run the day-to-day operations in the kitchen.  Steve Gordon still works with Bhandari as the Jaipur's wine consultant and helps with the wine list that totals over 180 bottles.  

It was just after 9 p.m. when we got into the Jaipur Brew House and sat at a table toward the east wall of the restaurant.  The lighting was somewhat subdued, almost too dim to adequately read the menu. But the decor was elegant and classy.  Once we were seated, we were given menus by our waitress that evening, Smrita.  She was a pleasant young lady who reminded us that they closed the kitchen at 9:30.  

Jim had been raving about the jalapeno ale at the Jaipur Brew House and he ordered a 10 oz. glass of the brew right off the bat.  I asked if I could get a sample of the jalapeno beer and Smrita took off to get the beers.  She came back moments later and said, "I'm sorry, we're out of the jalapeno ale this evening."

Jim reacted as though someone had run over his puppy.  "Oh man," he exclaimed.  "You're out of the jalapeno beer?  I've been craving one for the past couple of hours!"  Smrita said she was sorry, but the jalapeno ale is, by far, their most requested beer at Jaipur.  We decided upon each of us getting a glass of their India Pale Ale.  Actually, it was a tad flat and didn't have a forward taste like I've found in other IPA's.  But it was certainly drinkable.  

In addition to traditional northern Indian foods, the Jaipur Brew House also features an "Indian Fusion" menu that offered an Indian twist on Midwestern/American foods.  Some of the entrees they had to offer on the fusion menu included a beef tenderloin that was cooked in their high temperature tandoor oven, a grilled tenderloin with Indian spices; a Tandoori marinated grilled salmon; a Colorado lamb kabob marinated in garlic and ginger then cooked in the tandoor oven; and a Jaipur chicken cutlet marinated with yogurt and Indian spices, then pan-fried.  

Jim told me that all their lamb dishes were wonderful.  I'm not big on lamb - I don't like the greasy taste of lamb, nor do I like the texture all that much.  But he was pretty adamant that the lamb at the Jaipur Brew House was excellent.  I decided to further broaden my horizons and I wanted something sort of spicy that evening.  The lamb vindaloo filled that bill.  I ordered that and, along with Jim's wholehearted recommendation, I went with a bowl of the Mulligatawny soup - a traditional Indian soup featuring pureed lentils with spices, then topped with rice and fresh coriander.  

Jim was torn between a number of items.  "This happens to me every time I come here," he explained to me.  "Everything is so good."  Knowing he was under pressure because the kitchen would be closing shortly, he decided upon the chicken pad Jaipur entree - large marinated chicken chunks with stir-fried rice noodles along with egg, fresh veggies and Indian spices.  A cashew sauce then topped the concoction.  The special soup that evening was a pureed bean soup and Jim signed up for that, as well.  Then Jim said, "Should we get an appetizer?"  I suggested the garlic naan, but he said the Kheema naan - a lightly buttered naan bread stuffed with ground lamb.  I've had Kheema naan before and I thought it was pretty damn good.  

Smrita brought out our soups.  I had taken a picture of both our soups, but the one of my Mulligatawny soup didn't turn out.  Below right is Jim's pureed bean soup.  Jim said his soup was overly flavorful and he offered me to take a spoonful.  My Mulligatawny was very good, but I liked the rich spice and herb flavor of his pureed bean soup.    

The Kheema naan came out next (above right).  It was big and fluffy, chocked full of ground lamb.  It looked like a small stuffed pizza sitting on the plate.  And it was rich and very flavorful.  I knew there was no way we'd be able to finish all the food.  

After about another 10 minutes, our main entrees came out.  Jim's chicken pad Jaipur looked overly thick and rich.  I'm not big on cashew or peanut sauces, but the large chunks of cashews on top of the pad Jaipur looked very good.  Jim offered a portion to me and he put a sample on my bread plate.  The taste sensations were overwhelming.  I don't know exactly what was in it that made it taste so good, but it certainly appealed to me.  

From the first bite of my lamb vindaloo, it got my attention.   First of all, the lamb chunks weren't greasy in the least.  The lamb had a great taste quality to it and wasn't chewy like I've found other lamb dishes to be for me in the past.  The second thing was the forward taste of the Indian spices incorporated in the sauce.  It was just wonderful.  But the big thing - it was HOT!  I mean spicy hot!  I wanted something spicy and, man, I got it!  I was telling Jim how hot it was and I offered to reciprocate on a sample of my lamb vindaloo.  He offered his bread plate and I put some on there.  He took a bite and said, "Holy shit!  That IS hot!  But it's so damn good, too!"  He was absolutely right.

The best part was dipping some of the Kheema naan in the vindaloo sauce.  Oh, God!  It was just excellent.  It was so forward with the spices and had an explosive aftertaste.  It was just fabulous.  

Jim and Bruce couldn't have been more spot on about the food at the Jaipur Brew House.  Although the beer was a little flat and they were out of their popular jalapeno ale, the food was outstanding.  In fact, the vindaloo was possibly a little more hot in spiciness than I like, but it was still excellent.  And I have to say the lamb was nothing like the lamb I'd had before.  Smrita was an excellent waitress for us and even though it was well past closing time when we finished up, we didn't feel hurried at all.  Now that I know about the Jaipur Brew House, I look forward to going back at some point and having something other than the vindaloo and trying the jalapeno beer.  Oh!  And it looks like on my next trip over to Lincoln, I'll have to seek out the Oven, as well. 

Dinker's Bar - Omaha

Midwest Living magazine came out with a list of their top 25 (and then some) burger joints around the Midwest earlier this year. Many of the places listed can be found on Road Tips, but I became interested by a number of other ones that I wasn't familiar with. Quite probably the one that intrigued me most was a place in Omaha called Dinker's Bar. On a recent trip out to Omaha, I decided to find Dinker's for a burger.

I've been coming to Omaha for business since 1986 (and about 10 years prior to that when my sister and brother-in-law used to live in Omaha) and while I was familiar with places like Stella's and Louie M's Burger Lust, I had never heard of Dinker's Bar before. But the locals certainly love it. It has been voted as Omaha's best burger many times over the years. In fact, they're so confident of the burgers at Dinker's Bar they have a permanent sign on the front of their building that says, "Omaha's Best Burger." While I certainly love the burgers at Louie M's and I've given Stella's high marks over the years, I was somewhat taken aback that I hadn't known about Dinker's burgers until I read about them in Midwest Living magazine.

Dinker's Bar has been in existance since the mid-60's when Frank "Dinker" Synowiecki opened the doors to the neighborhood bar south of Omaha's downtown area known as Sheely Town. Sheely Town was named after Joseph Sheely who owned and ran a packing plant on Omaha's south side in the 1800's and who built tenement housing, initially, for mostly Irish workers. But later on, a number of Polish and Czech immigrants came to Omaha to work in the stockyards and slaughter houses of South Omaha. Many of the Polish immigrants settled in Sheely Town while many of the Czech's settled further to the south. Today, the Sheely Town neighborhood is a mix of small bungalow houses and larger two story homes that were built before World War II.

Initially, Dinker's Bar was just a "beer and a shot" type of place. However, Synowiecki put in a grill and began to serve burgers and sandwiches. Today, Synowiecki's son, Bob, runs the place. It's located in a long narrow building at the corner of S. 29th St. and Castelar St., just south of Martha Street and right next to I-480 (see map). Midwest Living compared to decor to a 1970's bowling alley. I guess I didn't get that when I walked into the place. I found it to be open and airy, but comfortable enough for people to carry on conversations. There are a number of tables throughout the long dining room with the bar in the front and the kitchen in the back.

I got in just after 1 p.m. and found the "Order Here" sign toward the dining room. A small line was in front of me as I took a look at the menu on the wall to see what I wanted to get on my first visit to Dinker's.

Dinker's Bar not only features their idea of the best burgers in Omaha, but they also have a number of sandwiches, salads and appetizers including homemade buttermilk-battered onion rings. Dinker's also features a lunch steak entree with a 6 oz. Omaha Steaks sirloin served with fries, a salad and their garlic cheese bread. They also feature luncheon specials each day - that day the hot beef sandwich was the feature. Quite honestly, it looked good when one of the waitresses walked by with a heaping plate as I was standing in line to get a burger.

The burgers at Dinker's Bar are hand-pattied, then cooked on a flat grill and pressed. Their beef is fresh, delivered three times a week to the bar, and I believe they grind their own burger meat. Their signature burger is the Haystack - a quarter pound patty topped with American cheese, honey smoked ham and then finished with a range free fried egg. That sounded really good. They also have a jalapeno burger that is topped with pepper jack cheese and fried jalapenos. But they also had a mushroom/Swiss cheese burger that I ended up getting.

The lady at the counter asked if I wanted any fries or onion rings with my burger. I wasn't certain I wanted anything other than the burger. She said chips came with the burger and that the rings or fries were extra. I ended up ordering some fries with the burger. You pay for the food at the counter as you order (WARNING - Dinker's is a cash only establishment), they give you a number to place on your table and they'll bring the food out to you.

There's really no wait staff at Dinker's Bar, so after you order your food and if you want a drink you have to go to the bar. I ended up sitting at the bar placing my number beside me. The bar area, itself, was a throwback to a 70's style bar with brickwork on the wall, along with mirrors hung over the brick. A series of bar glasses, a number of liquor bottles and even a Jagermeister machine cluttered up the back bar area. It was your typical neighborhood bar.

After about 15 minutes, a man brought me my burger and set it in front of me. When I ordered at the counter, the lady had asked if I wanted lettuce, tomato and onions (grilled or sliced) on my sandwich and I was rather impressed with the freshness of both the lettuce and tomato slices. The onions were pungent and fresh, as well. A large mound of French fries accompanied the burger in the basket.

The burger was thick and juicy, covered with copious amounts of fresh mushrooms. In fact, the mushrooms were so plentiful, they were sliding off of the burger with nearly each bite. Four napkins were dropped off with the burger and I needed them all. The burger, itself, was cooked perfectly with a little bit of pink in the middle. With all the veggies on the burger, it was difficult to get a full taste of the beef. But I pulled off a corner of the burger patty and tasted it on its own. It was very, very good.

Last, but certainly not least, the kaiser bun that Dinker's uses for their burgers was light and fluffy, adding a wonderful taste to the burger. It was lightly toasted and helped with the overall taste of the burger. It held together very well with the moist and juicy burger. I was overly impressed with Dinker's burger.

I'm sort of kicking myself for not knowing about Dinker's Bar before this. I love little neighborhood places like Dinker's. The burger I had was very, very good and I may have to make a couple more visits to Dinker's before I can decide if it truly is the best burger in Omaha. Stella's and Louis M's Burger Lust are certainly high on my list and I would have to say that Dinker's Bar has a burger that would be as equally worthy - if not more - as the burgers at those places.

King Kong - Omaha

I had gotten into Omaha early one afternoon and was sort of hungry.  I had to do a training meeting that evening and knew I wouldn't be eating dinner until later on.  I tried to think of someplace that I hadn't been to in sometime and finally it hit me - King Kong!  King Kong is a burger/gyro place on Dodge St. in Omaha (see map).  I decided to go there for a gyro for lunch.  

King Kong's name is interesting enough, but how it came to be is pretty interesting in its own right.  It begins with a young Nick Triantafillou growing up on a Greek island, working almost since he was able to walk.  Growing up, Nick dreamt about going to the United States to join up with his uncle who had a restaurant in Omaha, NE.  Nick left home in his early 20's joining a commercial shipping company where he sailed the seas and worked as the waiter for the ship's captain.  

On a particularly rough journey in 1973 from the United Kingdom to Texas to pick up a boat load of sugar, the young Triantafillou knew he'd had enough of the sea life.  After docking in Galveston, TX, knowing no English and armed only with his uncle's telephone number in Omaha, Nick jumped ship.  He made his way to some friendly Greek locals in Texas who put him on a plane to Omaha to join up with his uncle who ran a gyro shop in town.

Getting a foothold in the restaurant business, the young Triantafillou opened his first restaurant across the river in Council Bluffs, IA - Nick's Sirloin House.  He eventually sold the steakhouse and opened a diner in a small town near Omaha.  Triantafillou then opened a fine dining restaurant - Nick and Diana's - in suburban Bellevue, NE.  None of the restaurants did particulary well, but Triantafillou kept trying.  

Now fully immersed in the restaurant culture, Triantafillou eventually opened a chain of gyro/burger joints across Nebraska called Nick's Gyros.  He had locations in Kearney, Grand Island, Lincoln and Omaha.  He eventually sold off all the locations, but kept the one location at 44th and Dodge in the heart of Omaha's midtown area.  

One of Nick's signature meals was a 1/2 pound burger that he wanted to name after something big.  Getting the inspiration from the original King Kong movie that he saw as a young man in Greece, Triantafillou named his burger the "King Kong".  Not only did King Kong signify the size of his burgers, but also the size of his dinner entrees, including gyros, that Nick's served.  And all at a good value price.  

In 1994, Triantafillou decided to change the name of his restaurant to King Kong and had his lawyer look into whether he'd be infringing on any trademarks.  It turned out that a federal court in the 1970's had ruled that the original King Kong story had become public domain since there were a handful of books and serial articles that had been published about the time the original movie came out in 1933, but it was unclear who actually wrote the first story on King Kong.  

And, amazingly, Triantafillou's lawyer also found out that no one owned the trademark on either the King Kong name or the King Kong gorilla image.  None of the movie companies or publishing houses had trademarked King Kong since it became public domain 20 years prior.  Triantafillou bought the King Kong trademark, the gorilla image trademark, as well as trademarking the "Double Kong" and "Triple Kong" burgers.  That's right - a small restaurant owner in Omaha, NE owns King Kong.  

In 2001, Triantafillou opened a second location in south Omaha, and subsequently opened two other locations including one in Lincoln.  There had been talk of King Kong expanding into Missouri with locations in St. Joseph and Independence, but I don't think those locations have ever opened. 

(Pictured left - The Triple Kong 1 1/2 lb. burger.  Photo courtesy justjdm.com)

King Kong is on the south side of Dodge, just after 42nd St. and before Saddle Creek.  If you're heading west bound on Dodge St. coming out of the downtown Omaha area, you'll have to take the southbound Saddle Creek exit on the right just before King Kong as there's no left turns into businesses along Dodge St.  Get in the far right lane of Saddle Creek and take the eastbound Dodge Street exit.  It cloverleafs up and around to eastbound Dodge just before the entrance to King Kong on the right.  It was around 1:30 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot of King Kong, well after the noon time lunch rush.  But it was still busy enough where there was a fair sized crowd inside the dining room when I went in.

The menu is located on on a lighted marquee board behind the counter.  In addition to gyros and burgers, King Kong also features steak and dinner entrees, Philly cheese steak sandwiches, salads, as well as a number of Kid-sized meals for the youngsters.  They also have daily specials through the week.  I was going to get one of their gyros since it had been a long time since I last had one from King Kong - probably more than 10 years ago.  A young lady with an Eastern European accent took my order for a gyro.  Within a minute it was up on the counter waiting for me to pick it up.

I found a seat in the back corner of the dining area.  There are a series of white-topped tables with matching ice cream parlor-styled chairs throughout the place.  The dining room decor sort of has a faux jungle/tropical color and kitschy feeling to the room.  It also feels a little more cramped than cozy in the dining area as the tables are close together.  

The gyro, itself, was huge (above right).  It was piled with gyro meat, fresh onions and tomatoes all swarming in King Kong's homemade tzatziki sauce.  Even with a fork, it's a messy delight.  The gyro meat was flavorful and tender.  Oh, there were a couple pieces of the gyro meat where it was a little more done than others, but it was still edible.  The onions were overly fresh and somewhat powerful.  Given that it was early spring, the tomatoes were surprisingly fresh.  And the homemade tzatziki sauce was a great complement for the whole gyro.  The pita bread was soft, pliable and chewy.  The gyro at King Kong was exactly as I remembered it to be from the last time I had one a number of years ago.  

True to its name, King Kong gives you a lot of food at a great value.  My very large gyro cost $5.99 and it was more than a regular lunch meal for me.  I was stuffed after I left King Kong.  I've never tried one of their burgers so I may have to go back at some point and get one.  I doubt if it will be either the Double or Triple Kong burgers (they even have a "Super Kong" 2 lb. burger on the menu), but the 1/2 pound King Kong burger should be able to work for me.  But the gyro at King Kong is still worth going there to get one.  It's no wonder all four King Kong locations in Omaha and Lincoln are a favorite with the locals.     

Dundee Dell - Omaha

I'm figuring the last time I was in the Dundee Dell in Omaha was probably 35 years ago. It was a dive bar of the highest quality, but had some sort of an endearing atmosphere to the place. I believe it was  the first place where I ever had a reuben sandwich and I sort of remember that I immediately liked what I was eating. When I found Pitch Coalfire Pizza, the pizza place that is owned by Godfather's Pizza founder Willy Thiesen, the Dundee Dell was just down the street. I made a point to go there for a sandwich at some point in the future. On a recent visit to Omaha, I had lunch at the Dundee Dell.

Dundee Dell is located at 5007 Underwood Ave. in the Dundee/Happy Hollow neighborhood of Omaha (see map). It's a bustling area both day and night and I was very lucky to get a parking spot right in front of the restaurant just after 1 p.m. When I walked in, I was immediately confused. This was not the same Dundee Dell that I remembered. And after reading some old articles on the wall, it turned out that it was not.

The original Dundee Dell was on Dodge Street, the main east-west drag through Omaha. It officially began in 1934, just after the repeal of prohibition. But Omaha historians say that it was probably open as a speakeasy before that. Three Depression-era brothers - the Cohens - were mobster/bootleggers who ran a speakeasy in the area during the height of Prohibition. They opened the Dundee Dell and ran it for a few years before selling it off.

I read somewhere that Dundee Dell had 11 different owners over the years before Pat Gobel bought the place in 1989. Gobel had an affinity for single malt scotch and began to procure bottles of rare and unique scotches to serve at his little place. He had a handful of friends who shared his passion for scotch whisky and he began serve a large number of single malts.

In 2000, Gobel bought the current property on Underwood and when he moved, he had a large parade up 50th street from the old Dundee Dell to the new location. I understand it was quite the party. The new Dundee Dell is larger and not quite as dingy as the old location. (The old location is still a bar. It's now called the Old Dundee Bar and Grill.) And his new location gave Gobel the chance to expand his liquor selection.

Today, Dundee Dell claims they have over 750 single malt scotches to choose from and served in pegs (1 ounce servings), drams (1.5 ounce servings), or full bottles. Some of the most obscure and rare single malts are available at Dundee Dell, making it a famous landmark amongst scotch aficionados both nationally and internationally. The have scotch boxes all along the walls and rafters of the place (pictured below left), as well as distillery memorabilia on the walls. 

In addition to all the single malt scotch they have, Dundee Dell also boasts an incredibly large selection of liquors to choose from. If you have a favorite drink and the bartender knows how to make it, they have it. Their "Isle of Spirits" behind the bar (pictured above right) is pretty damn impressive and would make even the most modest drunk salivate. 

Not only does Dundee Dell have a large single malt and liquor selection, but they also an impressive beer menu. Their beer list has over 200 different types of domestic, imported and micro-brewed craft beers to choose from. Dundee Dell is a tee-totalers worst nightmare.

Seated in a booth along the wall in the main dining area of Dundee Dell, I looked over the food menu to figure out what I wanted to eat that particular day. Of course, the reuben sandwiches are awesome at Dundee Dell, but I had been sort of "reubened out" from visits I'd had to other restaurants as of late. There were a number of sandwiches that caught my eye - the tuna melt, a French dip sandwich, and something called the "BBLT" which stood for Big Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato. They use thick slices of bacon on the BBLT and that was sort of tempting.

I wasn't really in the mood for a burger, but I got to looking at their fish section of the menu. Dundee Dell sells a lot of fish and chips dinners, it's one of their signature meals. But at the bottom of the fish menu, I noticed fish tacos. Oooo... I'm a sucker for good fish tacos, especially if they aren't breaded. The description said the cod was grilled, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's unbreaded.

When the waitress came to take my order, I asked her if the fish tacos were filled with grilled and unbreaded fish. She said, "Yes! That's exactly right. It's one of my favorite things on the menu!" So I ordered the fish tacos - two flour soft shells filled with grilled North Atlantic cod and topped with black bean salsa. Lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and a tangy chipotle ranch dressing comes on the side. I ordered a Sierra Nevada pale ale to go along with my meal.

I had just finished my Sierra Nevada when my fish tacos showed up. The cod filets were resting on the black bean salsa. And while the lettuce was fresh, I prefer cabbage on my fish tacos. Oh well, when in Omaha. I ordered another Sierra Nevada and dug in.

And quite actually, the fish tacos at Dundee Dell were very good. The cod was light and flaky and not very fishy tasting at all. With a little lettuce and tomato on top, I put a little bit of the chipotle ranch dressing on the tacos. The dressing was excellent - it had a little bit of a bite to the taste, but the fish, tomatoes and lettuce helped cut into the sharpness of the sauce. Two tacos were more than enough on a hot, dusty afternoon in Omaha. Three would have filled me up way too much, especially with a couple beers under my belt.

 

The Dundee Dell is one of those places that isn't fancy, but they've cut a niche in the market with the vast selection of Scotch, beers and liquors to choose from. And the food is above average, as well. The ambiance of the place is very laid back and inviting. And I was more than impressed with my fish tacos. The waitress asked me how I liked them and I said, "They were very, very good."

She said, "See? Didn't I tell you? It's my favorite summertime food here at the Dell."

35 years is too long to stay away from a place like the Dundee Dell. With Pitch just down the street and a handful of other restaurants and bars in the area, the Dundee neighborhood is quickly becoming one of my favorite destinations in Omaha.

Upstream Brewing Company - Omaha

One of my favorite places to go when I'm in Omaha is the Upstream Brewing Company, a locally-owned brewpub/restaurant that has good food and good beer. It had been quite some time since I was last in the original Upstream Brewing Company location in the Old Market area (see map) and it had been awhile since I was last in their location within the Shops of Legacy shopping area in the far west side of Omaha (see map) I met a client for dinner at the far west Upstream Brewing Company on a recent trip to Omaha and I thought I'd share the experience with you.

The Upstream Brewing Company began in 1996 when Brian Magee opened the doors to his brewpub in downtown Omaha. Three years later, Gary Hoffman joined Magee as the executive chef adding a lot of flair and creative dishes to the menu. The Upstream Brewing Company is definitely an upscale brewpub, but doesn't have the pretentious air that you find in some fine dining restaurants.

The menu at Upstream is an eclectic mix of items such as steaks, pastas, gourmet pizza, and sandwiches, along with a good number of bar-type appetizers, soups and salads. Given that Hoffman's background before coming to Upstream Brewing Company was primarily as a chef in seafood restaurants, a number of seafood dishes are available on the menu, as well.

But beer is still a big draw for Upstream. Their beer menu is as wide and varied as their food menu. They have seven year-round beers including their O! Gold light lager, the delicious Capital Premium pale ale, and the Firehouse Red lager. All three are damn fine beers. Upstream also features a number of seasonal beers, as well as a handful of specialty bottled beers with higher alcohol content that they release from time to time.

Longtime head brewer Zac Triemert left Upstream about two years ago to open his own microbrewery, Lucky Bucket Brewing Company. But he stayed on long enough to show the ropes to his replacement, Mike Hall, formerly of the Oskar Blues craft brewery out in Colorado. Hall has continued the fine beer tradition at Upstream while adding some of his own touches to the beer menu.

It was around 6 p.m. when I met up with my client who was already seated at the bar enjoying a cold Capital Premium pale ale. The bar was nearly full with the after work crowd enjoying some beers and appetizers. We decided to get a table in the dining area. While the Upstream Brewing Company has a large outdoor seating area (and it features live music from time to time), it was extremely windy outside and it would have been a little cumbersome to eat in those conditions.

When we were seated, our very laid back and almost comatose waiter came over to check to see if we needed drinks. I signed up for a Capital Premium pale ale while my guest got another one. The Capital Premium is a hoppy, yet very smooth drinking beer. It's more of an American pale ale that has a nice finish to the taste, but is more flavorful than many other American pale ales that I've had over the years.

My guest and I sat and chatted about business and stuff for about the first 20 minutes. The waiter came back a couple times to give us the specials for the evening and to check to see if we were ready to order. After a bit, I said, "You know, we'd better order so we can let this guy get on with his work."

I was torn between a number of delectable items on the menu. My guest, who eats at Upstream quite a bit, told me that their pork schnitzel - breaded pork medallions served in a garlic aioli sauce - were very good. They almost had me with that, but I remembered the beer braised beef pot roast (served with smashed potatoes and gravy) was also very good. Even though it was rather warm outside, comfort food didn't quite sound all that bad.

The Upstream Brewing Company also has a great Beef Lover's salad - they take beef tips and sauté them with onions. They then join the beef and onions with lettuce greens, crumbled bleu cheese and chopped tomatoes. Oh, man, is that great! I had it for lunch at the Old Market location a few years ago.

But something kept calling my name on the menu - the Jackson Street jambalaya. It featured fresh andouille sausage with chicken, shrimp, peppers and rice in a spicy Creole sauce. That's what I wanted.

My guest decided on getting one of Upstream's gourmet flatbread pizzas, the Pizza Italiano that featured everything I like on a pizza and then some - Italian sausage, pepperoni, fresh cut mushrooms, sweet banana pepper slices and marinated red pepper slices, topped with fresh mozzarella. My guest said, "I know you like pizza so I'll give you a slice to try."

It wasn't long before our meals made it to the table. The jambalaya was a healthy portion served in a large bowl with a slice of Upstream Brewing Company's famous homemade beer bread. It was spicy to the taste, but I wanted to kick it up a notch so I got some Tabasco to give it a little more zip. The andouille sausage chunks were big and plentiful with a nice smoky taste to them, and they didn't scrimp on the chicken chunks and the shrimp. The creole sauce had a great taste and consistency. It was simply some of the best jambalaya I've ever had - anywhere!

The Pizza Italiano looked great, as well. It was exactly how I like my pizzas - thin crust, large chunks of sausage, ample amounts of toppings and a lot of fresh mozzarella mixed in. After my guest had three pieces on his own, he offered one to me. It was absolutely delicious. I knew they had pizza at Upstream, but was always sort of reluctant to give it a try. But one bit, then two bites, then three bites convinced me that their pizza could go up against any number of pizza places I've visited over the years.

There was no way I could finish all of my jambalaya, but it was just excellent. I was stuffed. I had completely forgotten how good the food was at Upstream. The last couple times I went there was to meet friends for a beer or two and didn't get any food. But the food is absolutely fabulous at Upstream Brewing Company.

Before we left, I noticed a set of steps going upstairs. I asked my guest, "What's upstairs?"

He said, "Oh! There's another bar, some pool tables, a little lounge. It's kinda nice up there. C'mon, let's go take a look."

We went up the stairs and while I had been to this Upstream location, maybe, three or four times in the past, I had no idea that there was literally a whole secondary bar on the upper level. The billard room featured tournament size tables with leather pockets and light colored felt tops. While the bar wasn't as large as the one downstairs, it was still big and fully functional.

There was also a little den area and a party room on the upper level. Upstream Brewing Company is a lot larger than what it looks like.

