When I was in Omaha over a year ago, I was talking with a friend of mine and his wife about reuben sandwiches as I had had one earlier in the day at lunch with a dealer of mine. I thought it was pretty good and my friend's wife said, "Oh, I think the best reubens are at the Crescent Moon. And they've got a great beer selection, too." Well, the Crescent Moon immediately went on my "restaurants to try" list and on a warm spring evening on a recent trip to Omaha I had a chance to go there.
Bill Baburek grew up on the south side of Omaha. A precocious kid, he collected lots of things - stamps, coins, Matchbox cars, golf balls that he picked up that were lost by golfers at a nearby golf course. He started to collect beer cans, primarily cans that came from the old Omaha breweries like Falstaff and Storz.
He soon found out that finding cans from Omaha breweries were tough to come by, so he dove into the history of Omaha breweries that were in full production before Prohibition such as Krug and Metz. Baburek went to libraries to peruse old newspaper clippings and other articles about the old breweries that eventually went out of business as they couldn't keep up with the advertising and marketing clout of bigger breweries in Milwaukee and St. Louis. Not only was Baburek a collector of vintage beer cans, he was also collecting historical information on the breweries who put beer in the cans.
By the early 80's, Baburek had a collection of over 2000 Falstaff cans and was president of the local chapter of the Beer Can Collectors of America, now known as the Brewery Collectibles Club of America. The Storz brewery had closed up and all that was left was the Falstaff Brewery on the city's near north side. On the south side of the city was the Falstaff Inn, a corporate-owned bar and hospitality room. Baburek and others donated their vintage Falstaff cans to put on display at the Falstaff. When Falstaff closed their operations in Omaha in 1987, there were no more large brewers in the Omaha area. The Falstaff Inn also closed and it was soon torn down to make way for a new police precinct on the south side of Omaha.
Baburek went into the corporate world working as a trainer for First Data traveling the United States. During his downtime at night, he would explore the city he was staying in to seek out the growing culture of craft breweries and bars that sold craft brews. After 12 years of travel, he decided to go back to Omaha and buy a bar.
He found an old tavern that was for sale at the corner of 36th and Farnum just west of the downtown area. (see map) In 1996, he opened the Crescent Moon Alehouse, a place that he made the first place in Omaha to serve craft brews that were available in Nebraska. There was a large party room in the downstairs area of the Crescent Moon and in 2005 Baburek turned that into Huber-Haus, a Bavarian-style tap room with over a dozen German beers on tap.
A little over a year later, Baburek transformed a space next to the Crescent Moon in to Max & Joe's, a Belgian beer haven which also sold top-shelf liquor. He named the place after his late parents Maxine and Joe Baburek who fostered his involvement in collecting beers cans as a youth by building shelves for his collection in their basement. Max & Joe's features over a dozen Belgian beers on tap and over three dozen available in bottles.
Knowing that people sometimes like to experience fine beer at home, Baburek opened Beertopia, called the ultimate beer store in Omaha. The place features over 650 different beers in nearly two dozen styles. With Beertopia as part of the other Baburek businesses at the corner of 36th and Farnum in Omaha, the corner is known to the locals as Beer Corner USA.
In 2012, Baburek opened a microbrewery - Infusion Brewing Co. - along Maple Ave. in the Benson area of Omaha. Housed in a nearly century old building that was once a meat market, Baburek realized his dream of brewing his own beers and distributing them to restaurants around the Omaha and Lincoln areas. Last year, he was able to lease a larger building on Omaha's southwest side to increase production of his beers. Infusion Brewing Company maintains a small brewing facility along with the original taproom in Benson, and they have a taproom with brewery tours at the southwest Omaha facility.
I was able to find a parking space in the lot behind the building that houses Beer Corner USA just north of 36th and Farnum. I went into Crescent Moon Ale house and waited to be seated. The place was busy, colorful, loud, and vibrant. The entrance to Max & Joe's was upfront toward the bar as you come into the Crescent Moon, and the entrance to the stairs that take you down to Huber-Haus is toward the back of the place. Vintage beer signs from old Omaha breweries were on display around the place.
I was seated at a small table along the wall and given a food menu. Not long after I was seated, my server for the evening - Beth - came over to greet me. She was a very pleasant young lady with a great smile. She told me that it was Empyrean pint night at the Crescent Ale - Empyrean Brewing Co. out of Lincoln was there with a tap takeover event. Empyrean came from the first brewpub in Nebraska - Lazlo's Brewing and Grill - one of my favorite places to go to when I'm in Lincoln. (Click here to see my entry on Lazlo's Brewery.) But I opted for an Odell Brewing IPA out of Colorado from Crescent Moon's extensive beer list that evening. (The beer list for both tap and bottled beers changes regularly at Crescent Moon.)
The food menu at Crescent Moon is you basic pub fare - appetizers, soups and salads, burgers, a number of chicken sandwiches, melted sandwiches, and, of course, their famous reuben sandwich which was named by the Omaha World-Herald as the best reuben in Omaha. I had to order one of those from Beth when she came back to take my food order.
Now, many people who live in Omaha believe the reuben sandwich was invented in Omaha at The Blackstone Hotel, which was once located just across the street from Crescent Moon. (The Kiewit Corporation - one of the largest construction companies in the world - is now housed in the renovated former Blackstone Hotel. Billionaire Warren Buffett's company - Berkshire Hathaway - also has its head corporate office in the former Blackstone Hotel building.) During a poker night between friends in the Fern Room at the old hotel, a guy by the name of Reuben Kulakofsky slapped together a sandwich consisting of corned beef, sauerkraut mixed with Thousand Island dressing, Swiss cheese, and put it on dark rye bread. Kulakofsky was a poker buddy of Blackstone Hotel owner Charles Schimmel who liked the sandwich concoction so much he named it the Reuben sandwich and put it on the hotel's menu. (Many in New York City, however, believe the sandwich originated from Reuben's Deli over 100 years ago.) There are dozens of restaurants in Omaha who serve a variation of the original Blackstone Reuben sandwich.
And Crescent Moon is one of them. In fact, they claim the recipe for their reuben sandwich is the exact same thing as the original one served at the Blackstone Hotel. And it was somewhat different from the ones I've had in the past. It was a little spicy and I could taste fennel seasoning in it - part of the secret ingredients Crescent Moon uses in the sandwich, no doubt. There was a lot of the Thousand Island dressing with the sauerkraut on the sandwich. The corned beef was lean and tender, but the dressing really masked the taste of the meat. The dark rye bread was tasted lightly on the outside and the Swiss cheese was melting along the sides. Even though it was different, I liked it - I liked it a lot. About the only thing that I had a quibble with was the slathered Thousand Island dressing. They could have backed off on the sauce somewhat and it would still be a fine sandwich.
Crescent Moon Ale House - vibrant place, great beer selection, exemplary service with a great smile, and - named by many - as having the best reuben in town. It was an interesting sandwich, maybe too much Thousand Island dressing on it, but it had a unique taste - one that I liked. Crescent Moon is the kind of places that I like to find on the road. It's not too fancy, it's far from a dump, and the atmosphere is energetic without getting out of hand.
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