Omaha Fish Fry 2013

It’s already fish fry season! Millions of unlucky sea creatures will soon become something delicious. Holy Name has a pre-lent fry Feb. 8, and the rest of the fish fries start the 15th and continue until March 22.

Here are some of the standouts that I’ve been to in the last few years:

Holy Name: Outdoor, free beer, BYOB, and a loyal cult following. The line can be quite long during peak hours. Check out this writeup for a first-person perspective. Fridays February 8 – March 22 4:30 – 8:30 pm.

St. Vincent de Paul: Long line, all indoors, good fish, and they serve Lucky Bucket Lager and Lucky Bucket Wheat. Fridays from Feb 15 from 5:30 to 9:00 PM

Mary Our Queen: A classic. Fridays Feb 15 – March 22. 4:30 – 8:00.

Check out the World Herald’s Fish Fry Finder for a map and comprehensive list.

If anyone has any recommendations for another great fish fry, let me know.

Omaha Tap House

Being a hip, well-respected food writer has astonishing benefits sometimes. I wouldn’t know, but once Lucky Bucket gave us a six-pack, and another time I got invited to a soft opening of the Omaha Tap House, so, there’s that I guess.

Omaha Tap House, like everything with Omaha in the name, is actually part of a national operation. In this case it’s a Minnesota steakhouse chain called Grizzly’s Wood-Fired Grill and this is their first entry into the region.

I’ll keep my words short. The Tap House has good potential, enthusiastic and smart staff, and a whole lot of beer. This area of downtown needs a place like this and I think it will work.

Like I said, the staff is smart and invited lots of bloggers like myself to the soft opening to eat and drink for free. So naturally this article is one of many about this place, and many other Omaha writers have some great words and pictures if you want to know more.

Omaha World Herald
At the Red Table
She’s Obsessed
Nebraska Beer

Greengo Coffee & Deli, Omaha

Greengo Coffee & Deli brings some much-needed coffee and cafe love to midtown Omaha. It’s a nice and minimalist hole in the wall on Park Avenue just south of Leavenworth. The neighborhood is in transition, being gentrified by the next-door Urban Village apartments. Greengo is a positive part of this movement, such as it is, and a brave entry into a challenging area.

The cafe exclusively features coffee roasted at Grey Plume, which like most artisan roasted coffee is a step above the usual blackened corporate bean. I had a perfectly-pulled espresso and my dining partner had a delightful soy chai latte. It was spicy, chocolatey, and not overwhelmingly sweet. I had a great tuna salad sandwich and my partner had a delicious turkey wrap with avocado and sun-dried tomato. The food was well prepared, fresh, with above-par ingredients.

Greengo has its best potential as a neighborhood coffee shop and cafe. Its limited space and early hours means that the usual college crowd might not be able to hang out for 10 hours for the price of a small coffee. However, as an early morning breakfast grab-and-go and a brunch spot, it’s an excellent choice. I’m grateful that it’s such high quality, since it’s the only choice in the near area.

I spoke with the proprietor since we were the only ones there on a slow Saturday afternoon. She previously operated Daisy Maze in the Old Market, which was before my time in Omaha. As with all new small businesses, there’s a lot of arbitrary hoops to jumps through and a lot of red tape to wade through. In the case of Greengo, the city won’t let her have chairs because of the shop’s unisex bathroom. Now I’m not a lawyer or a city planner, but that restriction seems like an arbitrary grab for an appeal fee. Here’s hoping the cafe makes it off the ground.

Greengo Coffee & Deli
828 Park Ave
Omaha NE

Hours: 6:30 AM – 2 PM, Monday – Saturday

Localmotive Food Truck

Omaha is small enough and laws are stringent enough that food trucks are still a novelty here. I think I’ve seen four: one of the classic South Omaha food trucks that’s been around for years, Soup Revolution (which has since closed), a taco truck in Benson that had food so bland I can’t even remember the name, and the new Localmotive Food Truck.

The Localmotive menu is all homemade food (er, truck-made?), and is excellent, creative street food. I had the Reuben Rounders, which are exactly just three fried Reuben sandwiches. They’re exactly just as delicious as that sounds. My friends had the scrambled egg rounders and the hand-cut fries with a delicious homemade aioli. Here’s the rest of their menu.

The ingredients are above-par and the quality of the food is better than even most kitchens without wheels. It tells me that the proprietors have a passion for food that goes beyond just slingin’ burgers and Buds for profit.

Localmotive smartly parks at concerts, gallery openings, and other community events. In the rare case that these events are a bust, the Localmotive truck alone is worth the trip. The truck seems to have a frequent late-night stop outside Ted & Wally’s in the Old Market. Check Localmotive’s Twitter feed to see where they are at any time.

I admire the proprietors of food trucks. It can’t be an easy job and the economics of the industry seem very much aligned against them. Stop reading now if you don’t want an extremely nerdy dissection of the industry.

The South Omaha trucks are the most successful, I think because South O has a small and close-knit Hispanic community tightly centered around a couple main streets and ethnic grocery stores (and it helps that those truck have an established tradition).

Running a food truck anywhere else in Omaha has got to be a challenge. The destination neighborhoods (Old Market, Benson, Dundee) all have great restaurants already and mostly serve far-flung commuters unlikely to make a food truck their destination. Trying to draw the downtown lunch crowd is a losing effort. Every major office building has its own cafe, there are a growing number of excellent downtown lunch spots, and most office workers simply scarf leftovers at their desk anyway. The weekend bar scene is another challenge. Even though it’s the only time Omaha has foot traffic of any respectable density, it’s only busy two nights of the week. And if you want to serve up the after-bar crowd, you gotta stay up till 3 AM.

Ironically, I think that mobility is the reason that some food trucks don’t survive in Omaha (and conversely why the South O trucks succeed). The neighborhood pub isn’t going to pull up stakes and drive across town, but many food trucks don’t have a regular stop and you’re lucky to ever see the same truck twice. The South O trucks hang out in the Avanza parking lot and usually at an AutoZone on Vinton Street (and probably a few other places I’m not aware of). Localmotive also does it right: they have a regular stop in the Old Market on weekend nights, and hit up well-publicized events and office buildings the rest of the week.

It’s not all bad, though. A truck is a lot cheaper than a brick-and-mortar kitchen. Omaha also has very few trucks, unlike Portland, Austin, and Seattle, so it’s very easy to stand out without turning your truck into a massive steel pig on wheels. The bar scene in the destination neighborhoods is growing quickly, especially in the Old Market and Benson. In the Old Market, at least, there are very few ways to get late-night munchies. Eat the Worm, Pepper Jack’s, and a humble hot-dog cart are about the only places to get fed past midnight. Parking a gourmet truck in the center of 11th and Howard is a great way to corner the market on the stomachs of the drunk and hungry.

Localmotive’s Facebook
Localmotive’s Twitter Feed (the best way to figure out where they’ll park)

Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw Merlot

Last night I uncorked a bottle of two-buck chuck Merlot at the request of a thirsty reader. I found the wine to be solid and drinkable. It definitely tasted like a Merlot, with a good round fruity body. However, it suffered from a similar taste I’ve found in other cheap wines, especially other Charles Shaw wines: namely that sweet, pungeant, grassy taste that reminds me of mowing the lawn. Useful for reminiscing about summers gone by, I suppose, but that’s not really a reason I drink red wine.

Overall, the Merlot was good and my palatte wasn’t overwhelmed by the acidic overtones. I drink a hell of a lot of black coffee though, so those with less of a taste for acid might not tolerate it. Still, I would add the Merlot to the list of surpisingly good two-buck-chuck varietals, along with the Shiraz and the Cab.

I’ve always thought that $10-20 is the perfect price point for store-bought wine. Any higher and I’ll want to save it for a special occaison (and I’ll forget about the wine when such an occaison comes). Any less than $10 and the wine quality is a gamble: either it’s a syrupy concoction of grassy fruit and sugar, or it’s a wonderful $5 diamond in the rough, and I’ll never be able to find another bottle.