My fingers are still crossed that I'll continue to grow business in Omaha. It's a great city with a lot of great places to go and see. And they have a number of very good to great restaurants in the city featuring all different types of food. But for a good meal - and good beer - in an upscale, but casual atmosphere, it's tough to beat Upstream Brewing Company - at either location.

Werner Park - Papillion, NE

For years, I've enjoyed going to see AAA minor league games at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, the longtime home of the NCAA College World Series. While Rosenblatt was unusually large for a minor league ball park, it was getting pretty old. The concourses were narrow, the seating was antiquated and the fan amenities were few. The NCAA had considered moving the College World Series to another city, so the City of Omaha built a $128 million dollar ball park in downtown Omaha - TD Ameritrade Park - to house the College World Series. It's a 24,000 seat (expandable to 35,000 seats), state of the art medium sized stadium that will be home to the College World Series through the year 2035. And I thought it was also going to be the home of the Omaha AAA baseball team.

But I was wrong about that. It turns out that the Omaha Storm Chasers, the AAA team for the Kansas City Royals, balked at the city's high price for leasing the stadium for a season and sought another venue to play. (The land on which Rosenblatt Stadium sits is being absorbed by the Henry Doorly Zoo and the stadium will be soon torn down.) Sarpy County commissioners voted to build a $36 million dollar stadium near the corner of Nebraska Highways 50 and 370 in Papillion, a surburb on the southwest side of Omaha (see map). This is the first year for the Storm Chasers (formerly the Omaha Royals and more recently known as the Omaha Golden Spikes) at Werner Park, which is named after Werner Enterprises, a global transportation and freight provider whose world headquarters is located literally down the road from the new ball park.

It was a warm, windy evening when I drove out to suburban Papillion to catch a Storm Chasers game versus the New Orleans Zephyrs, the AAA affiliate for the Florida Marlins. The Storm Chasers are regarded as having one of the best baseball squads in AAA ball as the Royals have the best minor league system according to Baseball America. In fact, five of the top 30 minor league players that are ranked by Baseball America play for the Omaha Storm Chasers.

As you go to the stadium, you'll find that it is literally in the middle of nowhere. There are no other businesses, no housing, no other development anywhere near Werner Park. I'm sure this will change in time as Omaha continues to amaze me with the amount of growth that goes on in the city. Recently, the online magazine The Daily Beast named Omaha as the second best city in terms of job prospects for college graduates, trailing only Fayetteville, N.C. And five of the top Fortune 500 firms are located in Omaha - which is a large proportion when you consider the metro population of Omaha is about 850,000 people.

Parking is plentiful and spacious at Werner Park. In addition to a V.I.P. lot, there is a $2.00 parking lot that is easy walking distance to the front entrance of the stadium. For those who don't want to spend the 2 bucks to park, there is a free parking lot area that is a little further walk. I parked in the 2 buck lot and walked up to the ticket office to get a ticket.

Since I like to walk around stadiums, especially new stadiums, I bought a $6.00 berm ticket for the game that evening. The berm tickets allow for general admission and for sitting on a grass berm in right field. They also have a left field bleacher area called the Home Run Porch where tickets are $6.50. Box seats are $10.00, while Field Box seats - the closest to the field - are $12.50. Not to show my age, but I used to buy $5.00 Field Box seats back in the 1980's when I used to go out and watch the Omaha Royals play at Rosenblatt Stadium. But I guess that was about 25 years ago...

After walking into the spacious concourse area as you enter Werner Park, you can walk about 30 feet and catch a wide view of the new ball park. The first thing that struck me was how close everyone was to the field. The capacity of Werner Park is only 6500 people (but can handle up to 9000). And that makes a lot of sense considering the team couldn't draw much more than about 3,000 per game at Rosenblatt. However, they were on pace to break attendance records this season as they had 10 straight games (up to this game I attended) where they had at least 5,000 people in attendance. I was told that never happened when the Royals/Golden Spikes would play at the old Rosenblatt Stadium. I'm sure that not only the fact that so many major league prospects are playing for the Storm Chasers this season, a lot of people have been coming out to take a look at the new park.

The ball park is clearly set up for families. Out in the left field area, they have what amounts to a small amusement park complete with a merry-go-round and bounce-house. I'm sorry, I have a fundamental problem with a carousel and a bounce-house at a ball park. But I suppose you've got to have things like that if you need to attract the younger families. Also, there is an area beyond the center field wall where kids can play basketball and the ball park even sports its own "wiffle ball" field - the Borsheims Diamond, named after the somewhat famous Borsheims jewelry store owned by Berkshire-Hathaway, the investment firm headed by Omaha native Warren Buffett. Get it? The Borsheims Diamond?

Of course, there's the requisite mascots that roam the park. Actually, the Storm Chasers have THREE mascots - Vortex, who is pictured above right; Stormy, who is this sort of furry green, grotesque looking fellow with a weather vane on his head; and Casey, a blue lion who was the original mascot of the Omaha Royals when they first started play in 1969. Given how hot it was that evening, I wondered how uncomfortable it was in those costumes.

One thing that also stuck out as I walked around the new Werner Park were the number of different types of food available at the ball park. There were concession stands that featured pizza, Mexican, gourmet reubens, Omaha steak burgers and even mac and cheese for the kiddies. There was a little bit of everything to eat at Werner Park.

And as I always do at a baseball game, I have to try a hot dog. I went to the Ovations stand that was manned by a group of older people to get a hot dog and a beer. The concession stands at Werner Park are leased out to non-profit groups or fundraisers wanting to raise some money for whatever cause or organization. The beer was very cold and the hot dog was top-notch for a ball park, one of the better ones I've had at a ball game. It was plump and juicy, had a nice snap and not a very salty taste. I'd give the hot dogs at Werner Park an "A".

But I soon found my favorite place at Werner Park. Located under the large scoreboard in left-center field is the Downdraught Bar. (Downdraft - storms have downdrafts while beers are draughts, get it?) It features a rectangular bar that is covered from the elements. Although I didn't have much problem walking around to watch the game from different vantage points, the Downdraught Bar had a pretty good view (other than the people walking along the concourse) and, well, the beer was RIGHT THERE!

But what got me was the beer dispenser at the Downdraught Bar. I went up and asked one of the bartenders what they had on tap. She said they had Bud and Bud Light on tap. I didn't see any spigots, but there was this contraption that had four different flat areas with little nipple like things sticking up from the surface. She hit a button, affixed a glass to the metal nipple, and the glass filled up to the rim from the bottom. I went, "Whoa! I've seen something like that on TV before! But I've never seen one in person!" It's called a Bottoms Up beer dispenser.

She explained to me that there was a small flat magnet - the kind that you'd put on your refrigerator - that popped up when you put the glass over the receptacle. When the glass is affixed to the receptacle, the beer quickly fills up from the bottom. When it's full, you pop it off and the magnet will close against the bottom, sealing the cup. It fills a 20 oz. glass in less than five seconds without a lot of foam and spillage. She said, "Oh, yeah. I've seen videos on the Internet of this thing." I had to have my own video of it. I quickly drank my first Bottoms Up beer and ordered another, but had her wait until I could get my phone switched from camera to video.

And here it is! Click on the link for the 14 second video - Download Video (Be sure to hit your "return" arrow to return to the article. If you click the "off" or "X" on the video, you'll go back to your home page.)

The beers at the Downdraught Bar were a little more expensive - $6.00 for a 20 oz, compared to $6.00 for a 24 oz. at the other concession stands. But the entertainment of the pour and the nice little outdoor bar area was worth the slight increase in price.

Before I walked away to go roam around again, she warned me, "Don't stick your finger up through the bottom hole on the glass. It will definitely leak." And, of course, I like to place my little finger under a glass when I drink - sophisticated-like - and I absentmindedly and accidentally knocked the magnet on the bottom of the glass. A little bit of the beer poured onto my hand. I thought, "Oooohhh!! That's what she meant!"

Like most ball parks, there is an expansive gift shop at Werner Park. I went in to look around and I found a neat looking hooded pullover sweatshirt that had the Storm Chasers logo - an "O" with lightning bolts coming off of opposite sides. I thought Cindy would like something like that, it was soft and lightweight, but night for cool days and nights when she gets a little chilled. I pulled it off the rack to take a look at the price. I about dropped it when I saw the price tag - $69.95! Holy shit! No friggin' way am I buying that for my wife!

But I did see another thing that sort of caught my eye - a Storm Chasers home jersey with the name "Buffett" and the number "1/16". Actually, I'd seen a couple people wearing them around the park. I didn't check the price as I knew it would be prohibitively expensive, but I was intrigued as to the significance of the jersey. It turns out that Warren Buffett - the Oracle of Omaha, who if he isn't the richest man in the world, he's in the top three - is a 1/16th owner of the Omaha Storm Chasers. Check out the lightning bolts in the "B" and the "U" in his name and in the "6". It was actually kind of neat.

Living up to the Storm Chaser name, it was getting later in the evening and a severe thunderstorm was forming to the south and west of the ball park. The sky was getting dark and angry looking. I figured I'd had enough fun and saw all that I wanted on my first trip to Werner Park. And it was a nice place to see a game. It seemed to be overrun with little kids who had little to no interest in watching even parts of the game. But I suppose you have to have those types of amenities to attract families to places like Werner Park these days. I'm more interested in what happens between the fences on the fields. Oh, and with the Bottoms Up beer dispenser!

Pitch Coal-fire Pizzeria - Omaha

Willy Theisen is the godfather of pizza. That is, Theisen turned a bar that he was the owner of - Wild Willy's - into the first of what has turned out to be the 4th largest chain of pizza restaurants in the U.S., Godfather's Pizza. Theisen became a multi-millionaire long before he sold Godfather's to Pillsbury in the early 80's. He is famous for building a huge mansion in the Regency area of Omaha, complete with its own helicopter pad - a house that I've been in before, and one that is no longer there. Theisen sold it to Terry Watanabe, then the owner of Oriental Trading Company. Watanabe, in turn, had to sell the mansion to help pay off $127 million in gambling debts and it was subsequently torn down and three or four houses were built on the lot. But that's another story for another time.

Theisen has since dabbled in real estate, owned farms that raised English jumping horses and has invested in and helped develop restaurant chains such as Famous Dave's, Fuddrucker's and Green Burrito, which was subsequently sold to and absorbed by the Carl's Jr. chain about 10 years ago. Theisen, who is 65 years of age, never really slowed down and decided to re-invent the pizza business when he opened the upscale pizza restaurant - Pitch Coal-fire Pizza - in the Dundee-Happy Hollow neighborhood of Omaha back in November of 2009.

It was a cold, snowy night when I got into Omaha. I asked the girl at the front desk what would be open that late in the area. She suggested steak, and I had steak the night before. She mentioned Italian, but I wasn't in the mood for Italian. But I did mention pizza back to her and another desk clerk at the hotel said, "There's a great pizza place not too far from here called Pitch. It's relatively new and I think it's the best in Omaha." I took that recommendation, got directions and made my way to the corner of 51st and Underwood (see map).

The Dundee-Happy Hollow neighborhood in the central part of Omaha has gone through a big transformation since the days that my sister and brother-in-law lived just blocks north of the area back in the late 70's. I remember a lot of the shops were these little "mom-and-pop" establishments with a handful of blue-collar bars in the neighborhood. Today, the area has gone through a nice transformation and is home to hip little shops, restaurants and bars. But tradition still rules as the long-established Dundee Dell, a great bar/restaurant that has been in existence since 1934, still anchors the heart of the neighborhood. (I need to go get a meal at Dundee Dell. It was a fun place to go when I was a young guy in my early 20's during some of my visits to Omaha.)

Pitch is in a corner building on Underwood that was transformed into a restaurant that features a modern industrial look to the interior. It's a long, narrow restaurant with a number of booths and tables, many of the tables will sit up to a dozen people in a communal-style atmosphere. It reminded me a lot of The Publican in Chicago where total strangers are seated next to one another at a long table. I'm not big on that as I would rather focus on who I'm with and not trying to learn about people that may or may not be interesting to talk to. (Pictures above and to the right courtesy of Eat Chic Lifestyle.com)

The hostess at Pitch tried to get me to sit at one of those long tables and even though it was close to 9 p.m., there was a pretty good crowd in the place. She also offered to seat me at the bar and I took her up on that. Thankfully, there was one seat left at the bar - between a couple of 20-something girls who were waiting on a friend, and a couple in their late-50's/early 60's enjoying a pizza. Yeah, yeah - I know. I won't go sit at a communal table with a bunch of strangers, but I will go sit at a bar next to perfect strangers. I feel more comfortable at the bar as the person across from you is the bartender who is willing to bring me beer.

After getting a dinner menu from the hostess and sitting down, a bartender came up to me and wanted to know what I wanted to drink. In addition to the normal staples of American beer, Pitch also has a number of eclectic beers to choose from and a pretty extensive wine list, as well. I told the bartender that I was thirsty and I would just take a Bud Light for now as I figured out what I wanted to eat and what type of beer I wanted to step up to. He said, "We have Stella Artois on tap. $4.50 a pint."

I said, "Stella on tap? Well, sure!"

As I looked through the menu, I found that in addition to pizza, Pitch has a number of interesting appetizers including calamari, spicy rosemary chicken wings, Calabrese meatballs with a homemade tomato sauce and an olive bowl sampler with three different types of Spanish, French and Greek olives. They also featured three different types of pasta dishes including butternut squash ravioli in a sage butter sauce with candied walnuts; macaroni pasta with Comte cheese from France, served with pancetta, spinach and truffle oil; and a homemade version of their spaghetti and meatballs.

But pizza is what brings the people in to Pitch with their hot, coal fired ovens cooking up thin crust pizzas that can be topped with homemade fennel sausage, house-cured pancetta, white anchovies, roasted chicken and arugula. There's only one size to them - about 12" - so two people can enjoy one pizza.

