Urban Wine Company

Another restaurant has come up for discussion, and this week, it’s the Urban Wine Company.  Bridget has been wanting to try it out, and since her birthday was yesterday (yay!), we had her birthday dinner last Saturday night.  We were joined by our friend Natalie.  UWC is down in the Old Market area of Omaha.  We haven’t been down to the Old Market much since we moved here because we’ve been busy trying out the options out west.  We do really like the restaurants and bars down there though.  It’s really only a 15-20 minute drive from our house since we live so close to I-80.  We had a really good time, so I’m sure we will start making more trips there.

Parking is usually a pain in the Old Market, and it was a double pain since the Taste of Omaha was going on as well.  We got the last spot in the parking lot we chose.  The parking guy told us to park in a no parking zone, so we pretty much got the pole position. 

UWC is a pretty cool place.  It has a great setup inside, using the Old Market theme of brick and exposed ceilings.  There were tables and chairs, as well as couches and coffee tables.  Unlike the Reel Martini couches, I would definitely sit on those.  We grabbed a small table and sat down.  Our waitress was very nice, she looked a lot like one of my friends’ wives.  Being a wine bar, they had the option to get wine flights.  Bridget LOVES wine flights, so her and Nat each got one.  Their flights consisted of 3 wines, with a healthy pour in each glass.  I wasn’t really feeling wine, so I asked what they had on tap.  Oh boy, they had Delirium on tap.  I love a good Belgian Ale.  I’ve had Chimay a few times before, and Delirium once before, but it was from the bottle.  Having it on tap is spectacular.  A good Belgian Ale relaxes you like nothing else, except a cigar and a good scotch.  The girls liked their wine, and I liked the Delirium, so everyone started out happy.

The menu is a bit all over the place, but the food we had was all very good.  We started with the spinach artichoke dip (surprise, surprise).  It did come with some phenomenal pita bread wedges.  We got to UWC a little later in the evening, so when we went to order food, the late happy hour had started (9 pm).  I hadn’t really made up my mind yet, but when I realized there was sushi for $4 at 9, I quickly decided.  Nat and I split a spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls.  We had gone out to Baby Blue the night before, so I had a good sushi taste still on my mind.  The UWC sushi wasn’t quite as good, but it was definitely good (especially at $4).  Most surprising, I could actually tell we ordered the spicy versions of the rolls.  There was some very nice heat coming off them.  I would definitely get them again.  Bridget ended up ordering their version of a flatbread pizza, and she got shrimp and black bean.  I had a couple pieces to help her finish it off.  She really liked it, I was ok with it.  I’m still a traditional pizza guy, so if there’s not any real meat on there, I’m not quite all the way on board. 

We all were very happy with the choice to eat there, and will definitely be there again.  The late happy hour items, sushi for $4, and Boulevard wheat drafts and sangria for $3(the girls thought it was a little too sweet), definitely bring it into play for after dinner drinks or late snacking.  A really cool place with a really nice laid back vibe.  Music at a good volume, good crowd, nice people, Delirium on tap….what more could you ask for?             

I'm bringing the Po' Boy back

Holy crap.  Bridget and I enjoyed a new restaurant on Saturday night and it absolutely blew me up.  I was astounded, which I haven't been at a restaurant in awhile.  The place of interest is Shucks Fish House and Oyster Bar.  It's a little place up on 168th and West Center.  We got there about 730 on Saturday night and didn't have too long to wait.  Let's get into the ratings:

Style:  Bridget said it best, "It's like a legit Joe's Crabshack."  It had a beachy theme, reclaimed wood on the walls, regular tables and booths.  The restaurant wasn't huge, but it gave it a homey feel.  Music was audible but not overpowering.  People were very nice, you could tell everyone was friends and enjoyed working together.  Good crowd included families and older couples.

Drinks:  They have a nice collection of bottled beers.  It didn't appear to have any beers on tap, but if you have a nice diverse collection of bottled beers, I'll let it slide.  I believe the number of beers was over 60.  I picked the Goose Island IPA, which was terrific.  I like some IPAs and dislike some IPAs, I really liked this one.

