Tentative showers cast a pall over the last remaining minutes of the downtown lunch hour.
I had seen downtowns like this before–modern towers casting shadows on a few surviving Greek Revival and Neo-Gothic old-timers. At that time of day, the sidewalks had all but emptied. A lot of the cafes there open only for breakfast and lunch, and those were preparing to close.
Surely Warren Buffett was out there somewhere making money, and that’s always exciting. But I had been led to believe downtown Omaha also had a lively side, an enclave called the Old Market.
There, said the booster Web sites and tourist brochures, one could find unique little shops, fine dining, street life, plenty of bars and apartment lofts–most of those housed in former warehouses and factories.
The closest old quaint thing in my line of sight, however, was the Flatiron Cafe, a designer-touched eatery wedged into the pointed end of–what else?–a flat-iron building. I was led to believe the Flatiron was a part of the Old Market scene, but its surroundings appeared to be nothing but warrens for Office Depot clientele.
Anyway, the Flatiron still served lunch. Black-clad servers brought my vegetable/lentil soup and salmon salad. Everything about the restaurant whispered sophistication. So where could I find the rest of that touted Old Market ambience?
It turned out I had undershot my mark by a few hundred yards. My hotel, the Redick Plaza, is, like the Flatiron, just off the western fringes of the Old Market district, across Harney Street from the Orpheum Theater. The theater springs to life in autumn, but this happened to be summer, so the Orpheum neighborhood lacked cultural pizzazz.
By turning my back on the financial institutions, etc. and walking two blocks east, I found the city’s throbbing pulse. For years, Omaha has marched in the forefront of an urban trend–the preservation, revival and repurposing of buildings that otherwise would sink into decrepitude.
The brick walls of Old Market structures bear the faded signs of long-ago occupants and advertisers: Anheuser-Busch beer depot, the Millard Block, Omaha Bemis Bag Co., Skinner Macaroni, Hotel Howard, that sort of thing. Mundane back then, nostalgic/cute today.
Interiors work as clothing boutiques, restaurants, book stores, jewelry stores, antique emporia, art galleries, flower shops, bakeries, taverns, theater companies and apartments.
Deep in the heart of the Midwest, verging on Great Plains, a hearty segment of the 415,000 Omaha residents insist on all the metropolitan amenities. They refuse categorization as fly-over rubes.
That’s understandable, because workers typically occupy cubicle farms, rather than tractor seats. Omaha boasts an impressive collection of big-league businesses.
Heard of Berkshire Hathaway? No? Well, GEICO Insurance and Dairy Queen are but two of its many subsidiaries. The holding company, headed by Buffett, also owns significant stakes in American Express, Coca-Cola, Gillette, Wells Fargo and the Washington Post. ConAgra (think Chef Boyardee, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and almost everything else in your fridge or pantry) operates a handsome headquarters campus on Omaha’s Missouri River riverfront.
Other household names: Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha. And don’t ignore Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc., the huge construction and mining firm.
The Old Market sector of downtown is becoming livable, too, although residents still venture outward to find necessities like underwear, a wide variety of grocery selections and everyday garments.
“This is a big city, so things are spread out,” said a woman tending the Convention and Visitors Bureau office in Old Market. “We had a person in here today who was disappointed there wasn’t a shopping mall down here. You have to go way out for that.”
That CVB office, an old brick storefront stocked with brochures and maps, has a red-neon O! out front. Get it? Omaha is full of surprises. O!
I had to go way out to find one of the city’s most heralded institutions. That, of course, would be Girls and Boys Town–formerly Boys Town–the community dedicated to helping wayward youth toward a better life.
Actually, I had to leave Omaha proper to get there, because Girls and Boys Town is fully incorporated with its own post office, ZIP code and police department.
“When originally founded in 1921 by Father Edward Flanagan, this was an orphanage, a home for boys,” Dave Bartholet told me. “But now we’re basically an organization that takes care of at-risk youth.” It operates 19 sites in 15 states and Washington, and soon will add a unit in Chicago’s Back of the Yards.
Bartholet directs the visitor center, and within minutes he had me convinced Girls and Boys Town is a place well worth visiting. Besides schools, churches, athletic facilities, workshops, gardens and a farm, the town winds through streets planted with substantial brick houses. Young people live in the houses with married couples who serve full-time as mentors and mold the group into a family.
At any one time, about 550 youths live in town, half of them female. They range in age from 10 to 16 when they arrive, and they stay, on average, 18 to 22 months.
“They came here with problems with drugs, or alcohol, behavior problems, problems with sexual abuse–whatever it might be,” Bartholet told me.
The town no longer looks much like it did when Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy filmed scenes for the movie “Boys Town” on site. But a fascinating museum in a former dining hall holds the Oscar that Tracy won for his portrayal of Father Flanagan, and artfully arranged exhibits trace the history and lore.
Visitors can see a mockup of a typical student’s bedroom, and the front end of an old bus that once took high school teams and the town’s famous choir from place to place. Pictures of well-known supporters pop up everywhere. A large collection of autographed footballs, basketballs, baseball bats, baseballs and photos came from athletes of bygone eras.
“Babe Ruth loved Boys Town,” said museum director Thomas Lynch, “because he came from an orphanage himself.”
