An Omaha Family Outing

Continuing along our May/June travel adventures with visits to family and friends, we finally reached our end goal…our son and daughter-in-law’s home in Omaha Nebraska.  We were glad to see everyone…especially our grandsons! 

Amy was working on our first day in town.  We all headed into the city so we could meet her for lunch.  It worked out well as she was shooting some ads in the area for her company.

This is the Old Market area near downtown Omaha… It is advertised as “Omaha's most historic and most entertaining neighborhood.  The cobblestone streets are home to a diverse mix of shopping, galleries, restaurants, taverns and people-watching.”

The Old Market Historic District was part of the wholesale jobbing area of the city, which mushroomed in the 1880s and operated well into the twentieth century.  This area was the distribution center for goods shipped on the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch lines.  The district is comprised of former light industrial and warehouse buildings as well as wholesale jobbing houses.

 

To learn all about this special neighborhood and all it has to offer today, just go to www.oldmarket.com. 

Despite the fact that the Old Market area is loaded with a wide variety of retail shops, Laurie complained that there were more restaurants than there were interesting shops where she could spend some money. 

To me the most interesting ‘shop’ was “Fairmont Antiques and Mercantile”.  This is a combination museum, antique and retail store.  

The building occupied by ‘Fairmont’ is the former Fairmont Dairy Building.  The Fairmont building occupies the location of Omaha's first log cabin.  In addition Omaha's first church service was held at that cabin.  The same site also became home to Omaha's first hotel, the Saint Nicholas.  Room rates were a few pennies a night for a blanket and the privilege of curling up to your neighbor on the dirt floor.

Fairmont Antique and Mercantile advertises itself as unique…and I’m not going to argue with that statement!  Emmett Lee, our youngest grandson, happily posed with this bizarre science fiction creation.  Fairmont is packed with collections and oddities as well as items both new and old for sale. 

Laurie captured this photo of David II near an undignified John Wayne wearing a poster board ad.  We’ve always thought that David walked just like John Wayne…so this photo is appropriate and justified from our viewpoint.

Yep… That’s Larry the Cable Guy standing at the entrance to the old fashioned soda fountain and diner style operation inside the Fairmont Antiques and Mercantile Store… They also have a theater that plays old movies on a regular basis.  You can rent it for parties too!

There is a large arcade as well…  Candy is big with many hard to find old-time selections on hand.  Patrons wander the myriad of aisles stacked high with just about anything you can imagine.  One gets dizzy and disorientated trying to see everything that there is to see in this place!

To learn more about this ‘store’, go to http://www.omahafairmont.com/.

David II, Laurie and I were fascinated by the thousands and thousands of used and old books at Jackson Street Booksellers in the Old Market Area.  We spent a lot of time perusing the stacks and racks of old books.  In the meantime, grandsons David III and Emmett Lee sat in the front of the store with their ‘smart phones’.  The good news is that they do both like reading actual books as well!

 Jackson Street Booksellers has been buying and selling used, rare and out-of-print books since 1993.  They definitely stock thousands of titles covering all subjects… Fiction, history, classic literature, design, science and philosophy are among the subjects filling the shelves and stacks of books.  No romance novels, computer manuals or textbooks allowed!  They buy books all the time.  I observed a transaction while visiting this book paradise… This store is located at 1119 Jackson Street but they do have another area location.  Website: http://www.jacksonstreetbooksellers.squarespace.com/.

Enough shopping already!  It was a great day for me as Laurie couldn’t find anything that she really liked in the time we had to browse the stores.  It was time to eat and Amy was joining us for lunch. 

This is M’s Pub.  It’s one of the oldest restaurants in the heart of the Old Market District and it’s very popular.  We arrived just before the overflow lunch crowd took over every table. 

The family name survives!  Our son David II poses for ‘Nana’ with grandsons David III and Emmett Lee.

Here’s David II’s better half, his wife Amy.  Without her critical ‘assistance and contributions’ our terrific grandsons would not have come into this world!  David II and Amy have raised a couple of great kids…

Yes indeed… They did reverse the camera, taking this photo of my better half Laurie (Nana) and me (Papa).

It was lunch time and no one ate a heavy meal… I lost track of who ordered what but this is M’s Pub “Original Lavosh”…Havarti Cheese with scallions on a lavosh cracker. ($9.50)

Next in line was “Kate’s Chicken Salad”.  ($11.90) The chicken salad was served with a small side salad, along with chicken breast and celery dressed with lemon mayonnaise and then garnished with red grapes.  Interestingly…it was served with a cinnamon roll.

I’ll bet that you could pick out the 2 members of our family group that ordered the hot dog and bacon cheeseburger! ($7.50 and $10.95 respectively)   

I do know who ordered this dish… Laurie loves Escargot! ($10.25) This Casserole was filled with snails in garlic butter with melted Havarti cheese on top.  She really enjoyed this luscious treat!  The Havarti cheese was a twist on the usual...

This was the Reuben.  It was a little unusual in that it included both corned beef and pastrami with the usual sauerkraut and Swiss cheese on grilled dark rye bread.  I don’t care for Thousand Island dressing so I always have them use spicy mustard instead.  With the cup of soup…and upgraded side dish, my lunch came to $11.90.  It was decent but not great.

David II ordered the Omaha Grill with the soup as his side. (I don’t remember what either of the soups were) His sandwich consisted of thin sliced roast beef, red onion and provolone cheese on grilled sourdough bread, served with a side of creamy horseradish sauce.  He requested extra horseradish sauce.

Service was decent and the food was competent if not overwhelmingly bodacious.   We’ll have to return for an adult dinner sometime before I’m ready to render judgment on the food.  M’s Pub is located at 422 South 11^th Street in Omaha Nebraska.  Phone: 402-342-2550.  Website: http://www.mspubomaha.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave