Out in Omaha earlier this year, I decided to find a brewpub for dinner. I wanted to try something other than ones I'd been to such as the Benson Brewery (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Benson Brewery), or the Upstream Brewing Company (click here to see the entry on Upstream). I had read about the Nebraska Brewing Company on a handful of occasions and I decided to head over there to find out about the place.
Paul Kavulak liked good beer and in the early 1990's he decided to try his hand at home brewing. Brewing beer at home went from a weekend hobby to a deep passion for Kavulak, helped along with encouragement from his wife, Kim. After over a decade of brewing beers at home, Kavulak was getting good at the subtle variations in his concoctions. Still, he wasn't where he wanted to be in terms of what he thought was a "good beer". Trying to come up with a home brew that was similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Kavulak was having trouble finding the right blend of ingredients for his beer. Coming home from work one day, he checked the smell of his beer in the fermenter. Disgusted with the results, he contemplated pouring out the beer, but at the last moment he threw a one pound bag of Cascade hops into the fermenter and shut the lid.
Two weeks later, Kavulak went back to check on the beer that he had almost thrown out. Resigned to the notion that this batch would not be good, his plan was to pour out the beer and clean the fermenting tank. However, when he took the lid off, Kavulak discovered an aroma that he had been searching for in his pale ale beer. He decided to finish off the batch and carbonate it. When the moment came to test his beer, he found that it was very good, as in, "I think people would buy this beer."
Pictured right - Paul Kavulak
The only problem was that in his fit of anger of adding more hops into the beer during the fermenting process, he didn't have the correct measurements written down. But going back to measurements of previous batches that he had brewed - but wasn't fully happy with - coupled with some quick experimentation along the way, he was able to recreate the pale ale that he eventually named Cardinal Pale Ale. He named the beer after the Cardinal Bar, a South Omaha bar that he grandparents ran in the early 1950's.
Now armed with a beer that he felt would be accepted by beer connoisseurs, Kavulak started his plan to open a brew pub to showcase the Cardinal Pale Ale and other beers that he had come up with. However, his demanding day job was taking up much of his time and he wasn't able to fully concentrate on the planning process for the brew pub. Over lunch one day with his wife, Kavulak expressed his frustration with how slow his plan was coming together. Surprisingly, Kim Kavulak agreed that he needed to focus his efforts on the brewpub. Paul Kavulak picked up his cellphone, called his boss and resigned on the spot.
Suddenly, the Kavulak's realized that Paul had quit his job, he had no business plan, no bank funding and no location for his brew pub. But he knew that panic was sometimes a good thing during the years he was brewing beers at home. Fully focused on getting his brew pub up and going, he formulated a business plan, procured funding, and found a spot in a new shopping center in Papillion on the far south side of the Omaha metro area. They found a used brewing system from a brewery in Japan, and with everything in place the Kavulak's opened the door to the Nebraska Brewing Company in November of 2007.
Their initial employees included some of Kim's family, but they also found a young guy by the name of Tyson Arp to help out in the brewery. Arp was also a home brewing hobbyist who had a knack for solving problems quickly. Enthusiastic in his work, Arp soon became Kavulak's right hand man and continues with Nebraska Brewing Company to this day.
The first year in business for Nebraska Brewing Company, the U.S. was going through a debilitating recession that forced many new and established restaurants out of business. The Kavulak's were resilient and focused on selling their beers outside of the brewpub. Paul Kavulak turned the brewing process over to Tyson Arp while he worked on plans to distribute his beers through retail and restaurant channels. While Kavulak began to network with beer distributors, Arp worked on tweaking the beers that he brewed. The result was a demand for N.B.C.'s beers that culminated in an off-site brewing facility in nearby La Vista. The brewery opened in 2014 and a tap room at the brewery opened about a half year later. Today, you can find Nebraska Brewing Company beers in nearly 30 states and in foreign countries such as Germany, Japan and Denmark.
The Nebraska Brewing Company is located in the Shadow Lake Towne Center in Papillion. (see map) It was around 7:30 p.m. when I got there. I parked across the street from the brewpub, a comer building with a brick facade and a small tower above the place. Inside, I found an open floor plan with a small upstairs dining space. There was sort of a contemporary industrial look to the place with Edison lights hanging from the exposed truss ceiling.
It was Trivia Night at Nebraska Brewing Company. The restaurant was nearly full with patrons, many of whom were playing trivia that night. Between the Trivia M.C. talking on the P.A. and the back and forth banter at the tables it was loud in there.
I took a seat at a high-top table near the bar. The bar was full when I got in there and there were basketball games on the flat panel televisions hung high above the bar area. I was given a menu and my server for the evening, a friendly young man by the name of Angus, came over to greet me. I ordered up a Cardinal Pale Ale. "Great choice," Angus assured me. "It's my favorite."
And the pale ale was very good. It had a good hoppy taste, but it wasn't overly forward in its taste. It had a smooth finish and was very enjoyable.
The menu at Nebraska Brewing Company is the typical pub fare - sandwiches, salads, burgers and flatbreads. They did have entrees such as Cajun chicken pasta, a ribeye or tenderloin filet, and a sweet chili and Sriracha mac & cheese. Appetizers included fried pickles, smokey beer marinated wings, mesquite-seasoned onion rings and seared ahi tuna sliders.
I wasn't exactly certain what I wanted for dinner that evening. I'd had a burger earlier in the day so that option was out. Their Cuban sandwich was highlighted on the menu, but I haven't had a good Cuban sandwich in the Midwest - ever. At least, not as good as the ones I've had in Miami years ago. It was down to the Insane BLT - "insane" amounts of bacon with lettuce and tomato slices with mayo with an optional fried egg on a jalapeño Texas toast; and the reuben sandwich.
I ended up going with the reuben - mainly because Omaha may be the reuben capital of the Midwest, if not the nation. There are a number of great reubens that are found around the city and I figured that if Nebraska Brewing Company had a reuben on their menu, well, it had better be good.
And I thought it was very good. It featured thick slices of corned beef with melted Swiss cheese, a bed of sauerkraut and an ample amount of Thousand Island dressing on light rye bread. The sandwich was lightly grilled and came with a side of fries that I weren't too interested in. The blended flavors on the sandwich were delicious with each bite. It was a reuben that could easily hold its own against some of the more established reuben sandwiches that are found around the Omaha area.
By the time I finished my sandwich, trivia was over and the place had pretty much cleared out. The noise level in the place was much lower and more tolerable. I don't know if it's a function of eating alone or getting older - probably both - but I'm getting to the point that I don't care much for loud places when I'm eating on the road.
I have nothing but good things to say about my experience at Nebraska Brewing Company. Well, maybe the place was a little loud, but you almost have to expect that from a full restaurant these days. The reuben sandwich that I had was one of the better ones you'll find in a city that has world class reubens. Their signature Cardinal Pale Ale was very tasty, as well. And I can't quibble with the service I received from Angus that evening. He was fun, yet prompt and professional. Nebraska Brewing Company is one of the better brewpubs I've encountered during my travels.
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