The Durham Museum
801 S 10th Street
Omaha, NE 68108
(402) 444-5071
Omaha Veterans Day Events, 11 November
Memorial Park
11:00 AM
Memorial Park
6005 Underwood Ave
Omaha, NE 68132
Omaha Veterans Day Discounts and Freebies for Veterans and Active-Duty, 11 November
Hy-Vee Free Breakfast for Veterans and Active-Duty Military
6:00 AM to 10:00 AM
Great Clips
Free haircut or a card for future free haircut for veterans and active duty
Starbucks
Free 12-ounce brewed coffee (hot or iced) to veterans, military service members, spouses and military spouses
Applebee’s
Free lunch or dinner for veterans and active duty
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium Veteran’s Recognition Day
Free admission to all active and retired military members, veterans, and their immediate families
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
3701 S 10th St, Omaha, NE 68107
402.733.8401
Buffalo Wild Wings- Participating restaurants
Free order of 10 boneless wings and fries forveterans and active duty
Denny’s
5:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Free Original Grand Slam breakfast to veterans and active duty
Golden Corral Military Appreciation Night
5:00 PM to close
Free meal to veterans and active duty
Texas Roadhouse-Participating locations
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Meal vouchers to veterans and active duty for a future free meal
Red Robin-Participating Restaurants
Free Red’s Big Tavern Burger and Bottomless Steak Fries for dine in for veterans and active duty
Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers
Meal card valid for a free combo meal for veterans and active duty
Cards expire 31 December 2024
Dunkin’-Participating Restaurants
Free donut for veterans and active duty
IHOP-Participating locations
Free Red, White, and Blueberry pancakes for veterans and active duty
Little Caesars
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
Free Lunch Combo (four slices of Detroit-style deep-dish pizza and a 20-ounce Pepsi product) or veterans and active duty
Outback Steakhouse Free Bloomin’ Onion and Coca-Cola product for veterans and active duty
Cracker Barrel
Free slice of Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake for veterans and active duty
Olive Garden
Free entrée from a special menu for veterans and active duty
Bonefish Grill
Free Bang Bang Shrimp with a soft drink/pop
OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Samuel Voss, General Manager of Mouth of the South Restaurant in West Omaha
Tell me a little bit about Ryan Ernst coming here, because both of you weren’t born here.
No, Ryan had family here as well, so he was raised kind of all over. But he had family here and came up. He kind of migrated north, and he just got into the food scene, and ever since then it just is the thing that drives him. And so that’s how he got here. But I was already a Midwest person. Didn’t really travel much until later on.
I’ve been around now.
Probably six months ago I was in New Orleans for about a week. And I was actually disappointed. You see all these cool pictures and Mardi Gras happening, Bourbon Street, all these things sound amazing. But I got down there, and it smells. Like, this city stinks. It’s cool to look at, but the smell and the heat and all that stuff. I didn’t find anything good to eat until the third night when we went to Drago’s and we got their char-grilled oysters. Amazing. Like, we should have gone here the first night. The second night, I’d take a Big Mac at that point. I was so disappointed because we serve better food here than you can get there. Ours has better flavor. Ours has better presentation. The rice isn’t cooked to death. Sometimes when you heat a sauce that has a has a roux in it or it’s thickened, sometimes if you get it too hot, it breaks. And so sometimes there’s oil pooling on the top, and that’s kind of what it was and just really disappointing. So I was, like, man, there’s gotta be somewhere where I’m gonna hit a home run. That third night we went to Drago’s, and I was like, this is probably the best I’ve ever had.
But for me, New Orleans was kind of one of those things where it’s like I’ve been there, and I’m good now. I know what we do, and I know what they do…
You have an amazing culinary background, you’re in a good place, and you went to New Orleans and just…
I wasn’t I wasn’t over thrilled.
This makes a really great testimony. You work here, and it’s really great.