That’s why I’ve always hoped to find a really great two-buck-chuck: I can remember where I bought the wine and the brand isn’t going to vanish off the shelves suddenly. But the Charles Shaw wines I’ve had previously haven’t been all that rewarding. Impressive, certainly, for a $3 bottle of wine and better than you’d think, but nothing earthshaking. Of the other varietals I’ve drunk, the Shiraz was the best. You can read the previous reviews here: Nouveau, Shiraz, Chardonnay, and Cabernet.

House of Loom Beer Pairing Dinner

On February 9th, House of Loom teamed up with Lucky Bucket Brewery and the Boiler Room to do a five-course dinner paired with beer as part of 2012 Omaha Beer Week.

The event was phenomenal. How could I not enjoy it, with my favorite restaurant, favorite brewery, and one of my favorite bars all in one night? Chef Paul Kulik from the Boiler Room accomplished an impressive culinary feat: pairing food with beer. Beer is a notoriously difficult drink to pair with food; it’s carbonated with strong malty flavors and it takes some creative dishes to make a pairing that works.

Here is the run-down of the courses:

First: Lucky Bucket Pre-Prohibition Lager with house boudin blanc, mustard, and broiche. The food, which is named in typically foreign terms, is actually a kind of bratwurst emulsified in Lucky Bucket on a bun with mustard. The pairing here was excellent, obviously. Beer and brats are a classic for a reason.

Second: LB IPA casked with ugli fruit and dry-hopped with a very citrusy hop. The food was spicy chicarrones, which are pork rinds spiced with chili powder and fried and battered with LB IPA. I’d never had pork rinds before, and these were good, like extreme, high-class Cheetos. The IPA was literally a one-of-a-kind stand-out. A local rock-star homebrewer, Tom Malowski, designed this beer with finished Lucky Bucket IPA, ugli fruit, and the citrus hop. The beer was by far my favorite. It was basically IPA and orange juice, but much more delicious than that sounds. The pairing was interesting as well, not the best combination of the evening, but the citrus and spice blended very well. As Paul said, it had “citrus, spice, fried food with a little bit of heritage mixed it.”

Third: Certified Evil with a salad of roasted squash pearl barley and smoked lardo vinaigrette. Lardo is cured back fat, an acidic substance that made a great dressing. The pairing was an excellent and counter-intuitive choice. Certified Evil is Lucky Bucket’s imperial porter and has a powerful roasted taste. My first thought would have been to pair it with roasted short-ribs or barbeque, but Paul’s choice of a light and acidic salad with sage and barley accents proved a wonderful counterpoint to the richness of the beer.

Fourth: Chocolate Stout with brewer’s yeast waffles, stout syrup, and brown butter ice cream. No translations needed here. This was everyone’s favorite, practically causing a riot when the dish was brought out. I can still taste the syrup, which was made with the same Chocolate Stout that was served. I’d never had Lucky Bucket’s new beer, but I was pleased. Despite 150lbs of chocolate per batch, it did not share the choking syrupy consistency that most chocolate beers have. According to Chris Sund, the Lucky Bucket rep, this was because they used coco nibs instead of only coco powder and milk chocolate. The result is remarkably clear and drinkable. The brewer’s yeast waffles were made with active yeast scraped from Lucky Bucket’s lager fermenting tanks. The combination was astoundingly sweet and chocolatey, and the syrup had a rich, phenomenal molasses texture that made a worthy counterpoint to the buttery ice cream and chocolate stout.

Fifth: Barley Wine with Landaff cheese from the New Hampshire farmstead creamery. Full disclosure: barley wine is not my favorite. Yet Lucky Bucket has a solid offering that is not as overwhelming as some I’ve had in the past. The pairing was logical and tasty. The Landaff cheese in was excellent and had a flavorful kick that cut the intensity of the barley wine very well. Paul chose cheese because it has the complexity to pair with beer, even barley wine.

The event shows how a pairing should be done, and proves that with some creativity it’s possible to pair with beer. Chef Paul did an amazing job designing the event and it’s great that Lucky Bucket will work with homebrewers and restaurants to create something really worthwhile like this event. Having Paul and Chris to talk to in an intimate environment was a great learning experience.