They have a number of specialty pizzas on the menu including a margherita with fresh mozzarella and basil, the "Shrooms" pizza with fresh roasted mushrooms, thyme cream, truffle cheese and oven dried tomatoes, and something called the "Leonardo" - slow roasted pork loin joined with toppings such as sporessata salami, peporanata (roasted tomatoes, onions and peppers) and fontana cheese.

But the one that caught my eye was the "Mia", also known as "Willy's Favorite" - fennel sausage and pepperoni with fresh mozzarella cheese. Now, at that point, I had no idea who "Willy" was as I didn't know this was Willy Theisen's restaurant, but I had a good idea as that you mention the name Willy anywhere in Omaha, you're probably talking about Mr. Theisen. I asked the bartender if I could get the Mia and then also have some of the fresh roasted mushrooms tossed on with the other toppings. He said that would be no problem. By that time, I was ready for another Stella Artois.

As the bartender sat another Stella in front of me, the lady next to me who was finishing up a pizza with her husband leaned over and asked, "Is that good beer?"

I said, "Stella Artois? Yeah, it's a pretty good beer. I'm not big on Belgian beers, but this is more of a lager. It's similar to some German lagers I like, but it has more of a bite than most American lagers."

She said, "Oh, that's a Belgian beer? I always thought it was French! I may have to try it next time."

When my pizza was brought out about 10 minutes after I'd ordered it (the coal-fired ovens cook at about 800 degrees), the waiter placed it on an old coffee can that they use as a stand for their pizzas at Pitch. It was loaded with fresh toppings - big chunks of fennel sausage, large pepperoni slices and the biggest chunks of chopped fresh mushrooms I think I've ever had on a pizza. And from the first bite, I was hooked. It was an OUTSTANDING pizza. My only complaint is that the crust may have been a little too thin as it was pretty limp and the toppings and cheese would fall off the crust. But it was more of a fork-style pizza where you really needed a fork to eat the pieces.

Usually, thin crust pizzas don't fill me up that much. But with all the toppings - and it was LOADED with toppings and cheese - it was a very rich and filling pizza. I was able to eat three pieces and asked the bartender to box up the remaining pieces. I had an early morning meeting the next day, but I had a fridge in my room along with a microwave. I did my early morning meeting and after I was done at 10 a.m., I went back to the hotel and heated up the three pieces for a late morning breakfast. And it was pretty good reheated the next day.

The pizza at Pitch was exquisite. And it should have been. The price of the pizza alone was $19 bucks. With three Stellas and a nice tip for my bartender who told me that Willy Theisen was, indeed, the guy behind Pitch, my bill came to just under $40 bucks. It's not a cheap place, by any means, but it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had in my life.

I've had a few people tell me since I came out with my most recent "Best Burgers" list about four weeks ago that I needed to come up with a "Best Pizza" list. I would have to say that Pitch may not be the best I've ever had, but it would be worthy of a Top Five mention. Other than the crust being a little limp, it was still a top-notch pizza and I look forward to enjoying another one at Pitch on subsequent visits to Omaha.

Anthony's Steakhouse - Omaha

I had an early morning meeting with a potential new account in Omaha recently and I got into Omaha rather late the evening before.  I was hungry when I checked in and I asked the desk clerk if any place in the area would still be serving food.  She gave me a couple recommendations, but then she said, "There's Anthony's Steakhouse just down the street a bit.  Just past Interstate 80."  (see map)

Anthony's is one of those places where I've driven by on a number of occasions on my numerous trips to Omaha over the years, but never stopped in.  One couldn't miss the place on the west side of 72nd Street with the big steer over the entry way.  I decided to give it a try that evening.

Anthony's Steakhouse has been around for over 40 years serving some of the best steaks in Omaha.  Compared to other steakhouses in the city, it's sort of flown under the radar except for the locals who have kept coming back since Tony Fucinaro first opened the doors in October of 1967.  Less than two years later Anthony's suffered a devastating fire.  But business had been so good up to that point that when Tony rebuilt the place he added seating and a large lounge area to the building.  He also added a party/banquet room to the building. 

The decor of the restaurant also changed from a Western-themed restaurant to an elegant setting that would make Anthony's comparable to most high-end steakhouses across the nation.  Tony's son, Tony, Jr., now runs the day-to-day operations of the restaurant. 

Anthony's Steakhouse features the Ozone Lounge, one of central Omaha's premier night spots.  The lounge features live entertainment six days a week and its own menu that features bar favorites as well as some of Anthony's signature dishes.  I contemplated getting dinner in the Ozone Lounge when I walked into the place just after 9 p.m. that evening, but the music had just started and I wanted to have more of a quiet meal. 

I was met by an elderly hostess who seemed a little put out that I decided to show up so late.  I asked her if it was too late to get a meal and she said in sort of a dismissive voice, "No, we continue to serve up to 10 p.m. or when the last person leaves."  It would be a good bet that if no one else came in for dinner, I would be the last one to leave that evening. 

She took me to an upper tier of booths and tables overlooking the main dining area at Anthony's.  She sat me in a booth, gave me my menu and told me that a server would be with me shortly.  There was a couple in the booth next to me, and a couple guys at a table next to me.  I thought, "Why didn't she seat me in a booth away from people?"  I figured she was trying to help the waiter out by having all of his tables in one area. 

Now, sensing my surroundings when I'm dining alone has never been a high priority, but it was difficult to not hear the conversations going on at the other two tables.  The two businessmen were discussing high-end audio - my chosen path of work.  One guy was trying to give advice to the other guy on what to look for in buying an audio system.  But the one "expert" was woefully wrong with some of his information.  I try not to interject into other people's conversations, but I came oh so close to saying, "Excuse me, but I'm in the industry and what you're telling this poor guy is just dead wrong." 

But I decided to butt out and read my paper.  They left soon after. 

The couple in the booth facing me appeared to be on a date, quite possibly their first date.  A little more about these two in a bit.

My waiter came over and I ordered up a beer as I looked through the menu.  Actually, Anthony's Steakhouse is not unlike any other old time Omaha steakhouse that I've had over the years.  They have the usual cuts of meat from filets, rib eyes, t-bones and strip steaks.  They also feature pork chops, chicken entrees and seafood on the menu.  And since the Fucinaro family is Italian, they also feature a number of pasta items on the menu. 

But I was in the mood for steak that evening and I eventually ordered the New York strip, rare.  None of the sides they had were overly appealing to me, so I ended up getting the twice-baked potato.  A side of pasta - mostaccioli with a red sauce - also came with the meal.  I also got the wedge salad upgrade for $2.00 over the house salad that came with the meal.  

As I was waiting for my wedge salad, the guy in the booth on the date with the lady excused himself to go to the restroom.  He was still gone by the time I received - and finished - my wedge salad.  By the way, the wedge salad was excellent.  A fresh lettuce wedge with topped with slices of red onions, Anthony's homemade Italian dressing and tons of very good bleu cheese crumbles around the wedge.  It was actually one of the better wedge salads I'd had in quite some time. 

By the time the waiter had come back to take my salad plate, the young lady stopped him and asked him to check the restroom for her - her date hadn't come back to the table and he'd been gone for nearly 20 minutes.  By this time, my senses picked up that this may not be a happy ending.  Another waiter brought out my steak and it wasn't long after it was set in front of me, the original waiter came back and informed her that no one was in the restroom.  The lady burst into tears.  Her "date" had left her at the restaurant holding the bill and with no ride home.  I felt so bad for her that I almost paid for her dinner so she wouldn't have to.  A manager came over and told the woman that he'd take care of the bill and that he'd call her a cab.  

(I got to thinking as I was driving to Kansas City the next day - what a great way to scam a restaurant!  The guy skips out on picking up the tab for a good meal and leaves the woman there to pick up the pieces.  Although the way this woman reacted, I doubt these two were in cahoots.  Unless she was a great actress.)

 
After that drama ended I was able to enjoy my meal.  The New York strip was cooked a perfect rare for me, nice and juicy with a load of flavor.  And unlike many strip steaks that I got earlier this summer, this one was void of gristle throughout the steak.  It was a wonderful steak for my first visit to Anthony's. 

I tried a couple bites of the twice-baked potato which was also pretty good.  The mostaccioli with the homemade marinara sauce was rather pedestrian - nothing to write home about.  But that was OK.  I was concentrating on trying to finish my steak that appeared to be larger than the advertised 14 ounces.   

Anthony's Steakhouse had a very good steak - not the best I've had, but certainly not bad either.  It's tough to be a steakhouse in Omaha with all the stellar competition in town.  But you don't stay in business for 43 years without having good food and good service - anywhere you are.  It's a testament to Anthony's staying power with all the great choices of steak restaurants in Omaha that they are definitely one of the best local steakhouses.  While I may like Johnny's Cafe or The Drover a little better, I'd put Anthony's ahead of many of the other places in Omaha. 

Brewburgers - Omaha

A few months ago, I was told by a friend who worked at an audio store in Omaha that I had to try out a relatively new place called Brewburgers.  I happened to be out in Omaha recently and stayed at a hotel right next to Brewburgers.  It was an easy walk across the parking lot to the restaurant.  I even met up with an old friend who was working just down the road from the place and he joined me for a sandwich and a few beers. 

Brewburgers pretty much sums up what the restaurant is all about - burgers and brews.  They have a somewhat extensive beer list at the restaurant and feature over a dozen specialty burgers including a "build your own" burger where you can name your own toppings, cheese or sauces.  But their most famous sandwich is called the Old Fashioned - Montreal-style Jewish smoked beef brisket, thinly sliced and piled on Rye bread.  You can also get either Havarti or Swiss cheese on it if you like.  

Brewburgers is housed in what was the old Nebraska Beef steak house - a place that I ate in many times in the past, but hadn't been in there for quite a while.  The steak house closed in 2005 and the building sat idle for over two years.  Montreal native Yves Menard bought the building in 2007 and renovated the restaurant into somewhat of a sports bar/restaurant.  Menard is well-known in the Omaha area as he is the chef/owner of Charlie's on the Lake, a nice upscale restaurant that I've been to a couple times before, but, once again, have not been there for a number of years.  

Growing up in Montreal, Menard remembered the great smoked brisket sandwiches the Jewish deli's would make - places like Schwartz's Deli and the recently closed Ben's De Luxe Delicatessen.  He always wanted to bring that style of sandwich to Omaha.  Brewburgers opened in October of 2007 and the sandwiches were an immediate hit.  They cure the brisket for up to five days in a combination of water and spice brine.  They then smoke the brisket for an hour and a half every day in their smoker behind the building, then they put it in the oven at 250 degrees for three hours.  After that, they put it back in the refrigerator to cool overnight and then they serve it the next day.     

Brewburgers is very well lit, but other than a number of sports logos and a few televisions put on the walls, it didn't look much different from the old steak house.  The hostess seated me in a booth - a very uncomfortable booth that looked like it had been chewed up by a knife.  The bar area was close by and there was a local loud-mouthed idiot doing his very best "Larry the Cable Guy" impression.  Only, I don't think it was an impression as much as it was the guy just being an idiot.  I had a couple three Boulder Buffalo Gold beers while I was waiting for my buddy to show up as he got off work around 8:30.  My waitress asked me if I wanted to get any appetizers while I was waiting, but even though some of the things on the menu looked interesting, I was fine with the beer.

My buddy showed up and he said, "This is the first time I've been in here."  I told him that another guy I know had told me about this place and I had to try the Old Fashioned sandwich.  He looked at the menu for the description and he said, "Oh, that's sort of like a reuben.  I think I'm going to get a burger instead."  

He ordered the Maverick burger - they take chopped onions and mix it in with the beef patty - then they top it with jack cheese.  He got cole slaw as his side.  I got the Old Fashioned with swiss and got a side salad with peppercorn ranch.  

 It wasn't long before his burger and my sandwich came out.  Actually, there wasn't much to my sandwich.  It was a basic beef brisket sandwich with swiss cheese on rye.  But the taste was very good - I could taste that they cured the beef brisket in all-spice which gave it a sort of sweet taste, similar to a good corned beef.  The meat was very lean and juicy and it was very tender.  I made rather quick work of the sandwich as it wasn't all that big.  

My buddy said his burger was "good" and it looked interesting.  I decided that I needed to come back sometime to get a burger - something that I could make from the listing of toppings, cheeses and sauces they offer. 

 

 

 

I thought the Old Fashioned sandwich at Brewburgers was good, but a little expensive ($8.95) for what it was.  While doing some research for this entry, I found that Guy Fieri from The Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" visited the place and had a segment on Brewburgers Old Fashioned sandwich.  You can see it on You Tube by clicking here.  He was impressed with the sandwich, but I don't know if the one he had was as the same sized as what I had.  But overall, Brewburger's Old Fashioned sandwich was pretty good.  I will try the burger the next time I'm in.  If it's good, I'll be sure to let you know.

Stella's - Bellevue, NE

One place that I hadn't been to for quite sometime was Stella's in Bellevue, NE, a suburb of Omaha.  I first went to Stella's back in the 80's when one of my dealers told me about the place.  Since then I've been to Stella's a number of times, but I figured that I've not been back for about five years.  I remember trying to find it one time a couple three years ago, but didn't have the right address - or I didn't go to the right place.  I thought it may have gone out of business, but I found out that it was going strong during a recent trip to Omaha.

Stella's has a long and rich history.  In 1930, Estelle "Stella" Sullivan and her husband, Al, moved to Bellevue to open a gas station.  They lived in a small, three-room house not far from the station.  In 1936, Stella wanted to open Bellevue's first tavern.  It was basically one of their rooms in their home - a 12" X 15" foot room that was so small patrons often had to take their beers outside to drink.  She called her little tavern "Francois and Sullivan" (Francois was her maiden name).  But most of the locals referred to it as "Grandma's", as in "I'm going to Grandma's house tonight."