I think the greatest thing that came for me out of New Orleans was I did a couple of tours like city tours, and their history is amazing…and the history of music, because I’m a music guy. And so you didn’t know a lot of these artists came out of New Orleans. You’re like, I didn’t know Harry Connick Junior was the one that helped build this music center where these kids that have no future can go in and learn how to play instruments and learn how to play music. I had no idea of any of that. And even touring the above-ground cemeteries, that was super interesting. So the history of the place was just amazing. And then it was at that point when everything clicked. Then it’s like, boom, the story comes from…you know, people in New Orleans eat red beans and rice on Monday. And you’re like, well, why do they do that? I could eat it Tuesday or I could eat it Friday or Sunday. Well, they do it on Monday because it’s an entrée that you can start on the stove and you don’t need to watch it. And Monday was laundry day, so back in the old days, these ladies are just with their washboards, their pot of red beans are just boiling away, simmering on the stove while they’re just grinding, washing laundry. And you’re, like, that’s what they ate on Mondays, because that was laundry day. Who knows that? Who, walking in Omaha, Nebraska, knows that? So some of those little nuances to the stories made perfect sense. But the history and the tourism and the architecture were probably the highlights of that trip for me.
You said he had family here…when did he get the idea for a restaurant and then starting out in Florence? I’m just curious.
Oh, boy. I would say… I’m not sure, exactly, of the dates. It was something that he wanted to do. Obviously, trying to get into this business is really difficult, and it’s very costly. We have some pretty unrealistic restrictions. too, in the city with build outs and trying to go through plumbing boards and getting inspections done is kind of challenging, so I’m sure he had some obstacles there, but it’s always been something he wanted to do. It was always in his heart, just waiting for him.
It was the right opportunity when the location came up down on 30th and Florence. Even to this day, I wear this jacket or the shirt. I’m always in something that says Mouth of the South. And when I’m at the store, I’m stopped, like, “Oh, my God, you work at Mouth of the South.” I’m, like, “Yeah.” “I just love that place. When are you coming back to Florence?” And it’s like, “Well, there’s not really a location in Florence right now, but we do have the Lakeside location of 168th and Center, and visit us out there.” A lot of the same menu items from day one. A little bit of menu evolution that went on there, a little bit, but probably 60 to 80% of the menu is still the original from day one.
It must be hard figuring out what to keep and what to change. As you said, people’s tastes are evolving or can be influenced by different trends.
Yeah. Sure. Sure it is, and literally this business is all about trial and error. There’s not any equation like a perfect equation where you could get online and compute “I want my restaurant to be very successful.” There’s a lot of components that go into this business. This is probably next to the medical industry, and I always joke… because my good friend is a nurse and so we always chat. It’s like you have so many working pieces in your industry with medicine, so I can equate all the different medications to ingredients. If you make a wrong move to a patient and they’re harmed or whatever, I could do that too, if I don’t abide by guidelines for temperature and time. So, just like Chi Chi’s, the chain that closed years and years ago, they found a foodborne illness in green onions that tanked their corporation, something as simple as that, and it got back to somebody didn’t wash their hands. There’s so many working pieces. Like, from the vendors, you need to make sure that you’re getting reputable suppliers with products to make sure that you don’t have anything coming in that’s contaminated. And then it’s how do you train and teach your staff to handle things properly and cool them correctly and follow things correctly and reheat correctly and hold it correctly. There’s just a lot, and so this business is really, really complex. That’s the thing. Sometimes when you get on Food Network and you see these competitions, it’s all about the glitz and glam. And I just sit there and I chuckle, and… like, there is so much more to it than “Oh my gosh. you burn a salmon and the whole night just went to heck.” There’s so much more behind that.
Not just fast, fancy chopping for 25 seconds…
Right.
It’s hard work.
Right. If I could take 14 minutes to put a garnish on an entree, I certainly would do that, but it’s not… When you’re in the… and you got tickets to move, and you’ve got people to serve…because in my history, what I have realized in this business is people coming in, they get hangry. They want to eat right now. They don’t want to wait. And I don’t blame them cause I’m the same way. When I go somewhere, I’m like, “I am starving, and I want to eat.” I don’t want to wait 45 minutes for something to come out, or 30 minutes. I want something quick.
But it’s also amazing to say I’m where you are.
Right. And so that’s where you the balance comes in, to teach your staff on how to do that and how to execute that the right way. Don’t cut corners. You don’t get anywhere in this business by cutting corners. Just don’t. And that’s what I teach, too. You can’t rush something. We don’t microwave anything, so don’t even think about it.
So nothing is microwaved.
Yeah. We don’t use a microwave at all. And even our freezer space is super, super small. We don’t have a lot of things that come in frozen, either, so it’s fresh. And like I said, we process, we make, and we sell. We do it in small batches. So it’s the freshest that we can get.
Mouth of the South’s Shrimp and Grits, artfully placed in a bowl on wooden table by window with sun streaming in to the restaurant
I enjoyed the meal that I had here. The shrimp was very fresh. It didn’t seem like it was sitting in a freezer forever.
Right.
And then the peppers were really good. What kind of peppers were those?
Those are poblanos, and we get those fresh. And again, like, when I say literally we do everything, we’ve got a team back there that roasted peppers. And then they wrap them and then they’ll stand… and I’m like, holy cow, there’s got to be a simpler process for this. But there really isn’t. And they love it. Like the Hispanic crowd that we have back there—amazing workforce for us. Love them. They’re just literally like a family. They’ll stand back there for hours just peeling the burnt pieces off of these roasted peppers. And that’s what we put in things, so it’s…
There was a little surprise with the shrimp in there, and it was just like at the perfect timing. You’re enjoying all these flavors. And then there was the pepper, and it was really enjoyable.
Awesome. I appreciate it. So yeah, that’s it in a nutshell. That’s Mouth of the South. It’s always evolving. There’s always things coming. We sort of got menu ideas stabilized to where we want to go, and now I think it’s time we…because dining out is more than just grabbing a bite. It’s more about, you know, you want an experience. If you’re going to…especially in this day and age, we hear the word inflation so much and it’s like I understand that word, and how do you then create a better value for somebody that’s coming to your establishment to spend money with you? You’ve got to give them a better experience. That’s what it is.
When I go out to eat, I love to just chat with the server, because it’s more than just… Of course they’re taking care of me, but they’re not my servant. I can form a relationship with somebody and ask, “How are you? How long have you worked here?” Because I always ask those questions when I go out. And I always frequent places that I find somebody that’s interesting like that, where my service was just the best I’ve ever had, and then I tend to go there. I’m a creature of habit. If I like the product and I like the service, I always go back. And so that’s kind of what we preach here: Just get to know your people. Just give them what they expect. Don’t cut corners. Don’t rush. Never ask anybody to hurry up or leave. Even if there is a wait, they have the table for as long as they want it. And that’s just kind of how we operate here. And we have a lot of good people, too, and I think it gets back to the character of the person as well. Everybody here gets along. There’s not a single person on our team that we have an issue with. Everybody just knows what to do. They’re willing to come in, they’re ready to take care of people, they’re ready to give good service, they’re ready to sell a really great product, and they’re ready to get somebody to come back. We want repeat business because that’s the way that we can showcase what we’re doing.
But like I was saying earlier, our next plan of attack is our bar offerings on that side, to kind of elevate cocktails a little bit. So we’ve got a bunch of new glassware that we just got in. We’re going to be making a few changes there, just with some better things. Trying to get some local things. Maybe instead of using an off-brand vodka like a normal bar does, just provide a good vodka like a Tio’s. There’s no reason to put a really crappy vodka in something nice that you made. And the syrup from scratch, that you’re just going to load it down with this garbage vodka.
Yeah, this just seems to need to have a better partner. I haven’t had anything here, but when you’re spending that much attention to detail and trying to keep the food more like food instead of some of the other things we have out there, it makes sense that you’d want to do that as well.
Yeah, yeah. We do want to elevate it. And like I said, that’s kind of my motto. Every day that I walk in, I look at something and say, “How could we do that better?”
So constant ideas, creativity, innovation…
Have to. Yeah, have to every day. You just can’t… and sometimes you get those places that are just unwilling to look at the menu, or like, “There’s nothing wrong with my Caesar salad.” You’re right. It’s not. I’m not saying that it’s wrong. It’s good. But I think your dressing could be better. Maybe if you used anchovies in there like a true Caesar salad, it might be a little bit better and have a little bit more robust of a taste instead of just it tastes like mayonnaise with a little bit of Parmesan cheese in it and maybe a crack of black pepper, right? Or there’s no reason why you’re buying pre-cut lettuce. Like, lettuce should be fluffy, and the edges shouldn’t be brown, and it shouldn’t be soggy and dense. Lettuce should be nice. Okay, well, is there a farm somewhere where we could buy locally grown lettuce, you know? And that just where my mind is always at… like, what can we get? How can we do it better? Even from a layout. Like, does the layout of the restaurant makes sense, or are people kind of packed in here like sardines? Do I want to sit this close to somebody else if I’m sitting here, like, they’re trying to have a good experience and so am I, but I feel like we might be part of the same group, right? And so there’s just some of those…
Yeah, in some places it’s way too tight.
Right. So it’s just thinking outside of the box in those ways, and it’s every day. You just walk in, even when you park your car. You look at the patio, like, “Oh, wow, our patio…”
Yeah, it was very inviting.
And in the midsummer, it’s like, “Oh, there’s wrappers out there. I gotta go get them, because they blew off the table” or “Could the landscaping be better?”
Thank you. Thank you so much. Favorite menu items are things people should try?
I would say probably my go-to is gonna always be the shrimp and grits.
Yes, it’s amazing.
We have the best grits. Like I said, I always chuckle every time I pass a Waffle House, and I was like, “Man, I used to love their grits,” and I think they just boil them with water and there’s nothing to them. Maybe a little salt. They’re just kind of flat. But then I got here, and ours are just fluffy. It’s just like clouds, you know? And you got that Gouda coming through, and you taste the butter and it’s just real. Our burgers are really good. We hand patty those in-house so we’re not getting like a pre-done, pre-grill-marked or pre-frozen patty or a “puck” is what they call them. So we patty those. The crispy romaine salad is really good because we do the crispy tasso, which is like a Southern-style New Orleans bacon. Sometimes when people hear the word tasso, they’re like, “Oh my God, what is that?” It’s like, “No, you’re going to love it. It’s cured, it’s salty, it’s crispy. It’s just like bacon. And then we make our famous black peppercorn dressing the real way, with eggs and all that.
Oh, I’ll have to try that.
It’s really good, and we take the Gruyere and we shave it. So you’ve got nice strips of Gruyere in there, and then we make our croutons out of French bread. We toss those in oil and some herbs, and we cook those, so it’s a really solid sandwich. A lot of people love the kicking chicken, but I’m not a I’m not a carb guy, so I don’t eat a lot of pasta or bread. I try to stay more on the whole-muscle meats. I love the Bourbon Street Surf and Turf because that’s got the crawfish and the Hollandaise on it with blackened shrimp and the mashed potatoes with garlic and real butter. It’s super good.
I’m very full, but now you’re making me kind of hungry and wanting to try something.
It’s super good. Super good. And we have a Gouda ale right now that’s really delicious.
I saw that. That sounds really strange.
It’s really good, and we use Abita beer. That was a nice thing, too, I forgot to add about touring New Orleans. We try to feature as much Abita products as possible because they’re based out of New Orleans. I toured their brewery while I was there. I got a VIP tour.
Oh, nice.
It was amazing. I got to try a lot of things that we can’t get up here in the Midwest. And I was just, like, bummed. I’m, like, “Why? I want your… your blueberry wheat beer was delicious.” I think people here would really love that. But so I would say for the most part, that. And obviously the bread pudding. Once in a while, I’ll snag a bite if somebody’s got one. I can’t eat it, obviously, for the for the bread and the carbs. But we’re known for that. It won awards here in the city, #1 Bread Pudding in Omaha.
Ooh, okay!
And we do a Bananas Foster cheesecake that’s really phenomenal.
I saw the description on that. That looked really good.
Yeah. It’s, like, bruléed bananas, and it’s just really tasty. The brownies that a lot of the younger kids like those, like the teenagers. It’s just this big brownie that comes all bubbly with this praline frosting and a big bowl of French vanilla bean ice cream, and homemade chocolate sauce that we make with… there’s whiskey in it. Yeah, it’s just… there’s so many things that are just really good.
Thank you. I’ve got a lot to look forward to for next time.
Sure.
Thank you. I appreciate the interview.
Visit this Omaha restaurant at: Mouth of the South 16909 Lakeside Hills Plaza Omaha, NE 68130 (531) 375-5399
OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Samuel Voss, General Manager of Mouth of the South Restaurant in West Omaha
Samuel Voss at Mouth of South Restaurant
Tell me your name please and a little bit about the restaurant and how you came to be here.
