Road Tips

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.    

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. 

There's also a B-47, the predecessor to the B-52; and a Convair/General Dynamics B-58 bomber in there, as well.  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 "Looking Glass" planes at three separate air bases - including Offutt AFB - 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 ($12.00 for adults).  But the historical value of the place is priceless.  It's definitely worth the visit.

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.

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 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!

(Update - The Bohemian Cafe closed for good on September 24, 2016.  Click here for the Road Tips' entry on my last visit there before they closed for 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.