Life-sized plaster sculptures depict boys playing marbles, a runaway sleeping in a crate and the iconic young man carrying a boy on his shoulders. That sculpture conveys the theme Father Flanagan adopted for his original Boys Town: “He ain’t heavy, Father, he’s my brother.”
I passed a bronze version of the sculpture as I left town and returned to the heavy traffic of Dodge Road. Dodge goes east through the suburbs into Omaha and a downtown with quite a bit to see. Just north of the Old Market district, visitors do find a mall, but not in the mercantile sense.
The Gene Leahy Mall treats pedestrians and bike riders to an elegant swath of parkland surrounding a lagoon and dotted with abstract outdoor sculpture. It’s named for a former mayor and gives the area near the Missouri River an elegant punctuation mark.
A few blocks away, the old Union Station houses the Durham Western Heritage Museum. There you walk past a street of old-time store replicas, full-size railroad cars, a model train set and an old-fashioned kitchen smack into the dramatic archway and colorful memorabilia of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exhibition held in 1898.
Upstairs, the station waiting room has been restored to its original Art Deco splendor, complete with life-sized plaster statues of passengers…waiting.
Several blocks south on 10th Street, the Henry Doorly Zoo (named for the World Publishing chairman, whose widow donated $750,000 to the expansion program) attracts hundreds of non-statuesque people. A good many explore the desert landscape installed in what’s said to be the world’s largest geodesic dome.
Across the street, the Omaha Royals minor league baseball team faces opponents in Rosenblatt Stadium, which also hosts the College World Series.
Out of town, the zoo operates a safari park stocked with North American wildlife. That’s about 30 miles west on Interstate Highway 80, near the Strategic Air and Space Museum. I missed the wildlife but found the huge Strategic Air Command warrior birds in their massive hangars a shiver-inducing sight at such close quarters.
O! Even the workaday parts of downtown are sprinkled with culture. There’s the stunning, glass-wrapped Holland Performing Arts Center, and the Omaha Children’s Museum. Qwest Center gets the big rock tours, ice shows, conventions and competitions.
The sprawling, pink Joslyn Art Museum stands across a grassy knoll from the old Central High School, which exudes gray Greek-Revival dignity.
Joslyn Art Museum (George Joslyn was president of the Western Newspaper Union) is a wonder that deserves another O! From the spectacular Chihuly glass hangings in the atrium to the exquisite Gustave Dore “Mountain Landscape,” the museum collection sparkles, delights and springs all kinds of surprises.
Just to give you an idea: If you want to see Claude Monet’s “Small Country Farm at Bordighera” or Frederic Remington’s first successful bronze sculpture, “Bronco Buster,” make your way to the Joslyn.
After the museums close and the ballgames, concerts, plays or operas are over, Old Market still toddles along–good for a drink, maybe a meal, some window shopping, or perhaps even some real shopping. And it’s right there in the heart of the city.
A boutique called Nouvelle Eve overflowed with urban attitude the other day. A signboard on the sidewalk outside bore this chalked message: “Suburbia–where they cut down trees and name streets after them.”
O! how cheeky Omaha can get.
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bcross@tribune.com
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IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
Various Web sites show non-stop airfares from Chicago to Omaha at $136 to $141 on United and American Airlines for an arbitrarily selected Oct. 16 departure and Oct. 20 return. Amtrak makes the trip in about nine hours for $118 round trip. The 480-mile drive should put you in there neck and neck with the train. Fares are always subject to change.
GETTING AROUND
A rental car (or your own car if you decide to drive there) is the best way to go. At the airport, most major companies stash their vehicles a short walk away. Many attractions provide free parking.
DINING THERE
I came expecting beef, because of the town’s old connection to stockyards and meatpacking. Someone said I’d find the best steak at Gorat’s (4917 Center St.; 402-551-3733) and that I might even see Warren Buffett chowing down. Sure enough, the neon sign said “Finest Steaks in the World.” The decor was as unpretentious as a Warren Buffett suit, although he was nowhere to be seen. The steak? Not bad.
At the Rockbrook Village Mall (long story) I came upon a restaurant called Taste (11036 Elm St.; 402-884-3175), which lived up to its name with a fine seared-tuna salad and Tuscan tomato soup.
The Old Market area presents a lot of choices, from French to Persian to bar food and diner fare. My salmon and greens lunch at the Flatiron Cafe (1722 St. Mary’s Ave.; 402-344-3040) showed continental flair and skillful seasoning.
STAYING THERE
I chose the Redick Plaza Hotel (1504 Harney St.; 888-342-5339) because it seemed to have a bit of local flavor and eschews cookie-cutter chain lodging ambience. It seems to be a work in progress. The Best Western signs have been erased, and the lobby is a dramatic example of black marble and steel Art Deco. As for the room–adequate, but proof that there’s much to be said in favor of cookie-cutter ambience. $126, plus tax.
The chains are there, of course, both downtown and out on the fringes. Courtyard by Marriott (101 S. 10th St.; 402-346-2200; www.courtyardomaha.com) and Embassy Suites (555 S. 10th St.; 402-346-9000; www.omaha.embassysuites.com), for example, stand just a few steps away from the Old Market.
INFORMATION
Greater Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau, 1001 Farnam-on-the-Mall, Suite 200, Omaha, NE 68102; 866-937-6624; www.visitomaha.com.
–B.C.