Okay. My name is Samuel Voss.
Mouth of the South is a restaurant that I visited when it was in Florence on 30th. I ate there, had no clue that I would ever work at it. You just never make those connections at that point. I just loved it from day one. And I think back then, I don’t even know what I had. It was something like a kicking chicken, I think. It was just a small place and that’s how it started. Ryan built it from basically nothing.
Obviously there was a fire 10-plus years ago; that one burnt to the ground . It started with a smoker that caught on fire. It took the building. And so he looked and looked to rebuild because it’s just his passion. He found a spot on 72nd and Ames. There’s a Baker’s right there. There’s a Home Depot. I think there’s a seafood place in there now. A little bit too big of a building; it just never really fit.
And so then he opened up Lakeside . Gosh, I think this was on Year 5 or. 6. And this has really been kind of the bread and butter. It just fits the area, the people…just a really supportive community that really, really love it. And it’s just doing great.
It’s home now…
It is.
He comes from a little bit of a background… his family is from New Orleans. And so the thing sometimes that I get discouraged about is there’s an education piece that comes along with this concept. And so when people hear of Southern food, they automatically think of soul food, and so both are really good.
Cajun Creole is not soul food, and so sometimes there’s a misconception there or a stigma. But soul food kind of generates more of like your Georgia area, kind of the more of the Bible Belt, and Cajun Creole is specifically, like, Louisiana, that kind of sell. So you’re going to have more seafood heavy, and it’s more robust in spice and flavor. People come in sometimes and they’re, like, “Oh my gosh. I thought you would have fried chicken on your menu,” and it’s just not in the cuisine. One of my favorite things to eat is fried chicken, but I wouldn’t expect that here just because of my background and being in this industry for 28 years and doing the culinary school thing at a really young age and living in Chicago, a big city, for many, many years.
So I kind of understand what all these cuisines are, and that was just my expectation. I understood it from day one, and I loved it. He’s really good with flavor. His palate is really good. He just knows how to pair things together, things that work, things that don’t work. And he’s not unwilling to try things either, which is really good, too. As we know, we (chefs) are as good as our last meal. That’s been the saying in the culinary world forever. And palates and taste do evolve. What was good yesterday isn’t necessarily good tomorrow, and so you’ve got to evolve and change. I say that the Food Network and all that stuff has just ruined restaurants, because now everybody has become a foodie with no formal training. Sometimes when I watch those shows my head just explodes. It’s like “That’s not what that’s called” or “That’s not the processor” or “That’s not the true way to do it.”
Where did you go to culinary school?
At Le Cordon Blue in Chicago.
Wow.
I graduated in ’07, many years ago, and restaurants have just been something that was in my DNA. My mom was from a huge Catholic family, and cooking was the thing that always brought everybody together. But it’s just been an interest to me. I love that in this concept it’s small, but it’s mighty. People sometimes underestimate what it is or, or maybe just don’t know what it is or aren’t willing to give it a try. And I think once they kind of step out of that… over the line or out of those boundaries, they love it and they understand it. This is one restaurant, I would tell you, that since day one has been true scratch, 100%. There’s not a lot of restaurants here that can say they mix up, case, and smoke their own sausage.
Yeah, I was really surprised and really happy about that [real made from scratch cooking including the sausages].
Right. We process all of our meats. We cure a lot of things. We smoke everything here. There’s very little that we get in besides butter and milk—we don’t have a cow out back. where you know, I can churn butter. I can certainly do that, but it just seems to be a waste of time for me. But to really put the focus into scratch. And I think when you do that, you can control not only the taste or any of those things, but you can control the quality. You can also control what ingredients that you’re then selling to your guests to then consume. Like, we’re having meatloaf. There’s no reason for it to have red dye in it. Like, what’s the reason for that?
Oh, my. I didn’t know it could have red dye in it.