A couple years later, a second tavern opened up in Bellevue and the owners had a tough time making a go of it.  It closed down in 1939 and the owner of the land which the tavern was on persuaded Stella to move her operation to the building.  She changed the name of the place to simply "Stella's" and began to serve her famous cheeseburgers at that time.

Unfortunately, the same year Al Sullivan died and Stella was forced to run both the gas station and the tavern, all the while raising her four children by herself.  But she persevered and hung in there.  She eventually sold the gas station and with the money she got for the station she tried to buy the land on which the tavern set (she owned the building, but not the land).  The landlord would not sell the land, so Stella eventually found a plot of land that was part of an old dairy farm.  That plot of land is the site of Stella's today.  Back then, it was located next to a race track and a drive-in movie theater.  She had her building picked up and moved to the site and business began to boom.

Over the years, Stella remarried and she continued to run the business.  A stroke in the mid-70's made Stella cut back on her workload at the tavern and the day-to-day operations were taken over by her son, Al, and his wife, Mary.  Stella lived until 1985 and her son eventually retired in 2007.  Al and Mary sold the business to his cousin - Stephanie Francois - who was also Stella's great, great niece.

With Offutt Air Force Base in close proximity to Stella's, hundreds of thousands airmen have eaten Stella's great burgers over the years.  Stella's became famous around the world as airmen who transferred out of Offutt would rave to others at air bases in other countries about how great Stella's burgers were.  There were a number of Air Force personnel who would make Stella's their first stop when they were transferred to Offutt.

I knew a guy back in the 80's - a former Air Force man who ran a small stereo shop in Omaha - who was in the Air Force Reserve.  He used to fly as a passenger between Offutt and Nellis Air Force Base just north of Las Vegas from time to time.  He had buddies who were out at Nellis who would ask him to stop by Stella's to grab a dozen burgers, put them in a baggie and then into a cooler and bring them out to them.

Stella's is one of those places where an Air Force colonel could be seated next to a construction worker at the bar, who is seated next to a banker, who is seated next to a farmer, who is seated next to an itinerant sales guy.  I know that for a fact because I was the itinerant sales guy seated at the bar.  Stella's brings all types of people to the place for their great burgers.  It's one of those great places where all walks of life co-mingle over the common denominator of their burgers.

Stella's secret is in the juiciness of the burgers.  No, let me rephrase that - the greasiness of the burgers.  Stella's is not shy about calling their burgers greasy.  They serve them on napkins with the grease fat dripping off the patty when it comes to your table.  Stella's serves hundreds of burgers each day.

I got to Stella's off of Galvin Road (see map) around 1 p.m. one day when I was in Omaha recently.  I was able to find a booth in the corner in the nearly packed place.  Even though no one was seated at the bar, I wanted to sit in a booth so I could get a picture of the place.   A few things have changed since I was last in - a couple flat panel televisions have been placed behind the bar replacing a couple tube televisions.  It looks like the facade in front of the bar is different, and they've changed the lighting in the place.  Other than that, the grill is located right next to the bar so the great smell of a Stella burger was prevalent as I opened the door to the tavern.

Stella's is also famous for their hand-cut French fries, but I just wanted a Stella burger.  The waitress came over and I ordered a burger with pepper jack cheese, along with lettuce, tomato, onions and a raw onion slice.  Ketchup and mustard were on the table.  I also got a beer to go with my lunch.

It wasn't long before she brought over my burger, served, as always, on a napkin.  Just as I remember, the grease was oozing out of the burger onto the napkin.

Now, I've found over the years that there's a signature taste to burgers out of Omaha.  It has a very appealing ground pepper taste to the beef.  I first noticed it when I used to have King's Food Host burgers years and years ago.  I encountered it again when I first had a Runza burger back in the 80's.  And I found that taste in a Don and Millie's burger when I first went there in the 90's.  Stella's has that type of taste, as well.  However, I honestly cannot recall that taste on a Stella's burger.  But it definitely had that black pepper taste to the meat and I liked it.

However, the bun was rather dry and sort of detracted from the taste of the burger.  I should have probably smashed down the burger to make the bun a little more wet with the juice - excuse me - the GREASE from the burger.  The toppings were fresh, but the cheese was pretty weak where I couldn't really taste the pepper jack.  But that was OK as the overall taste of the burger was just about as good as I remember.

 I'm not certain that Stella's is as good today as it was when I first visited over 20 years ago.  But the burger is still good enough to warrant an honorable mention in my Best Burgers list that I'm going to re-release shortly.  Just the history alone of Stella's helps make the burgers taste good.  And I'm hoping Stephanie carries on the tradition of great burgers that Stella began over 70 years ago. 

 

Brother Sebastian's - Omaha

Omaha is a city with some great steak houses.  I've told you about Johnny's, Gorat's, and The Drover in earlier posts on Road Tips.  None of them are world class steak houses, but each are very, very good.  They are old style steak houses where I'd never be embarrassed to take someone to.  One venerable steak house in Omaha that I haven't been to in years is Brother Sebastian's.  During a recent trip to Omaha, I met a dealer there for a late evening dinner. 

I first ate at Brother Sebastian's back in the mid-90's after a colleague turned me on to the place.  But Brother Sebastian's had been in business for about 20 years prior.  Loren Koch had never operated a restaurant, but he envisioned a wonderful steak house that also showcased Koch's love for fine wine.  In April of 1977, he opened the doors to Brother Sebastian's.  It's decor inside and out had the feel of an old world mission.  There are cozy dining rooms throughout, the lights are old-world lantern styled, and there is a wonderful charm to the place.  There was a large room in the cellar that was fashioned after an old monastery wine cellar aging room.   

It wasn't long after my first meal at Brother Sebastian's that they suffered a horrendous fire that gutted the building.  Koch immediately announced that he would rebuild the original restaurant.  A year later, the restaurant reopened and has been going strong ever since.

It was after 8 p.m. when I made it into Omaha and pulled into the parking lot of Brother Sebastian's.  Brother Sebastian's is in a residential neighborhood off Pacific St. and just east of 120th St. in West Omaha (see map).  Well, the way Omaha has moved west over the past few years, Brother Sebastian's location could actually be called West Central Omaha.  I waited at the bar for my dealer to show up.  The bar is known as Brothers Lounge and features a nice bar, cozy booths and subdued lighting.  It wasn't long before my dealer showed up and we were taken to a small room with booths.  

Being that it was close to 8:30, there appeared to be a small crowd in the restaurant.  But because Brother Sebastian's have so many little dining areas throughout the building, it's really tough to know how many people actually are in the restaurant. 

Our waitress came out to greet us and to give us some time to look through the menu.  I took a look at Brother Sebastian's extensive wine list and picked out a bottle of Franciscan Cabernet that was reasonably priced at around $45 bucks.  We caught up on a few issues as we waited to order.  

Steak is the primary focus at Brother Sebastian's.  They're very well known for their tender and overly flavorful prime rib.  They also feature a number of chicken dishes, as well as a number of seafood entrees.  They also have a long list of "surf and turf" options on the menu.  One thing that jumped out at me was Brother Sebastian's New York Pepper Strip - a 12 oz. New York Strip that is lightly encrusted in cracked black peppercorns, then served with a spicy peppercorn sauce.  OK, that's all I had to see.  I was sold.  I ordered it rare-plus.  Along with the New York Pepper Strip, I got a side of rice and broccoli.  

My guest got the Rib eye and also got the rice and broccoli.  Along with the main entrees, you get a trip to Brother Sebastian's somewhat rather nice salad bar.  One thing that I had forgotten about was their great French dressing.  It's a homemade sweet and sour dressing that is killer.  I wish I could make a dressing like that.  

Our steaks came out not long after we finished our salads.  My steak had a generous serving of the spicy peppercorn sauce on the top of it.  But it was light where it didn't detract from the flavor of the meat.  The peppercorn crust wasn't heavy, as well.  Each bite was just below an orgasmic delight for me.  

My guest said his steak was very good and that the Franciscan Cabernet was a great pairing with the meat.  It's full bodied, but light to the taste.  Franciscan is one of my favorite wines to have with steak.  

Our waitress was wonderful.  She was attentive and kept checking on us to see if we had any needs.  We talked with her after the meal was over and she said she'd been there for a number of years.  "Just after the fire is when I started," she said.  "We use the fire as sort of a measuring stick around here.  The owner will make references to 'before the fire' or 'after the fire' when he talks about people who have worked for him.  I'm an 'after the fire' hire." 

It had been some time since I had last been to Brother Sebastian's, quite possibly close to 10 years.  But in a city that is known for some solid steak houses, Brother Sebastian's does quite well for themselves.  Plus they've had to weather the influx of national chains and contemporary steak houses into the Omaha area over the past few years.  On top of all that, they survived a disastrous fire and came back as strong as ever.  It's very easy to see why Brother Sebastian's has sustained for so long during a time when a number of restaurants are closing up.

The Drover - Omaha, NE

One of my first posts on Road Tips was on one of my all-time favorite steak houses in the world, The Drover in Omaha.  (You can read that post here.)  I hadn't been to The Drover for a long time and it happened that I set up a dinner meeting with one of my dealers in Omaha one evening a few weeks back.  I said, "You have any place in particular that you'd like to go to?"

He said, "Have you ever heard of The Drover?"

I said, "The Drover?  Good God, yes!  I love that place!"

He replied, "How does 7 p.m. at The Drover work for you?" 

I said, "I'm there!"

The Drover is one of the many old time steak houses in Omaha.  It dates back to the 70's when the old Ak-Sar-Ben race track was one of the premier horse tracks in the Midwest.  (Ak-Sar-Ben is Nebraska spelled backwards.)  The track was located just across 72nd street and you'd find a number of people who played the ponies earlier in the day congregate at The Drover.  

The name "Drover" is a term that is used by cattlemen for a cowboy who worked the cattle drives, moving large numbers of cattle over a long distance.  An average of 3000 head of cattle would be moved at any given time to outposts where they could be put on rail cars and sent to Kansas City, Omaha or Chicago for slaughter.  The "drovers" oversaw the movement of the cattle and would work for up to 24 hours a day at times.  The Drover in Omaha is named after these cowboys and the hard work they did to put good meat on the tables of America in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  

The Drover is sort of tucked back in between some office buildings and parking ramps and is sort of hard to find (see map).  I happened to get a great rate at the Doubletree Guest Suites just walking distance from The Drover, so I just walked over to meet my dealer around 7:00 p.m.  He wasn't there yet, so I ended up sitting in the dimly lit bar having a beer while I waited for him.  A man in his late 60's or early 70's came in and sat near me, and we struck up a small conversation.  He said he'd been coming to The Drover since he moved to Omaha in the 70's.  He said it was his late wife's favorite place to eat. 

While we were sitting there, a lady - probably in her mid-50's - came into the bar area and sat right down next to the man.  She started up a conversation with him that had all the elements of these two being a couple.  After about three minutes, the man said, "Now, who the hell are you?"

I thought he was kidding, but after a quick introduction by the lady, I figured out he had no idea who this floozy was.  But she was coming on strong to this guy, sort of like she was a hooker.  She said, "I just felt like coming out and partying tonight and I thought I'd sit next to the most handsome man at the bar."

The guy said, "OK, which one of my friends put you up to this?"

She said, "Why, I don't know what you're talking about.  I'm just here to have a good time!"  

She was rubbing his back and patting his arm.  The guy was clearly uncomfortable in this situation.  Now, she wasn't bad looking for her age, but she came on like she was a seventeen-year-old in heat.  It was actually kind of funny.

My dealer showed up about 20 minutes late and we took a table in the dining area.  I don't think the decor of the restaurant has been changed since I first went in there over 20 years ago.  We got a menu from the host and took a look to see what they had to offer.  Actually, The Drover is famous for their whiskey marinated steaks - they take straight Jack Daniel's and marinate the meat in it for about 15 to 20 minutes before cooking.  Marinating the meat in whiskey helps bring out more of the intense flavor in the meat when it's cooked.  

I took a look at the wine menu and while it wasn't all that extensive, the reserve list had some interesting bottles to choose from.  I initially ordered up a bottle of the Silver Oak Cabernet, but our waiter came back to say they were out of that bottle.  They had a bottle of Duckhorn Cabernet at the same price and I ordered that.  They did have a bottle of that.  

While we were perusing the menu, my dealer said, "Have you ever had the bacon-wrapped shrimp here?  Let's get one of those for an appetizer."  And so we did.  They were plump shrimp wrapped in bacon and grilled over The Drovers' open flame grill.  They were excellent. 

My dealer got the signature whiskey strip steak with a loaded baked potato.  One of the specials they were running that evening was a bone-in rib eye (not marinated).  I'm a sucker for good bone-in rib eyes so I ordered one of those, medium-rare.  I also threw caution at the wind and ordered a fully-loaded baked potato.   

One of the highlights of eating at The Drover is their salad bar.  While it's not all that big, they have some of the most fresh lettuce and toppings of any salad bar I've been to.  And they have a large bowl of cracked black pepper that you can spoon on top of any one of their homemade dressings.  I got the Western French dressing for the topping on my salad this one evening.  I could just graze at their salad bar.

We conducted some business before our steaks showed up, but once the meat came out all business conversation stopped.  My rib eye weighed 24 ounces with the bone in.   It was a perfect medium rare and very juicy and flavorful.  My guest's whiskey strip was also cooked to perfection and he just loved the taste of it.  He said, "There are so many great steak places in this town, but this is the best steak of them all." 

Even without marinating my steak in whiskey, I felt it was just as good of flavor as many of the whiskey marinated steaks I've had there in the past.  The rib eye did have a lot of marbling to it and it was just so damn tasty.  I ate so much of the steak that I hardly touched the baked potato. 

