Weekend in Omaha/Council Bluffs

buffetbuster
Omaha Union station truly beautiful but looks very lonely.......... when seeing your pic of the soda fountain it reminded me of Edward Hopper's painting "Nighthawks"

Speculations on the lives of these solemn characters mixed with variations of how and why these people are left so forlorn in an all-American diner

Love this report!

Barrett's Barleycorn Pub & Grill is a friendly neighborhood place to hang out not far from downtown Omaha. I not suggesting it as a destination for the food, in lieu of any roadfood place planned, but the prepared to order snack baskets aren't bad at all.

http://www.barrettsomaha.com/barrettsbarleycorn/

All adult ages mix here.

Very nice BB..and timely. We're heading to Omaha in late July and look forwarding to hitting a couple of the spots in your report.

Sunday April 6

Instead of eating breakfast, I decided I'd rather go to my lunch place really hungry. So I spent the morning sightseeing in Council Bluffs.

My first stop was at the Lewis & Clark monument, overlooking the Missouri River.

Next, I visited the Golden Spike Monument, which is at mile marker 0.0 of the transcontinental railroad.

The Lincoln Memorial, also on a nice little overlook of the city, is where a visiting Lincoln supposedly decided that Council Bluffs would be the starting point of the transcontinental railroad.

Located in a cemetary just yards away from the Lincoln Memorial, the Black Angel statue

is dedicated to Ruth Anne Dodge, who along with her husband, were major benefactors to the city. The statue is based on a dream by Mrs. Dodge and was sculpted by Daniel Chester French, who supposedly said this was his best work. Considering he also did the seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in DC, that is saying something.

There were several other sights in the area I wanted to see, especially the famous Squirrel Cage Jail, but I ran out of time.

I headed for Omaha and had lunch at one of my Roadfood favorites, Bohemian Cafe.

This is a Czech restaurant, with all kinds of different eastern European dishes on it. This may be the only Roadfood place with their own song, with the lyrics right on the paper placemat.


Meals for me here start with a hearty bowl of liver dumpling soup.

This was the first time I have ordered the Czech Goulash as my main entree. For your sides, you get to choose between dumplings or mashed potatoes (my waitress told me the mashed potatoes weren't made from scratch) and sauerkraut or red cabbage.

The goulash was big tender chunks of beef in a delicious sauce. This might be the best entree I have had, yet.

The one dish that I must get everytime I am here in the plum dumplings. This is a dish my grandmother used to make and it is extremely hard to find in restaurants. Even though it is not on the Sunday menu, I asked for it and they were more than happy to make it for me. One warning, it takes a full half hour for these, so order them when you first sit down.

By the way, that is sour cream in the middle. Here is a photo of the inside of a dumpling.


Not as good as grandma's, but still delicious!

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=458&RefID=458

More to come.....

sizz-
I really enjoyed the comparison between the soda fountain at the old train station and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

I was at the Art Institute of Chicago a few years ago and had no idea that painting was there. To come around a corner and see it was a real thrill.

cecif-
I am rather curious which place you are referring to that you just missed on your previous trip. I only have one restaurant left. I hope it is the place you have in mind, but the odds aren't good.

Thank you to everyone else for the nice comments!

BB, you truly are the BADDEST mutha around!! Your combinations of Roadfood, local architecture, local history, chatting up the locals and your love for all things pie are very inspiring to me. Thanks!

I can't believe how long this has taken me to finish.....

Sunday April 6 cont.

Being quite full from my big meal at Bohemian Cafe, it was time to do some more sightseeing. So I headed to the Joslyn Art Museum. Not only is this a fine art museum, with an especially impressive collection of Western Art, this Art Deco building itself is worth seeing. Thanks to the Georgian Marble, it has a slight, but noticeable, pinkish appearance.

My favorite room in the museum is the courtyard, with this lovely fountain.


http://www.joslyn.org/

Time for one more meal before my flight. So, I stopped in at Joe Tess Place in South Omaha.


In their review of the place, Bruce & Sue ask the question, "Carp too scary?" On this day, the answer was yes! If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten the carp. But being a fish frowner in general, I took the advice of the review and went for the fine grilled salmon sandwich. Really good sweet, creamy cole slaw comes on the side.


Despite the fact that pineapple upside down cake is a real favorite of mine (I love anything with pineapple in it!), I passed on having dessert.

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=3441&RefID=3484

From there, it was straight to the airport and I was home by 11:30PM. One more thing.....my sister is a flight attendant and she called me Sunday night as I was driving home. She asked, "Are you on the Sewickley Bridge?" I said, "Yes, how did you know?" She answered, "Because I am right behind you!"

Thanks again to everyone for reading my trip report!

I have eaten at Joe Tess's many times but I never had the carp. I always had the catfish. I wish I had the carp so I would know what it was like.

I see them every day when I feed the ducks and they always eat the residue. I must have several hundred of them haning around my dock.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Paul-
Being in a bit of a hurry since I had a flight to catch and having eaten a big meal a few hours before, I don't think I gave Joe Tess Place a fair chance. And had I not eaten catfish just the night before, I would have ordered that instead of the salmon. Next time!