Right? I want our meatloaf to have beef, and I want it to have onions and aromatics and vegetables. And maybe a few eggs and a handful of bread crumbs or two. And that’s truly what meatloaf is. But, you know, a lot of places where they get it out of a package, you have no idea what you’re eating. So that’s a big thing for me too. Outside of the restaurant, I try to eat as clean as possible. And so inside the restaurant, it really just makes me excited that we don’t add artificial flavorings to things…even in the bar, with the bar drinks. And that’s been kind of an MO for Ryan. We make the peach syrup, we make the blueberry syrup, we make the strawberry syrup. And so when somebody wants a flavored lemonade, we don’t run and get this red jar of things or this yellowish off-colored jar of something that sort of remotely tastes like a peach. We make it with real peaches in the back. And so it’s sugar and it’s water and it’s lemon juice and it’s a pinch of salt and it’s peaches. And we boil that and maybe add a little bit of natural agave or sweetener to that. And that’s really sort of in every component and aspect in this restaurant. I’m really excited to be a part of that, and it’s good to know that people really support that because it is seeming to be more of a lost art, I guess, in a sense. I can open a can or my sister can open a can of green beans. Sure, they’re going to keep you sustained, but they’re not good. Let’s just get some fresh green beans and maybe, you know, blanch them a little bit, sauté them with a little avocado oil or olive oil. A little bit of sea salt, and call it a day. We don’t have all that junk. If you turn the label over and there’s all this other additives in there, it’s like it doesn’t make any sense. And like I said, that’s kind of been Ryan’s thing from day one. It just impressed me coming on, because I didn’t have that expectation, joining Mouth. And I knew what the food was, but I didn’t know how it was made. I knew how it looked, but I didn’t know like what the process was or how it was prepared, and it was just interesting to see that. He’s got stacks of recipes everywhere and he just writes them all the time.
Wow.
And so it’s neat to do that, but it’s been a fun, fun ride cause I stepped from kind of multifaceted concepts. I’ve done a lot of things. I worked at Coco Pazzo in Chicago in the NBC Tower. I was executive chef at 19 years old. I wasn’t even old enough to drink, and I was running an eight-million-dollar piece of business in downtown Chicago. So I’ve done, that and then it’s just… you know, when you’re at a young age you want all that glitz and glam, and then as you start to mellow out a little bit, you’re just like…I’m content with good. I’m content with great. It doesn’t need to be big or a lot, but I want it to be good.
I think you want to experience a lot of things, see what’s out there, and then eventually you learn what’s important to you. And for some people, maybe it’s staying here. And for other people it’s making other choices.
Yeah. And you know that.
But without doing that, then you don’t know how valuable right here is.
Right. And scratch is just something that just fits in my vocabulary, and that’s why I appreciate here. When I was growing up, a canned good to me meant something else than it meant to another kid in my class. We didn’t have 10 cans of carrots or 10 cans of corn. It was a Mason jar. I grew up on a farm. We had all kinds of animals, and we had a garden, and that was a different meaning to me. It’s like “What is this tin thing?” “Oh, that’s a can.” I’m like, “Oh, my God. Mine comes in a Mason jar. I’m not sure where you got that thing.” But that’s how we ate as kids. So, just kind of starving for that. Even to this day, I do a lot of my own preserving and canning at home just because I know the benefits of it.
It’s something I wanted to learn and do once, but I haven’t found anyone to…for that process. It looks pretty laborious.
It is, but it’s easier than you would think. It is. You see all these gadgets, and then everybody has a different method of doing things. And you have to sanitize the jar and you gotta boil this and you gotta simmer that and peel this. It’s not as daunting as it appears. Actually, in my case, I think it’s actually therapeutic to just stand there over a boiling pot of tomatoes, making stewed tomatoes and you’re just jarring them up. You’re in your own world. You’ve got music on in the back and the dogs are laying across the room, and you’re just doing your own thing. And all of a sudden it’s just gratifying to hear all the little pops and tings on the lids as soon as they seal as they sit there and cool down. That’s really cool. And even jams and jellies, sauces, and all those things, I make from scratch. In this restaurant, too, there’s a lot of things we make, all the way down to the Bloody Mary mix. There’s obviously stuff that we have to get, like the raw ingredients, natural ingredients. We’re not going to make cheese, for example, because it’s very hard and it’s risky if you don’t time and temperature control it just right. Bacteria can do really horrible things to people. But that’s maybe something that we might learn at some point, I don’t know, but it is what it is. Now, most mozzarella I can make. I can make that with my eyes closed, or cream cheese, or all that stuff. But I’m not going to make a wheel of cheddar or a great big wheel of Parmesan or whatever it is.
How did you end up coming here from Chicago?