Food:  AWESOME.  JUST AWESOME.  I was not ready for how good the food would be.  We got the calamari rings for appetizers.  They were good, but overshadowed by the rest.  For the entrees, we got an order of jambalaya and a Fresh Fish Po Boy.  Both were just amazing.  The jambalaya was nice and spicy.  The po boy was beyond description.  It was packed with fried fish fillets.  Barely fried, though.  They do a great light breading and light frying so it's not overly crunchy or greasy.  The sauce on there was great.  I believe it's called muffetta or something like that.  Louisiana style.  Awesome. 

Price:  Price was good.  Both entrees were under $10.  For that price, and that level of food satisfaction, it may be the best bargain I've ever seen.  Beers were 4.50 a bottle which is a little steep, but it was Saturday night.  They have happy hours from 3-6 during the week, so might need to go there to grab the beers.

I will be back.  Soon.

Johnny's Italian Steakhouse

After a productive Sunday afternoon of cleaning and organizing the garage, it's time to write up a quick post about last night's dining excursion.  For our first "date" night out in Omaha, Bridget and I headed up to Village Pointe to try Johnny's Italian Steakhouse.   I'm going to try and keep a somewhat consistent review method of restaurants/bars, so let's see how this works:

Johnny's Italian Steakhouse  3/22/09

Style:  JIS had a Sinatra/Martin/Rat Pack feel to it.  Dark wood tables, low lit.  Plenty of Sinatra playing in the background.  I'm always up for some Frank or Dean, so that's always a plus in my book.  While I do love Frank and Dean, the overall feel was a bit too chainy for me.  When I'm out at an Italian restaurant, I like for it to have that family run feel to it.  Not necessarily that I feel like I'm eating at someone's house, but that some family members got together and bought the pictures, tables, etc.  JIS didn't quite have that.  It wasn't over the top chainy like 54th Street, but enough that you could tell there was description given to someone.  Unfortunately, a family with two kids sat down in the table next to us towards the end of the meal.  Kids were well behaved, but the toys they were playing with where the wind up kind.  That buzzing sound they make when the toys are walking around is very annoying.  Props to the kids for being quite and playing with their toys.  Thumbs down to the parents giving them annoying toys to play with during dinner.

Drinks:  Appeared to have a normal stocked bar.  Drink menu had some specialty martini's and such.  I was in the mood for a manhattan with Makers Mark.  They put a LOT of MM in there.  So much that I had to spend the entire meal nursing it down so I didn't pass out.  Whew.  Should have ordered my usual Tanqueray and Tonic.  Oh well.  That one was on me.  Bridget got some wine <yawn>.

Food: Food was very good, but not outstanding.  We had some fried mozzarella wedges for an appetizer.  Nicely fried and breaded, but the mozzarella could have been a bit fresher (I think).  I've had better mozzarella apps before, and I think the difference is due to making your own or using the pre-prepared ones.  I had a parmesan encrusted new york strip with garlic mashed potatoes, which came with a salad.  The salad was mediocre at best.  Tasted like a bag salad from the grocery store, topped with ranch dressing from a tub.  The steak was outstanding though.  Cooked to a very nice medium rare.  The parmesan encrustation was a parm butter sauce or something like that on top.  It was spectacular.  Really, really good.  The garlic mashed potatoes were good as well.  Not quite garlic-y enough for me.  Bridget got crab stuffed shrimp, which appeared to be shrimp with crab cake in it.  Very good.  Would have been outstanding had they used bigger shrimp.
Overall, the entrees were very good, but the lack of effort on the salad was really disappointing.

Price:  Nothing wrong with the price, $25 for the steak seemed reasonable. 

Will we go again?  Yes, there were several other steak entrees that looked really good.  The steak I had was good enough to keep my interest high on the other ones.
Is it a place when friends come in town and we say we have to go there?  I would say no.  Not quite enough to set it apart from other chain Italian restaurants like Carraba's.