Thanks to Brian F. who e-mailed me earlier this year to tell me about a place in Omaha that he thought had a very good burger - Smitty's Garage. I was in Omaha earlier this summer and had some time to get lunch, so I sought out Smitty's Garage to see how good the burger really was.
First of all, I didn't realize that Smitty's Garage was a chain. The birth of Smitty's Garage started in Norman, OK about five years ago when Hal Smith was brainstorming with a couple friends about a concept restaurant that featured great burgers with a great craft beer list in a laid-back, but interesting setting. It wasn't Smith's first rodeo in the restaurant business. In fact, you could possibly call Smith a "serial restaurateur".
While going to school at the University of Oklahoma as a pre-law major, Hal Smith found work at a restaurant called Across the Street. It was similar to the old King's Food Host restaurants where patrons called in their orders via phone. When the restaurant was sold in the late 60's, the new owner of Across the Street was in the final stages of opening a steakhouse on the outskirts of Norman called Crosstimbers. Impressed with his work ethic, the new owner tapped the young Smith to open and manage the new steakhouse. Hal Smith suddenly found himself in the restaurant industry instead of studying law.
However, it was one evening in 1970 not long after the new restaurant opened when Smith's life changed again. A gentleman - who had just enjoyed one of the marinated steaks Crosstimbers was becoming famous for - handed Smith his card. This gentleman was Norman Brinker, the founder and owner of the Steak and Ale. Brinker told the young Smith that if he was ever looking to do something different to look him up.
Pictured right - Hal Smith. Photo courtesy Mark Hancock/405 Magazine
After five years at Crosstimbers, Smith decided that he wanted to do something else with his life. He had stayed in touch with Brinker over the years and contacted him to say that it was time for them to talk. Since he was in the process of selling Steak and Ale to the Pillsbury corporation, Brinker didn't promise Smith anything. However, Smith said that he and his family would go anywhere that Steak & Ale wanted to send him. Brinker hired Smith and his first stop with his new company was in Columbus, OH as a management trainee.
Smith worked hard in his first couple of years at Steak and Ale and his hard work and dedication didn't go unnoticed by Brinker who was still the president of the chain of restaurants. Smith's skills at starting and running restaurants took him and his family to 8 cities in 4 states during the first four years of his time with Steak and Ale. By 1979, Hal Smith was in the Washington D.C. area overseeing 50 Steak and Ale locations as a regional manager.
One of the other restaurants under the Pillsbury umbrella at the time - Bennigan's - was just starting out. When Brinker was told he would be moved over to run Bennigan's, he called Smith in to see who should replace him as president of Steak and Ale. Brinker named six or seven colleagues who he thought should be worthy candidates of taking over for Brinker. But Brinker had his mind made up already - he put Hal Smith into his vacated chair as the head of Steak and Ale. The restaurant chain was doing about $400 million in annual sales when Smith took over at the age of 33. With an aggressive business plan and expansion, annual sales at Steak and Ale rose to around $700 million within the first three years Smith was in charge.
In 1983, Pillsbury was looking at the possibility of buying a small chain of restaurants based out of Texas. When they passed on buying the restaurants, Norman Brinker immediately resigned from his position with Bennigan's and bought the chain - Chili's. The first thing he did was recruit Hal Smith from Steak and Ale and made Smith the president of Chili's. Under Smith's leadership, Chili's became one of the more popular casual restaurants in the nation. But in 1986, a restaurant chain that was bloated with bureaucracy and poor management came calling for Smith's help. After just two years with Chili's, Hal Smith became the president and CEO of Chi Chi's.
With a complete corporate restructuring and a new marketing campaign, Smith was able to double Chi Chi's profits within the first two years of him at the helm. When Jack in the Box bought Chi Chi's in 1992, Hal Smith made a small fortune on the sale of his company stock. He was independently wealthy and for the first time he had the means of doing something else with his life.
Smith moved back to Norman in 1992 and started a company called Hal Smith Restaurant Group. An old friend from his days at Steak and Ale - Chris Sullivan - was starting up a steakhouse with an Australian theme in the Tampa Bay area and wanted Smith to invest $250,000 into the business. Smith passed on investing with the company - Outback Steakhouse - but soon became a franchisee for the 19 locations in Midwest. Had Smith invested in Outback Steakhouse in its infancy, his investment would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars when the company was sold in 2012.
Smith went on to become the exclusive Krispy Kreme franchisee in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He invested in, franchised, or started a number of restaurants around the state of Oklahoma and the Midwest including Charleston's, Mahogany Prime Steakhouse, Pub W, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill, and Hefner Grill. When a bar went out of business in Norman about four years ago, Hal Smith took it over for his newest concept which, at first, was simply known as The Garage. There are now 17 Smitty's Garage locations in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Nebraska with a new location getting ready to open in Kansas City at any time.
There are two Smitty's Garage locations in Omaha. The first Smitty's Garage in Omaha opened near Oak View Mall on Omaha's southwest side in September of last year. The second location along Dodge Street opened in March of this year. That was the one that I went to, located at the end of a strip mall on the north side of Dodge Street at N. 76th Street. (see map) It's set back a bit from Dodge and I didn't see it when I first went by. I did see a small sign that said "Burgers and Beers" on a marquee in front of the strip mall along Dodge, but didn't see the Smitty's Garage logo with it. I finally turned on 76th Street and just before the intersection with Cass Ave., I saw Smitty's Garage on my left.
Entering the restaurant, there's a front counter with a menu on the wall behind it. The menu was all on flat-screen monitors and even though I saw a bar in the back of the restaurant, there wasn't any place to order beer up front. One of the ladies who took my burger order told me that I could order beer back at the bar. License plates were affixed to the front of the counter, and various signs were hung on the wall around the front counter.
The dining room was spacious and open - sort of like a garage. It was sort of a contemporary industrial decor with exposed duct work, walls adorned with flat-screen television and signs, and a concrete floor. The place was about a quarter full when I got in there around 1:30 and I could only imagine that it would be pretty damn loud in that place if it filled up.
I sat at the bar and set down my little number sign that they gave me at the front counter so they could get my burger to me. The bartender came up to me and said, "Oh, honey. Did you already order your food? You know you can just order from me back here at the bar in the future." I thought that was sort of confusing that you had to order your food from up front and go back and get the beer separately. I'm glad she told me because I didn't know the drill.
The bar was a three-sided high-top with metal chairs around it. Larger flat-screen televisions were on the wall behind the bar and they had a very good selection of craft beers to choose from. I ended up ordering a Ballast Point Sculpin IPA. "Good choice," she said as she took my order. "I love that beer." It turned out that she knew her beers very well. We spent a good portion of time talking about various beers that we both liked and disliked.
Now, it turned out that they had more on the menu than just burgers at Smitty's Garage. They also had tacos, as well as sandwiches, and foot-long hot dogs that were smothered in either chili and cheese, or in a Mexican salsa/cheese combination. But, of course, I got the mushroom/bacon/Swiss cheese burger with a side of fries. I don't know why I got the fries - I usually don't eat them or if I do it's only a handful that I will eat. But these fries were surprisingly very good. I had more than a handful of the fries on this visit.
The burger was flat-grilled and came with a fresh tomato slice and fresh lettuce greens. From the first bite, I knew this was a good burger. It was sort of charred on the outside, but juicy inside. The bun was light and held together very well with the juiciness of the burger. The Swiss cheese was melting over the top of the burger patty, and the mushrooms and bacon gave the overall taste of the burger an exquisite flavor. For as juicy as the burger was, and as much Swiss cheese that was on it, it was definitely a multi-napkin burger.
One again, my thanks to Brian F. who turned me on to Smitty Garage. The drill of ordering food was a little confusing to me - if you don't want beer or an alcoholic drink, you can order from the front counter. But you can go back to the bar and order your food and drinks from the bartender if you like. I'll have to say the burger was exceptional at Smitty's Garage, as was their list of craft beers they had available. And I even liked the fries at Smitty's Garage, too. My server/bartender was pleasant and helpful giving me the lay of the land on how to order at Smitty's Garage. And she also knew her craft beers very well. There's a lot of good places to get a burger in Omaha and Smitty's Garage has jumped into my top five places to go for a burger when I'm in the city.
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