I’m from the Midwest, eastern Iowa, and I actually moved here probably five or six years ago, maybe. I was doing a long-distance relationship and just realized, like…when you hear Nebraska on a map, you’re just like, “Oh my gosh, that place sounds boring.” Like there’s nothing in Nebraska, and I know what it’s like driving across western Iowa, and then you get to Nebraska and it’s twice as long and there’s nothing. So anyway, I came here and I was just like, “Holy moley!” Omaha’s a city of food. There’s restaurants everywhere. If you want anything at any time of the day, you can get it, and it’s a 20-minute drive or a 15-minute drive wherever you’re going. You go all the way north, all the way south, east, or west, and it’s still 20 minutes. And so that’s how I ended up here. But I ended up back in the Quad Cities after Chicago during the recession. It was really tough in the city in, like, 2008, 2009. It was really tough. So I actually went back and ran the restaurant that I worked in, going through high school. I had an opportunity to take it over, and I did that, so that’s how I got here. But and then just the corporate thing… I worked at a restaurant over at Village Pointe, an Italian place. They went belly up probably six months ago, but I sort of had an inkling that it was coming. It was poorly run by a corporate office, and that’s when this became available. And then Ryan and I just clicked from, like, day one. We are just, like, literally the same person on the same level.
Wow.
We always say to each other, “Just get out of my head.” We could probably finish a sentence if we wrote half of it on paper, I could probably write the rest of that sentence, but we’re just on the same page. We’re working on some new menu items. We’ve got some ideas that we’re going to launch, starting out with brunch, because I feel like brunch is one of those things where you’re just out for the day to relax. You just want to have something good, sit down and have a conversation and make it a social event. So we’re going to attack our brunch menu first. And in the office, even, here, there’s just things that we have done that we have printed and posted to the wall with notes like “This is awesome, but I think it needs this” or “I like the idea of that, but I think it needs sunnyside up eggs instead of over easy.” And then, like, “This one’s a go. This was spot on—everything about it: the taste, the presentation, all of that.” So what we’re working on now is just dissecting, thinking outside of the box, to where…you know, I like to go out and have an omelet or a thing of scrambled eggs, but I can get that at home. If I’m going out, I want to have something that’s a little bit elevated, something that I wouldn’t normally eat at home, or something that I might not even select at all if it was an option, like would I eat avocado toast if I went out? But this sounds really good. I certainly wouldn’t make it at home because I don’t eat a lot of carbs, but I’d eat the avocado, I’d eat the crab salad, I’d eat all of that stuff. But it’s trying to get that and pass that along to people that really appreciate it. So that’ll be coming out here probably in the next two to three weeks.
Mason Jar Lighting, one of the unique features of the Mouth of the South RestaurantMason Jar Lighting Section
Visit this Omaha restaurant at: Mouth of the South 16909 Lakeside Hills Plaza Omaha, NE 68130 (531) 375-5399
This fun Omaha zoo event runs 7 to 9:30 PM and features a less scary and more family friendly version of Halloween with trick-or-treating and magic shows.
Cartoon Halloween display outside zoo entrance
Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
3701 S 10th St
Omaha, NE 68107
402.733.8401
Finally! I made it to the Cottonwood Hotel to try the Blackstone Reuben.
A very close up view of the Blackstone Reuben with two thin, soft and sturdy pieces of rye bread holding an ample amount of corned beef with melted gruyère cheese
With all the stories and anticipation from waiting so long, I was afraid that I might be building this up into something bigger and be disappointed. I was not!
First, looking at it I could tell it was no ordinary sandwich with its two slices of rye bread that were much thinner than the comparatively massive interior. For me, a real sandwich has more in between the bread than there is bread.
The bread was tasty and a good complement to the cornbeef, gruyère , sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing and took nothing away from the star of the sandwich- the indescribably tender corned beef.
I have never had, in all my years of enjoying Reubens and corned beef and cabbage, a corned beef so tender and flakey. It was the truly the star of the sandwich.
The gruyère cheese was a nice surprise. The sauerkraut was mild and not overpowering and flowed well with the milder version of the dressing, keeping the corned beef front and center for your palate’s delight.
The Blackstone Reuben sandwich along with ketchup and fries
Come to the Cottonwood Hotel and try this tasty Omaha food for yourself!