We ended up ending the meal with a couple of glasses of Scotch and hammering out a couple of more items in our meeting.  It was a productive meeting along with a great dinner - the kind of business meetings I love to have.

With tip, our bill came to just over $230 bucks.  The dealer offered to pay for half of it and I told him that if he promised to order more products from me, that would be well worth the price of the meal.  He laughed and said, "I'll see what I can do." 

Like I said earlier, there's a ton of great steak places to choose from in Omaha.  The Drover has consistently been one of the top steak houses in the area.  It's a little tough to find, but it's worth the effort once you get there.

Don and Millie's - Omaha

In Omaha recently, I stopped in to have a burger at Don and Millie's in Southwest Omaha (see map).  There are five Don and Millie's locations in Omaha, one in Lincoln and one in Fremont, Nebraska.  They're very similar to the old King's Food Host that used to be around the Midwest in the 60's and 70's. 

Before Don and Millie's there was King's Food Host, and then there was Grandmother's.  King's was started in 1955 in Lincoln by Jim King and Larry Price.  They were famous for this thing called the Cheese Frenchee - a grilled cheese sandwich dipped in eggs and covered with corn flakes.  I never cared for them growing up, but some people still crave those things.  I have the recipe for them here that was given to me by my buddy, Dave Haack, whose grandmother involved in a couple of King's Food Hosts.

I did like the burgers at King's, though.  They had kind of a peppery taste to them.  It was very unique to me considering most of the burgers I'd had in my life to that point were pretty bland. 

Another interesting touch at King's Food Host was that each table had a phone that you'd order from.  The wait staff would only bring out the food and drinks.  You had a menu on the wall above the phone and you called your orders into the switchboard back in the kitchen.  Now, that was really cool back in the mid-60's. 

In the 60's, Dean Rasmussen started Grandmother's in Omaha, which was sort of an upscale King's Food Host.  In 1973, along with his brother-in-law Bob Kerrey (yes, THAT Bob Kerrey), they opened their first Don and Millie's.  The menu was similar to King's with typical burgers and shakes. 

As King's began to fade on the landscape across the Midwest, Don and Millie's eventually added new restaurants in eastern Nebraska.  The last King's Food Host was on Cornhusker Highway in Lincoln.  I don't know if it's still there or not.  I'll have to check one of these days. 

Kerrey eventually left the day-to-day operation of Don and Millie's to run for governor of Nebraska.  He won and eventually became an influential senator from Nebraska for 12 years before retiring in 2001.  Kerrey is now the president of The New School, a long time progressive college in New York City.

I stopped in for a quick burger and a drink at Millie's before I was heading out of town to go to Lincoln.  It was about 1:30 in the afternoon and the lunch crowd was dwindling down.  I placed my order at the counter and waited for my burger to come up.  About five to seven minutes later, they call my number and I grabbed my order and grabbed a booth. 

It had been a while since I'd been in a Don and Millie's and I sort of wondered why with the first bite of the burger.  Oh, it was fresh, cooked perfectly, and had a great taste to it.  It reminded me of the old King's burgers with the peppery aftertaste to it.  (Runza burgers are very similar.)  It didn't take me long to devour the burger and head out the door to my next appointment. 

Don and Millie's are also famous for their tenderloins.  But I like the burgers more.  I don't get out to Omaha as much as I used to, but Don and Millie's was always a favorite stop to get a quick and good burger.  I still won't get a Cheese Frenchee, however.

Louie M's Burger Lust - Revisited - Omaha

The shortest entry on a restaurant or bar I may have on my blog is the one regarding Louie M's Burger Lust that I wrote over two years ago.  Granted, that was written when I first started my blog and I didn't know how I wanted my blog to be.  

I decided that I just couldn't sit and write about a place that I hadn't been into for a long time because I couldn't quite capture the spirit of the place just on memories.  So, I began to only write about places that I had been in recently.  And I'd been wanting to do a full entry on Louie M's for quite some time.  Well, coming back from Lincoln, NE recently, I stopped into Louie M's for a burger.

Louie M's is located along Vinton Street south of the Omaha downtown area (see map).  There are a number of restaurants and shops in the area, most of them kind of funky and hip in nature. 

Louie M's is named after the owner Lou Marcuzzo who has been running the place for over 25 years.  Lou started out as a caterer, but then opened up his burger place along Vinton St. a couple years later.  In my opinion, they are simply the best burgers in the Omaha area.  

Louie M's offers over 20 specialty burgers on their menu including what is called the "Trish Burger" - a burger named after Lou's wife with roasted peppers, grilled onions and topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  It's very similar to a burger I used to get at Bob Gibson's back in the 80's when it was open in Omaha.   

You can get the guacamole bacon burger topped with cheddar cheese.  Or the chili burger that is the messiest burger I've ever had.  And if you just want a plain ol' burger, they've got that, too.  But my favorite is Louie M's jalapeno cheddar burger - hot jalapeno slices on top of their half-pound burger covered with cheddar cheese.  But all of their burgers are the type where you need multiple napkins to help keep yourself clean - the sign of a great burger.  (Photo courtesy Urbanspoon)

Being that it was around the noon hour, I sat at the bar as all the booths and many of the smaller tables were taken.  Louie M's does a brisk take-out business, as well.  There were people coming and going with take-out orders the whole time I was in there.

I ordered up my favorite with fries.  And I got a beer to wash it all back.  I hadn't been into Louie M's for quite some time and I forgot at how funky the place really is - both in decor and the people who work there.  They have younger guys working the counter and older women working the tables and booths.  A couple people who worked there I recognized from my first visits to Louie M's a number of years ago. 

I got my jalapeno cheddar burger and took a bite into.  Now I know why they call the place "Burger Lust".  It was just as good as I remember it from before.  The cheddar wasn't overpowering as it can be with some cheddar cheese burgers.  The jalapenos were hot and flavorful.  God, I love jalapenos on a good burger. 

But the burger, itself, is the star.  I've always said that a good bun is the key to a good burger and Louie M's burger buns are excellent.  The meat was cooked perfectly and it was moist and juicy with each bite.  Man, my stomach is growling as I write about the burger at Louie M's. 

With a couple beers and a tip, my tab came to just around 16 bucks.  Not bad for a good burger, a basket of above average fries and a couple beers.  But just going in to see the hustle and bustle of the place and to observe the characters both working in Louie M's and coming into the place is worth it.

Breakfast at Louie M's is available from the time they open at 6 a.m. (7 a.m. on Sundays) until they close at 3 p.m.  (Photo courtesy of Omaha Driver.com)

I put Louie M's burger as Number 8 on my all-time favorite list of burgers a few months ago.  After this last visit, Louie M's Burger Lust may have risen into the top five.  If you ever have the chance to stop in when you're in Omaha, just do it.   

Bohemian Cafe - Revisited

It's interesting to go back to some of my earlier posts when I was just trying to find a direction and voice for my blog.  One of the first posts I had during the infancy period of Road Tips a couple years ago was on the Bohemian Cafe in Omaha.  Click here to see it.

This was really before I decided that I couldn't just go on the recollection of being at a specific place as much as I wanted to share the experience of going there and writing about it soon thereafter.  So when I was in Omaha recently, I stopped in for dinner at the Bohemian Cafe. 

The Bohemian Cafe has been around since 1924 when Louie Marcala began serving up Czech food to the citizens of Omaha.  Being that there was a large Czech population in Omaha, the restaurant was an immediate hit - not only with the native Czechoslovakians, but with non-Czechs, as well. 

Marcala ran the restaurant until 1947 when he sold it to Josef and Ann Libor (right).  Marcala stayed on as the head chef for a few years after.  Ann Libor was a member of the Kapoun family and her brothers, children and other relatives worked in the restaurant along with her.  Today, the third generation of Kapoun family, headed by Bob Kapoun, runs the Bohemian Cafe. 

It was a Wednesday evening when I got into the Bohemian Cafe.  I think I've been going there for nearly 20 years when one of my dealers - who just happens to be of Czech descent - turned me on to the place.  I was hooked from the first day I went there.

The large dining areas are pretty much about the same as it was when they moved to their present day location in 1959.  They also have a nice bar area that is non-smoking if you want to stop in for a beer. 

I was seated in a booth and got the menu from the waitress.  I ordered up a large mug of Pilsner Urquell and looked over the menu.  Each evening, the Bohemian Cafe has about four or five dinner specials they feature.  Each evening through the week they feature Boiled Beef with a Czech dill gravy.  Now, to me, boiled beef has lost a lot of flavor.  But with the Bohemian Cafe's boiled beef, they simmer it in a combination of spices that make it tender and delectable.  Since there wasn't really anything else that I wanted on the special menu that evening, I went with the boiled beef.

You also get your choice of sides, so I took the dumplings and sauerkraut.  And for openers, you get choice of salad or liver dumpling soup.  I always get the liver dumpling soup.  It's a light beef broth soup with a liver dumpling meat ball in the cup.  I'm not much on liver, but this is very good.

And with the soup, they bring out a basket of their homemade breads.  Oh, man!  The caraway rye bread is unbelievably great.  I used to pig out on the bread and by the time the main entree would show up I'd be so stuffed that I couldn't eat. 

It wasn't all that busy that evening (it was around 8 p.m.) and about 10 minutes after the waitress brought out the liver dumpling soup and the bread, she brought out my boiled beef.  It was just as good as ever.  The dill gravy is a light colored sauce and it goes tremendously well with the beef and dumplings.      

And, as always, the meal was a "spot hitter".  It was a little cool outside and it was perfect for a fall evening.  The beef was tender and flavorful, the dumplings and sauerkraut (which are homemade) were wonderful.  And the Pilsner Urquell beer was a nice complement to the meal.

With tip, the bill came to around $21 bucks.  It's well worth the trip to the Bohemian Cafe - something hundreds of thousands of people have been doing for over 80 years.  I've never had a bad meal in all my trips to the Bohemian Cafe.  If you're looking for great comfort "stick to your ribs" food in Omaha, the Bohemian Cafe is the one to go to. 

Gorat's - Omaha

Gorat's Steak House in Omaha is one of the venerable "old-guard" steakhouses that have been around the area for years.  Located on Center St. in Omaha (see map), Gorat's is one of the best steak houses in Omaha. 

Started in 1944 by Louis and Nettie Gorat (pronounced go-ROT), Gorat's is fashioned after the old New York City Italian steak houses.  It has a large dining area with two main rooms, plus a pretty large bar off to the side.  Louis' son, Louis, Jr. - or affectionately known as "Pal" - took over the family business in the 1970's and now "Pal's" son and daughter are running the restaurant. 

Not only is Gorat's famous for their steaks, but they're also famous as being the favorite steak house of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.  Buffett frequently lunches at Gorat's and has dinner there a couple times a week. 

I was in Omaha recently and I decided to run over to Gorat's and have a steak.  I hadn't been to Gorat's for quite some time - the last time was when I was traveling with a sales manager about five years ago and he wanted to have dinner at Gorat's and possibly have a chance sighting of Buffett.  Nope, no Buffett sightings that night. 

And there were none again the night I recently went.  I pulled into the parking lot and it was about half full of cars, none of which were Buffett's brown Lincoln Town Car with the vanity license plates that say "Thrifty".  The area around Gorat's has deteriorated over the years and they have a full time security guy watching the cars in the parking lot.  Nonetheless, it's still a good place to go day or night. 

I went into the nearly empty bar area and sat down at the bar and asked if it was OK to have dinner there.  The bartender, a matronly woman in her late 50's, said, "Yes, it's fine.  Actually, we just started to allow people to eat in the bar about two months ago."

She went on to tell me that Louis Gorat and "Pal" Gorat never allowed people to eat in the bar - not even appetizers.  She said, "I'm the night manager here and I made the decision to let people eat in the bar.  I don't think even Mr. Gorat ("Pal's" son) knows we do that and I don't know what he'd say." 

Gorat's menu is typical of most Midwestern steak houses.  It features steaks and chops, along with chicken dishes and Italian specialties.  Gorat's makes their Italian sauces from scratch and they aren't too bad. 

Gorat's is famous for their T-Bone steaks, a large and thick cut of steak.  However, that night I went with the filet with a side of mostaccioli with red sauce and hash browns with onions and cheese on top.  The bartender said, "Ooo, I just remembered why we didn't serve people in the bar.  You make the bartenders hungry when you order food.  That would be the exact thing I would order." 

After a salad that was nothing special, the waitress brought me my steak.  It was cooked a perfect medium rare and it was as tender as all get out.  The hash browns came with a slice of American cheese on top and not a lot of onions, so they were disappointing.  But in the scheme of things, the steak was the winner on the plate.  I ate more of the mostaccioli any way. 

The meal was just as wonderful as I remembered Gorat's from my previous visits.  Service continues to be outstanding and the experience continues to be just as outstanding. 

There may be better places to have a steak in Omaha, but for the money and the history it's tough to beat Gorat's.  I mean, come on, if one of the richest guys in the world likes to eat there on a regular basis, it can't be all that bad.

Jams - Omaha

Here's a good place to eat lunch - or dinner, for that matter - in Omaha.  Jams on West Dodge (see map) is fusion food at it's finest.  Chef Mark Hoch can't make up his mind if he wants to be a Pacific Rim/Pan Asian restaurant, or a trendy Southwestern restaurant.  The menu is very eclectic and would work well in much larger cities.

The great thing about it, whatever Hoch tries to do he does a great job of it. 

Jams' official title is "Jams - An American Grill".  It's located in a strip mall and from the outside you can think, "We're going to eat in here?"  But the decor is very trendy and somewhat upscale.  It's a little small in there, so you can expect a little bit of a wait during the noon hour and during early evenings.  The waiters and waitresses are all young and hip, very helpful and very friendly.