Hopefully Lucky Bucket, the Boiler Room, and House of Loom will team up again for another phenomenally fun and informative event.

Lucky Bucket Brewery
11941 Centennial Rd La Vista, NE 68128
(402) 763-8868

The Boiler Room
5:30 to close, Monday through Saturday
1110 Jones Street Omaha, NE 68102-3205
(402) 916-9274

House of Loom
1012 South 10th Street Omaha, Nebraska 68108
(402) 505-5494

Corrections: I originally had Chef Paul’s name as Chad. Not sure where I got that.

Omaha Beer Week 2012

If there’s one thing that can rouse me from the blog-fog I’ve been in for the last few months, it’s a week-long beer festival here in Omaha. Omahabeerweek.com has the rundown. Here are a few highlights that I’m looking forward to:

Friday Feb 3rd
Crescent Moon: a special pint-night with Nebraska beers and (another) celebration of Lucky Bucket’s 3rd birthday
Upstream: Cask ale festival!

Saturday Feb 4th
Everywhere: bus tours between bars!

Sunday Feb 5th
Jake’s: chili cookoff
Krug Park: South Omaha Brewers tasting and competition

Monday Feb 6th
Crescent Moon: Vintage beer tasting (yeah, actual vintage beers from as early as the 70′s)
Jakes: A guy from New Belgium will talk about the weird and wild Lips of Faith series

Tuesday Feb 7th
Crescent Moon: Green Flash tap takeover
Krug Park: Lucky Bucket tap takeover

Wednesday Feb 8th
Jake’s: Wasatch Brewery will have some beer and conversation
Krug Park: Upstream tap takeover
Lucky Bucket Brewery: Seminar on extreme beer by Zac Triemert

Thursday Feb 9th
Krug Park: Empyrean casks
The Lauter Tun: Some jazz and beer & cheese pairing

Friday Feb 10th
Crescent Moon: Beertopia’s Extreme Beer Dinner
Jake’s & Krug Park: beer cocktails and O’Dell Saboteur unveiling
Krug Park: Meet the Boulevard brewer
Lucky Bucket: Movie night

Saturday Feb 11th
Crescent Moon: Extreme Beerfest
Everywhere: bus rides between bars!
Lucky Bucket: free tours all day

Seriously, check out Omahabeerweek.com, there’s just so much going down that it’s impossible to really summarize.

Nicola’s Italian Wine and Faire, Omaha Old Market

Nicola’s is a tiny Italian place crammed into the South-West corner of the Old Market. The facade is so unassuming (and small) that it took me 3 years of living downtown before I finally noticed it. Even then it took a while to make the effort to try it out.

I seem to be the only one that didn’t know about this place. Every time I go it’s packed to the (admittedly small) gills. During winter, you’ll almost always need a reservation for a weekend dinner. If it’s a warm summer day the expansive and lovely patio is open and it’s easy to get seated straight away.

Nicola’s features home-style Italian food, including pasta, paninis, seafood dishes, and delicious hearty Italian food that pairs well with their selection of hard-to-find Italian beer and wine list. In particular I prefer the Scratalli Chianti and order it almost every time.

Niocla’s has great, friendly service. The owner usually greets you by the door, and the staff is of the Old School, where they run through the typical script every time: “Hello, my name is [x], the specials today are [x]“. I prefer more casual service, but I know a lot of people like the professional experience. The key to this place, I think, is that their prices are among the best in the Old Market considering the pro service, authentic but updated food, and cozy Old Market atmosphere and location. The Old Market is flush with excellent and professional restaurants, but few, if any can match Nicola’s for value.

Something else worth trying are Nicola’s desserts. It’s one of the few places in which I will save room for dessert. Their tiramsu is excellent, and they have cupcakes the size of real cakes, so I suppose you could just call them “cakes”.

521 So. 13th Street
Omaha, NE 68102
p. 402/345.8466

Lunch Hours:
Monday-Friday :: 11am til 2pm
Dinner Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday :: 5pm til 9pm
Friday :: 5pm til 10pm
Saturday :: 5pm til 10 pm
Sunday :: 5pm til 8pm

New Belgium Snow Day Review

It’s a bit early for a beer called “Snow Day,” especially given the recent wonderful 70-degree October weather here in Omaha. But I was a bit bored browsing the beer aisle recently, and anything new usually piques my interest.