Kimpton Cottonwood Hotel
302 S 36th St.
Omaha, NE 68131
I’ll give you a little background on the history of the hotel. It was originally, the Blackstone Hotel, built in the early 20s.
The Reuben sandwich, which which we’re known for, was invented here
in the early 20s. This is one of our signature sandwiches and also the Butter Brickle ice cream was invented here as well. So, we have a lot of history in the hotel.
Up on the eighth floor, Richard Nixon when he was running for president, he did a speech here, as well as JFK, so we have quite a bit of history here.
Thank you.
I look forward to returning and trying more on the menu at this Omaha restaurant.
Colorful text on black background , “BLACKSTONE FARNAM FEST’24”
October 1, 2024
Contact: Katie Kyker – 402-505-3247, events@greenslateomaha.com
Blackstone District Hosts Annual Farnam Fest
[Omaha, Nebraska] – Blackstone Farnam Fest is back for another year on October 12, 2024. This 2nd Saturday event will take place in the parking lot behind Scriptown Brewing, located off Farnam Street between 39th Street and 40th Street.
With a focus on live music, Farnam Fest will showcase an incredible line up including Minne Lussa, Velvet Velvet, Cowgirl Eastern, Clarence Tilton and DJ Herricane Cole. Food trucks and an outdoor bar will also be available.
Gates will open at 3pm and music will begin at 4pm. Price of admission is $10 with no re-entry. Volunteer opportunities are available by visiting https://www.farnamfestival.com/volunteer.
The event is sponsored by GreenSlate Management, Dundee Bank – Omaha, Veridian Credit Union, Anytime Tees, Curzon Promotional Graphics, DayCloud Studios, and Douglas County.
The Blackstone District is home to over 35 local businesses including restaurants, bars, salons, banks, yoga studios, non-profit organizations, and more. Businesses in the district host live music and events on the 2nd Saturday of each month. Learn more at blackstonedistrict.com.
Save the date for the next Veterans in Business Forum-18 October at 0800 (8:00 AM)!
Red, white and blue flyer with content below.
Flyer content:
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VIBF: Veterans in Business Forum
www.veteransinbusinessforum.org
402.932.7243
Veterans in Business Forum, 18 October 2024
Guest Speakers: Dean Kenkel & Ron Dupell Nebraska Veterans Coalition
Time:0800 – 0900 (8:00 AM- 9:00 AM)
Location: UNO
College of Business Administration Mammel Hall, Room 117
6708 Pine Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68182
Contact: Michel Thornhill
info@littlemountainwebdesign.com
All are welcome to attend.
RSVPs are requested.
info@littlemountainwebdesign.com
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The Nebraska Veterans Coalition
The Nebraska Veterans Coalition is a nonpartisan and bipartisan volunteer group formed to inform veterans about legislation affecting their benefits. The Coalition meets with elected officials to introduce them to its mission and Nebraska Veterans’ concerns. It also uses social media to provide current news to veterans and family members about military activities, events and available benefits.
Primary purposes:
a. Convince the Legislature to introduce bills and pass laws inviting veterans to consider moving to Nebraska, thus providing incentives that would increase Nebraska’s tax revenues.
b. Promote the many state attractions and benefits to attract and retain skilled leaders and technicians who are separating from the military.
c. Promote available medical treatment for veterans suffering from invisible wounds of war and encourage veterans to seek treatment in the Massachusetts Free Home Base Program.
d. Become active participants in the Nebraska Governor’s Challenge to reduce the number of veteran suicides.
e. Persuade Veterans to be more involved in the process of Democracy
Primary Efforts:
a. Communicate with legislators, the governor’s office, and numerous other community leaders concerning the need for and benefits by persuading veterans to remain in Nebraska.
b. Working with the Nebraska Departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor and Veteran Service Organizations to improve services to veterans.
c. Advocating methods to improve retention of veterans in Nebraska.
d. Establish and maintain information distribution efforts through Facebook, the website, e-mails, and meetings to increase the number of veterans and supporters for the Coalition.
e. Work with the Nebraska Veterans Commission to provide them with information about the needs of veterans in Nebraska.
Veterans in Business Forum, VIBF: Red, white and blue logo with patriotic stlye eagle carrying a brief case