I used to come to Omaha quite a bit, up until I started my new job.  Jams was one of my favorite places to bring people for lunch or dinner.  I used to have a lot of regional and national sales managers that would come into Omaha and have meetings at Nebraska Furniture Mart.  I would take a lot of them to Jams for lunch.  All were blown away at how great the food was.

Jams does seafood very well - they do a citrus salmon that is one of my favorites.  But I'm partial to the beef chile enchiladas.  Steak strips with green chile and smoky chipotle sauce in a soft shell smothered with jack cheese.  It's a fabulous dish. 

In fact, that's what I had when I had lunch when I was in there recently during a trip to Omaha.  I had a lunch date with a former dealer who I'm trying to woo for business and we met at Jams for a bite to eat.  My guest had never eaten there, but had driven by the place a million times. 

Jams also has good sandwiches.  One of the better ones is their albacore tuna melt.  It's big and almost too much for lunch.  That's what my guest got on my recommendation.  He could hardly finish one half of the sandwich and had them box up the second half. 

Jams dinner specials change nightly.  The last time I had dinner there they had a wonderful beef tenderloin marinated in sake and garlic.  It was just killer. 

Jams has a full bar and an adequate wine list, although I feel that their prices are high.  Martini's are their specialty as the bar becomes kind of a younger middle-aged location later in the evening. 

The place can fill up quickly at lunch and it can be packed in the evening.  Be prepared to have a wait if you get there during the noon hour and between 7 and 8 p.m.  But if you have the time, the wait is worth it. 

Jams can be a little pricey so it's a good place to use the expense account when you're entertaining.  But I think it's one of the finest restaurants in Omaha.  It's definitely one of my favorites. 

Maria's Mexican Restaurant - Ralston, NE

One of the things that I love are the little out of the way places to eat.  And I was just at one recently called Maria's Mexican Restaurant in the Omaha suburb of Ralston (see map). 

I went out to eat with a buddy of mine one evening while I was in Omaha recently.  His wife actually suggested we go to Maria's.  Although I was in the mood for a good ol' Omaha Steak, he talked me into going to this little Mexican food place on the south side of Omaha. 

Maria's isn't much to look at from the outside.  It's a pretty non-descript building, but it has a lot of parking around the place.  And according to my buddy, the parking lot is pretty packed most of the time.

The main dining room is bright and loud.  There's a large mirror on one end of the room and a big screen television on the other end.  I thought the dining room was too bright and too loud for my tastes.  We asked if we could eat in the bar - much quieter and with a lot less light.  The hostess kind of looked at us funny and said, "Well, sure, if you want to!"

Amanda was our waitress and we immediately started out with a couple of gold margeritas.  They were OK - I've had a lot better margeritas. 

Maria's is famous for their deep fried flour tacos - soft flour tacos loaded with beef, then deep fried for about 30 seconds, pulled out and garnished with cheese and lettuce.  It's very similar to the old Raul's or Lil' Nips in Des Moines.  I just love that style of tacos. 

I ordered two beef flour tacos with an enchilada.  My buddy ordered up one of the dinner specials - a taco, enchilada and burrito.  Less than 10 minutes later and another margerita, we were eating. 

The tacos were good - I don't think they were as good as what I remember from Raul's or Lil' Nip's.  They were definitely much better than the enchilada.  The sauce they used was nothing special and it sort of detracted from the taste of the beef in the enchilada.

All in all, Maria's tacos were very good, but the enchilada was so-so.  The margeritas were average (and expensive - $9 bucks a shot).  If it weren't for the tacos, I probably wouldn't go back to Maria's.  But the tacos are worth a repeat visit.   

The Letter Club - Omaha

Thanx to Chuck Ellis who informed me the Letter Club has closed their doors. 

I wrote about the abundance of great sports bars in the Omaha/Lincoln area in a post over a year ago.  I don't know if I've been to an area that has such a large selection of very good sports bars.  The Letter Club in Omaha (see map) may have set the bar a little higher for the other sports bars in the area. 

The majority owners of The Letter Club are former Nebraska Football players Aaron Taylor and Scott Frost, and former Nebraska Baseball player Aaron Bilyeu.  Actually, the official name of the place is The Scarlet and Cream Letter Club - after the colors of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

I met up with my buddy, Chuck Ellis, at The Letter Club one evening during a recent trip to Omaha.  Actually, The Letter Club is located within the new Village Point shopping center and is within sight of the new Hilton Garden Inn on the far west side of Omaha, the hotel that I stayed at during my visit. 

The main room of the bar/restaurant looks a little industrial, but it has two 25 foot diagonal projection screens on either end of the main room.  And there are another 40 televisions of all sizes located throughout the place, including 13" televisions at each booth. 

And all through the place was Nebraska Football memorabilia.  We had to take a quick look at some of the stuff before we sat down.  And we had to look at more of it before we left. 

Chuck and I sat at the bar and had a few beers.  Since he had already eaten that evening, I grabbed a menu from our bartender, Amanda.  The menu consisted of normal sports bar food with appetizers, burgers and sandwiches along with some main entrees consisting of steaks, seafood, pasta and chicken.

It wasn't busy at the bar, so Amanda clued me in as to what the best sandwiches were from the grill.  She convinced me to try the Oskie Chicken Sandwich - a grilled spicy chicken breast topped with a slice of corned beef and a generous slathering of chipotle mayo sauce.  It came with seasoned fries, but for a buck more you could substitute onion rings.  I went in that direction.

I wish I'd gotten the seasoned fries (even though I might not have eaten the seasoned fries, either).  The onion rings absolutely sucked.  They were inedible.  Chuck, who heads the meat department at an Omaha area Hy-Vee, said that it looked like they were the pre-made frozen variety.  Whatever they were, they were horrible.

But as bad as the onion rings were, the Oskie Chicken sandwich was outstanding.  Amanda certainly didn't steer me wrong on the chicken.  It had a great taste sensation to it.  I don't eat enough chicken sandwiches on the road, but I will come back to The Letter Club and get that sandwich again.  It was very good. 

The Nebraska football program has a storied past and a lot of great memorabilia is on display at The Letter Club.  Along with the abundance of televisions throughout the place, and the good food (though don't go for the onion rings), and a nice selection of beers, The Letter Club is a great addition to the already large number of very good sports bars in the Omaha/Lincoln area.    

Brewskys - Omaha/Lincoln, NE

Brewsky's is a small chain of pretty nice sports bars in Lincoln, NE.  I happened to meet a buddy at the Omaha location (of which I didn't know existed) for a few beers and some appetizers one evening. 

Brewsky's started in 1990 in Lincoln when two brothers, Jim and Jon Mumgaard, and a buddy, Brian Kitten, opened the first location in the downtown area near the University of Nebraska campus.  The concept of Brewsky's as a sports bar with good food caught on right away. 

In 1992, the owners hired a chef, Ed Janousek, to upgrade their already good food offerings.  Janousek, who was named a Nationally Certified Executive chef in 1997, oversees a wide and varied menu that includes both standard sports bar food as well as aged steaks, pork chops, gourment burgers and my favorite, an albacore tuna salad sandwich with melted cheese. 

In 1994, Brewsky's opened a second location on the north side of Lincoln.  They expanded to SE Lincoln in 1999, Omaha in 2001, and opened a fifth location in the Haymarket Square area of Lincoln in 2005.   

I've now been to three of the Brewsky's locations and each offer pretty much the same thing - a lot of televisions, good food, a great selection of beers and a very nice selection of single malt Scotch whisky.  Each Brewsky's has advanced satellite packages and offer nearly every sports channel available.  I understand the Brewsky's locations are packed for NFL games on Sunday. 

On a recent visit to the Brewsky's in Southeast Lincoln (see map), I had lunch there.  I didn't really know what I wanted that particular day.  I was sort of burned out on burgers, a reuben didn't sound all that good to me.  I was having a lot of problems trying to figure out what to have when the waitress came over and asked me if I was ready to order.  I sort of hemmed and hawed for a moment and I finally asked her, "What do you like?"

She said, "You like tuna?"  I said I did.  "Our tuna melt is pretty tough to beat."  I ordered the tuna melt with fries.

And she wasn't kidding.  The tuna melt was full of very good tuna salad.  It had an ample amount of American cheese melted on top.  And the slices of the whole wheat bread were thick and had a nice grilled taste.  It was simply one of the better tuna melts I've ever had.  And it's usually tough to find an outstanding tuna melt sandwich anywhere.

There's something about the sports bars in Omaha and Lincoln - they're all very good.  There's a lot of competition in the market and they all have to keep up with one another.  I think the food at Brewsky's is probably the best compared to the other sports bars in the area.  If you're a sports junkie and need some good food to go along with your sports, Brewsky's is the place. 

Bob Gibson's - Omaha

Former major league baseball player and Hall of Famer, Bob Gibson, grew up in Omaha.  After he retired, he settled back in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue doing a number of things.  But one of the investments that he had was his restaurant, Bob Gibson's.

Bob Gibson's was located just west of the downtown Omaha area off of Interstate 480 and right near Creighton University.  It had a big window on the east side that showed the Omaha skyline.  It was adorned in dark wood paneling throughout - it almost looked like it was old barn wood paneling. 

Bob Gibson's was more of a sports bar/sandwich place, not a fine dining eatery by any stretch of the imagination.  It featured good burgers, good sandwiches, soups and salads.  And cold beer and baseball on TV in the summertime. 

I remember one of the signature burgers that Bob Gibson's had was a pepper burger that featured pepper jack cheese over a 1/3 lb. burger topped with a roasted sweet red pepper.  I forget what they called it, but it was damn good. 

I do remember they also had a great tuna melt, too.  It had a spicy bent to it and it was always good.

For a baseball nut like me, Bob Gibson's was like heaven.  He had a number of his awards on display including a Cy Young Award, and numerous Rawlings Gold Glove awards.  There were pictures and other memorabilia on the walls, behind the bar, a few autographed balls.  It was pretty neat.

One day, I went to Bob Gibson's to have lunch and it was shut up.  No sign on the door, nothing.  Out of business.

A year or so later, I actually met Bob Gibson at his home.  (Look for that story in an upcoming "Brushes with Greatness" post.)  He lamented that he missed the restaurant and alluded to the fact that he may have been getting ripped off by the guy who managed it for him and that's why it had to close down.

It's a pity because it was a neat place with good food.  And a lot of neat baseball memorabilia from one of the all-time greatest pitchers in major league history.

Strategic Air and Space Museum - Ashland, NE

I like to go to Omaha on days when the sky is clear and the air is crisp.  Mainly because I like to see the various military planes that populate the sky. That's because just south of Omaha is Offutt Air Force base, which was the home of the Strategic Air Command when it was in existence.

Halfway between Omaha and Lincoln just off of Interstate 80 at the Ashland/South Bend exit (Exit 426, Nebraska State Highway 66 - see map) is the Strategic Air and Space Museum, a wonderful place to visit if you're in to planes, aerospace and military history.  I've been to the place about 7 or 8 times. 

As you pull up to this enormous facility, you'll see an Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile rocket out front, along with a Blue Scout rocket NASA uses for small payloads, and a Jupiter rocket, similar to the one used to send Explorer 1 into space to help discover the Van Allen Radiation belts. 

As you walk in the door, in the main lobby atrium they have an SR-71 Blackbird, a high-speed, high altitude surveillance plane used by the U.S. in the Cold War, suspended from the ceiling.  It's quite a stunning visual as you first come in.

There are three main areas of the museum.  On the main level, you can look into the Dunham Restoration hanger.  They happened to be working on a Boeing B-29 "Superfortress" when I was in there last.  It was pretty amazing to see.

Go down the escalators and hang a left at the bottom and you go into a huge hanger where you could easily have a football field inside.   This houses a number of planes including the largest military bomber ever made, the B-36.  It literally dwarfs the B-52 that sits next to it. 

That's right - the B-36 and the B-52 are sitting side by side.  That's how big this place is. 

The Boeing B-52.  These are big suckers.  But actually, when you get up close to them, they're not as big as you think.

There's also a B-47, the predecessor to the B-52; and a Convair/General Dynamics B-58 bomber in there, as well (shown above).  That's a pretty funky looking airplane.  It was the first supersonic bomber to be built in the U.S.

One of the more cool things in this hanger is a Russian MIG-21 from the North Vietnamese Air Force that was flown to the south by a pilot who wanted to defect.  It still has the North Vietnam star on the side of the plane.

There's also a B-25, an F-111, and an F-101 in the hanger along with many other planes.  That's right.  All in one hanger.  I'm tellin' ya - it's a big joint!

There's a center area under the main lobby between the two main hangers that has changing exhibits.  What they had in there for my last visit was "The Lost Spacecraft" - an exhibit and showing of Liberty Bell 7, the Mercury program space capsule that was lost in the Atlantic on July 21, 1961 after Virgil (Gus) Grissom's 15 minute flight sub-orbital flight, and was raised 38 years later by a team of salvage workers funded and backed by the Discovery Channel. 

Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom

Being somewhat of a "space geek" growing up, I really wanted to see this exhibit.  To get to the capsule I had to go down and through a series of displays.  There was a lot of memorabilia throughout the entrance area leading up to the Liberty Bell 7 display.

Finally, the entrance opened up into a room that showed the space capsule (which was restored as best as it could be by a team of historians and engineers at the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS).  There were a number of items salvaged from the capsule including survival gear, knick-knacks and mementos Grissom took on the flight; and, surprisingly, hypodermic needles for medical injections in case something went wrong during the flight.  I've seen smaller injectors for putting marinade into beef or pork.

I lingered a little longer and looked around the capsule a couple times.  Wow.  Considering how small the capsule was, it's amazing to think how a man could fit inside that thing.   

Past the Freedom 7 exhibit and into the second large hanger (although smaller than the first one), they have a B-1A bomber on display - only one of 4 that were produced before they went with the B-1B bomber. 

Around the B1-A bomber was a display called "Power by Design", which displayed a number of sports cars to show the correlation of power and speed in design.  I'm guessing the sports cars belonged to Chip Davis, the creative force behind Mannheim Steamroller.  Davis has lent some of his sports cars to the museum in the past, and the 15 or so cars on display were similar to the ones that I'd seen in there in the past.  Since the display started at the end of October and would go through to the end of March, I figured that Davis probably found some place to garage his cars for the winter. 

There's also a British Hawker Vulcan on display in this room, as well as a C-119 "Flying Boxcar".  There's also a couple of transports helicopters suspended from the ceiling.  Plus they had replicas of a couple of the Apollo command modules on display.   

Some days there are former pilots from Offutt Air Force Base at the museum who will answer questions about various planes and procedures.  I talked to a guy one time about three years ago who used to be a pilot for the "Looking Glass" aircraft - a Boeing C-135 that was used as the flying command post for communications and forward control in the case of a nuclear attack. 

I remember seeing a C-135 with only an American flag on its tail doing a "touch and go" at the Des Moines airport a number of years ago.  I had always wondered if that was the "Looking Glass" and I asked him if it were possible that I did see one do a touch and go.

He told me, "Yeah, we used to do 'touch and go's' all the time to break up the boredom."  He said there were 3 "Looking Glass" planes and when one would finish an 8 hour shift, before it would land another "Looking Glass" plane would be taking off to take its place in the sky.  The missions ended in 1990. 

At the museum, there's also a gift shop that's kind of cool, a snack bar and some other periodic displays on hand.  I hardly ever get out of there in less than 90 minutes, and like I say, I've been there 7 or 8 times.  It never bores me. 

Even if you're not into planes, the Strategic Air and Space Museum is quite a place to visit.  The size of the place, alone, is worth the price of admission ($7.00).  But the historical value of the place is priceless.  It's definitely worth the visit.

The Drover - Omaha

There are a lot of very good to great steak houses in Omaha.  One of the best kept secrets in town is The Drover.

Located just west of 72nd street near the old Ak-Sar-Benrace track, (see map), The Drover is an old guard steak house that serves excellent steaks in a rustic, yet, homey atmosphere.

I first found out about The Drover from the owner of Custom Electronicsin Omaha, Larry Covalciuc, back in the mid-80's.  Larry also turned me on to the legendary Omaha steak house, Johnny's Cafe, so I figured that The Drover must be pretty good. 

The Drover's decor is decidely 70's-ish, lots of dark wood paneling throughout the restaurant.  There's a bar area that seats about 25 people when you walk in to the right.  They'll allow you to eat at the bar, and that's what I normally do when I'm there. 

First off, you'll have to go through the salad bar.  The main feature is ice cold Iceberg lettuce with a series of homemade dressings.  They have homemade croutons and cracked black pepper you can put on with spoon. 

The signature steak at The Drover is their Whiskey Steak.  It's primarily a rib-eye that is marinated in Jack Daniels whiskey before it's cooked.  The Drover will also marinate filets, strips and t-bones in whiskey if asked in advance, but the rib-eyes are the main feature there.

Get yourself a big baked-potato with all the fixins' and you're set. 

The Drover used to be THE restaurant for gamblers and horsemen who hung at the old Ak-Sar-Ben track until the track's closure in 1995.  The big winners would always head to The Drover to celebrate their good fortune for the day. 

It's not quite the same today with more of a local crowd coming into The Drover.  The Drover's decor is a little tired compared to its hey-day.  But the old guard - and I suppose I'm included in that group - still regard it as a stellar place to get a great steak.  It's easily one of the top three steak houses in Omaha.

The Dubliner Pub - Omaha

Here's a fun place to grab a cold beer - The Dubliner Pub in downtown Omaha's Old Market area.  Just as the name suggests, The Dubliner is a classic Irish-American bar in the basement of a building that was built in the 1890's (see map).  The basement was the coal storage area for the businesses upstairs. 

The Dubliner opened in 1980 and was initially known as Horbach's.  The name was changed in the mid-80's to The Dubliner and it became somewhat famous back in the "old country" as a home away from home for Irish ex-pats and people of Irish ancestry.   

The Dubliner Pub is not too big, but it's not too small where you feel cramped.  They have bands and musicians in the back of the place from time to time, so it can't be too small. 

The Dubliner has over 100 different beers from all over the world to choose from.  There are around 20 different beers on tap.  But I'm kind of disappointed there isn't the kind of eclectic beers either on tap or available in bottles that I've seen in similar beer bars elsewhere.

The Dubliner has two clubs that you can join - both involve drinking the beer.  "The World Mug Club" is where you gain your own drinking mug that is hung in the bar with your name on it if you drink every beer from around the world. (Not in one sitting, of course.)  They give you a little score card and they check off each beer you drink on your visits.  They've been doing this for years and I have a sneaking suspicion that Old Chicago and other bars ripped off this idea for their world beer tour promotions. 

Or, if you would like to garner one of their shirts like the one above and to the right, you can take their "Fear No Beer Tour".  By drinking each of the 20 tap beers in the place (once again, not in one sitting), you get yourself the neat Dubliner Pub long sleeve t-shirt.

The Dubliner has basic pub fare - wings, nachos, burgers, chicken sandwiches, brought down by the people at The Brass Grille upstairs.  They even offer The Brass Grille's oysters on the half shell, but I thought they were too small and marginal, at best, the last time I had 'em.

I like The Dubliner - the staff is friendly, the place has a good feel to it, and the beer tastes great after a hard day.  When you go to the Old Market, you have to stop in for at least one at The Dubliner. 

Johnny's Cafe - Omaha

Omaha is known for having some of the best steak houses in America.  And I have to say that my favorite of all the ones that are out there is Johnny's Cafe on the south side of Omaha.

Johnny's was a little saloon bought by Frank Kawa in the early 1920's.  It is still in their original location right next to the old Union Stockyards (at one time, the largest stockyards in the United States) just south of downtown Omaha.  They've added on over the years, but the basic building is still there.  And the Kawa family is still in charge of the place.

Union Stockyards, circa 1914.

When you first walk into Johnny's, you go into a big circular lobby that has a little bit of the history of the restaurant on their walls.  Included are menus from the 20's through the 50's (Prime Rib and baked potato in the 20's - 80 cents), pictures, reviews, commendations and there's a huge picture of Jack Nicholson standing with the present day Kawa family in the lobby of Johnny's.  Nicholson's picture, About Schmidt, was filmed in Omaha and the retirement party scene at the start of the movie was filmed in Johnny's banquet room. 

First of all, I have to say in all the years I've eaten at Johnny's, I've never had a bad meal there.  Ever.  Their prime rib is some of the best I've ever had.  Their steaks are cooked perfectly and have great flavor.  They also have some of the best au gratin potatoes I've ever tasted.  The food there is absolutely world class. 

I've always like going to Omaha, but it's certainly a treat when I eat at Johnny's.  It's a must if you ever travel to Omaha.

Bohemian Cafe - Omaha

One of my favorite places to go when I'm out in Omaha for a few days is an old local favorite called the Bohemian Cafe.  Located just to the south of the downtown area of Omaha on the far east side, the Bohemian Cafe has been making great Czech food since the early 1920's.

My brother-in-law, Vic Geiger, used to drive with his parents about 30 miles into the Bohemian Cafe for Sunday lunch all the time when he was growing up.  I can't remember if he was the first one to tell me about the place, or if one of my old dealers out in Omaha turned me on to it in the 80's.  But I've been going there for years.

The seating area is pretty good sized with two big dining areas, a banquet/party area and a bar.  The building used to be a bank and a grocery store before they moved into the present location back in the late 50's. 

Actually, I couldn't make up my mind if the Bohemian Cafe would be classified as "Comfort Food" or under the "Restaurant" category.  I would probably have to call their food the ultimate in comfort food. 

I'm not big on liver, but they have a liver dumpling soup they serve as an appetizer that is just great.  It's a big ball of ground liver served in a chicken broth.  It's just outstanding.  Their rye breads are fresh and tasty, and I can't go without a Pilsner Urquell beer in a big stein when I'm there. 

They do a different dinner special every night of the week.  I love their Svickova, which is a type of sauer braten.  I get that with a side of sauerkraut and their Czech dumplings.  Absolutely great.  They also have a Jaeger Schnitzel that is outstanding as well.  I like their boiled beef with the creamy dill gravy over the top.  And I believe it was Tuesday nights when they would have their Burgundy Beef - tender slices of roast beef topped with a gravy made with Burgundy wine.  Ow!!!

Oh man!  I'm getting hunger pangs just thinking about the Bohemain Cafe. 

They also have a little Bohemian Cafe song that I've linked to that you can enjoy. 

I took Cindy there one night when we were in Omaha and she thought it was "OK".  My sister, Nan, who is married to Vic, thought it was "OK" when he took her there a few years ago.  Those women just don't know what good food really is.

They don't know what's good - and the Bohemian Cafe is good!

Runza

One of the biggest guilty pleasures I have is when I go to Nebraska. I have to stop and get a burger from Runza.

Actually, Runza is named after an old German recipe for a psuedo sandwich that is stuffed with beef and cabbage, and is then baked with the shell around it. The picture makes it look much better than it really is. It's not a pleasing taste to me, but with over 60 restaurants - primarily in Nebraska, but there are some in Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas and Colorado - more than a few people must like 'em.

But the best thing about Runza are their burgers. Big, thick and juicy, Runza burgers are about as close to the old King's Food Host burgers that used to be around the Midwest in the 60's thru 80's. There's kind of a black pepper taste to 'em and they taste great for a fast food burger. In fact, the picture at the left is a good representation of how their burgers look when they take them off the grill, unlike many other fast food places whose hamburgers come no where close in real life as to how they look in their ads.

Probably one of the reasons Runza and King's burgers taste so much alike is that both started in Lincoln, NE. Runza started in the late 40's as a little stand in SE Lincoln. As they grew, they branched out all over Nebraska, which has a large German heritage population. When I first moved to the Quad Cities in 1991, they had a Runza in Southpark Mall in Moline. But it didn't last long - I'm sure not a lot of people around here were brought up on the old German recipes and didn't like the Runza. But their burgers were sure good, but they couldn't survive on the burgers alone.

The Runza burger is one of the best fast food burgers out there, hands down. I don't get to Omaha as much as I used to, but it always means one stop at Runza when I'm there. I'm sorry, I'm guilty, but it's damn well worth it.

Omaha Sports Bars

I first walked into a place in Omaha called "The Scorecard" in 1987.  I was out there for business and I was staying at a hotel just down the street.  I thought I'd go in for burger and a couple beers, but I soon found out that it was more than than a burger bar.

Behind the bar were two televisions showing two separate major league baseball games.  Above the bar were two more television showing TWO OTHER baseball games.  I sat down at a little table and I looked over to my left and on the wall was another television showing ANOTHER baseball game.  I was in heaven!

I'd been to Griff's in Houston a couple times before, but that place - at that time - was no where near the television and sports haven The Scorecard was.  It was more of an Irish bar that just happened to have some TV's hanging around the place.

As time went on, The Scorecard quickly became my home away from home.  I got to know a lot of the regulars in there, one of the bar managers, Randy, became a good friend.   Beer prices were higher than most other places (a whopping $1.75 a bottle back then!), but as Randy told me one time as he swept his hand around the bar, "Where else can you go and get all this?"

When the 1988 and 1989 NCAA basketball tournaments were played, I made sure I was in Omaha and planted at one of the choice seats at The Scorecard to be able to catch all the first and second round games.  Like I say, I was in heaven. 

As time went on and I quit traveling to Omaha, I longed for a place like The Scorecard in Davenport.  Halftime Sports Bar came about the closest, but they closed down a few years ago.  When I started to travel to Omaha again in 1999, one of my first stops was to The Scorecard.  Only it wasn't The Scorecard any longer.  It was now D.J.'s Dugout.  It looked the same, a little more tired, but it was about the same as it was before.  Food was still the same sports bar fare, and they had the same set up for televisions.  Compared to places I'd been in from the time I first walked into The Scorecard and when I went back in when it was D.J.'s Dugout, there were many others that had passed them by.

One of those places was not far from D.J.'s - The Ice House in NW Omaha is a larger place with more TV's - including individual 13" monitors in the booths on the east side of the restaurant.  If you want to watch what you want to watch, you can sit in one of the booths. 

The food at The Ice House is similar to D.J.'s Dugout, but The Ice House has pretty good calzones and pizza.  Not great pizza, but edible. 

The Ice House had two locations in Omaha when I first started going there, but they closed up their Ralston location on the far south side of Omaha a few years ago.  These days, The Ice House also has live entertainment some nights in the form of bands or comedians.  They also have a great Tuesday night celebration where it's a $5.00 cover charge and $1.00 beers and call drinks.  That REALLY brings the girls out.

Another place that is good to watch not only the sports, but watch the girls, as well, is The Arena on N. 90th in north Omaha.  The waitresses are all "Hooters" type girls who wear tight short t-shirts and shorts or tight pants.  The food at The Arena is standard bar food, but I do like their hot beef sandwich there, as well as a sandwich called the Nebraska Club - corned beef and roast beef piled high.   

One of the other places I like going in Omaha is Pauli's on Leavenworth just east of 42nd St. (see map).  Pauli's bills itself as the home bar for the College World Series held each June in Omaha.  It's a much smaller place than D.J.'s Dugout and The Ice House, but it seems to be more friendly and more intimate.  Pauli's definitely does not have the amount of televisions the other two places have, the food is regular bar food, burgers are good, not great. 

I understand there's a Pauli's now out at Eppley Airfield.  That would be a great place to hang while waiting for a plane in Omaha.

I'll never forget the feeling I first got walking into The Scorecard and looking at all the baseball games on TV at one time.  Since then, I've found some much better sports bars, but I'll never forget The Scorecard.