When I do get inevitably snowed in, I really hope I have some of this black, hoppy beer stashed in my fridge. It has a delightfully roasted, creamy flavor. It’s a little like my other favorite New Belgium offering, 1554, but not as dry and a lot sweeter.

Overall, a great effort from New Belgium.

Do Vacuum Wine Savers Really Work?

Those rubber vacuum corks, especially the popular Vacu Vin system, are the kind of gift that any self-professed “wine lover” will inevitably receive, often in numerous quantities. It’s a fun gizmo, but does it work?

To answer this I took the usual off-the-cuff, mostly-scientific approach favored in the Distilled Opinion offices: a mostly-blind taste test and some rather cursory Internet research. Click here for the details of the experiment or here to skip right to the findings.

Oxidation
According to Wikipedia, wine is always oxidizing in the bottle to some degree or another. Opening the wine should in theory only accelerate this process. “Breathing” wine in a decanter is just a more efficient way to oxidize wine. Many wines benefit from oxidation, as strong, overpowering compounds are broken down.

As a wine oxidizes, it should get “flatter” as many compounds responsible for flavor and taste are converted via a redox reaction into less-delicious molecules, like water and hydrogen.

Therefore it stands to reason that vacuum wine savers seek to prevent oxidation, thereby prolonging the life of an opened bottle of wine. To test the effect of a vacuum wine cork I bought two bottles of Oreana “?” red table wine, available at Trader Joe’s. I corked them at the same time and tested each to ensure neither was spoiled and tasted the same (they were identical).

First open
The wine had a sharp, high, and pungent nose. Slight astringency. Light and sweet taste, feels carbonated almost. The “carbonation” taste overpowers the rest of the flavors, and is quite uncomfortable. I did not decant either bottle, which might have been a mistake.

Day 1
Cork: Nose is not as strong, more fruity. Still quite pungent and still has a sizzle, but not as much as first open.

Vacuum: Nose is bright and strong. Taste seems brighter. I don’t know if I could tell much of a difference. The corked was slightly more pleasant to drink, probably because breathing it helped mellow the high strong fruity flavors of the wine.

Day 4:
Cork: Nose is much emptier. Much of the astringency is gone. Flavor is light. Still has a “sizzle” but is generally much calmer and more pleasant.

Vacuum: Almost no flavor in the nose, mostly astringency. Tastes bitter, and tastes more like the first open. Flavors are still high fruits and acids. I guessed this correctly as the vacuum-sealed glass.

Day 5+
At this point my discipline failed and I lost the notes for days 6 and 7. (I also drank the rest of the corked wine – I am a very lazy scientist). I did do a few tests on friends, all of whom verified my findings: that the corked wine was simply more enjoyable to drink than the vacuum-sealed wine. This likely means that the vacuum-seal does work, and that the Oreana “?” table wine really should have been decanted for a few hours.

Findings
Vacuum-seal systems really work, at least to prevent against oxidation for a few days. They won’t, however, protect you from your own bumbling ineptitude.

Details of the Experiment
To replicate my results, follow this extremely scientific procedure, which is what I used for each day’s taste test:

• Uncork each bottle
• Get two identical glasses and two identical Post-It notes
• Write “corked” on one Post-It and “vacuum” on the other.
• Put the glasses on the Post-It notes so that the writing is underneath and the note hangs from the glass.
• Pour a splash of wine from each bottle into its respective glass.
• Close your eyes and spin around a few times, and with your eyes still closed, shuffle the two glasses around on the table (this is why scientists call this a “blinded taste test”).
• Walk to another room, read some email or something.
• Come back to the wine glasses and pick up a glass and taste it and make notes. Try to not pay too much attention to which glass.
• Make tasting notes for the second glass.
• Reveal the sticky notes and match your notes to the corked and vacuum-sealed wine

Optional Extension to the Experiment

• Pour a glass of each wine for a friend and see what they think. This is what scientists refer to as “peer review”.