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Review: At Everett’s, time, brine and custom sauces make the chicken wings stand out
It’s a few minutes after six on a Wednesday, and Everett’s — one of the top spots in the city where Omahans suggested I should try chicken wings — is packed. We scribble our name on the big chalkboard on the front wall and head next door to Brokedown Palace, the neighboring dive bar where…
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Omaha chef ditched ‘familiar trappings’ in his restaurants. Now he’s a James Beard Award finalist
The first thing a person notices when spending time with chef David Utterback is that he’s constantly in motion. He rearranges the bottles behind the counter at his new six-seat, high-end sushi counter, Ota, which sits next to his wildly popular Omaha sushi restaurant, Yoshitomo. He stacks and re-stacks boxes of ingredients. He paces. He…
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Review: At Omaha’s Ota, find the best sushi experience between Chicago and Los Angeles
Today is all about bold pronouncements. I am now prepared to make several, starting here: two-time James Beard semifinalist David Utterback, who has just opened a new, upgraded omakase experience in Benson called Ota, is making the best sushi in the Midwest. Period. I’ve been writing about Utterback’s restaurant and his omakase since 2018, when…
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My top five reviewed restaurants of 2022 (and five more favorites, for good measure)
It has been a real pleasure to return to restaurant reviewing this year. I knew I missed it; what I didn’t realize was just how much. As we close out 2022 — a year that has been personally challenging for me on many levels — I just want to say a quick word of thanks…
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Review: At Benson’s Virtuoso, much has changed, but the high-quality pizza remains the same
It’s been a while since I found myself in Benson with a slice of what is, in my book, one of the city’s top pizzas. I can’t quite say why it’s been several years — since 2017, to be exact, when I was first reviewing the restaurant — since I’ve returned. But here’s what I…
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Berkshire Hathaway is back. Here’s where to eat.
It’s been a minute since the Berkshire Hathaway crowd made its way to Omaha, but thousands of shareholders are coming back this week. (I’ve already seen a few strolling around downtown, in fact.) A lot has changed since the last time I put together one of these lists — in fact, I didn’t even have…
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The 11 best food experiences I had in 2021
It took me a few hours to shuffle through my iPhone’s camera roll to prepare for this year’s recap, which includes a wide variety of individual dishes, meals, destinations in and outside of Omaha and memorable experiences that together make up the best dining during the last year. I didn’t include any of my own…
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Is this the best kale salad in Omaha?
Way back in the olden days — 2012 to be exact — kale was the hottest vegetable in the city. Go to any mid-to-higher end restaurant, and there it was, below seared fish, crisped up as a chip in a bowl of vegetable chips, sautéed into some sort of old-school creamy side dish. It was…
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Review: Revisiting Benson’s simple, straightforward Taco Co. just feels right right now
If there’s one thing I have always felt was true about Taco Co., in the heart of Benson, it’s that Taco Co. can’t be taken too seriously. For whatever reason — perhaps its because we’re coming out of a year of cooking our own food at home — I haven’t yet feel like serious food.…
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Best of 2020: Crap year, great food
I had no plans to recap the best food I ate in 2020. Then I saw a Facebook post written by chef David Utterback, where he featured my best of 2018 list which I wrote when I was still at the World-Herald. I sent Dave a text, and we chatted. He made a good point:…
Neighborhood: Benson
Fontenelle Boulevard to North 72nd Street, Ames to Western Avenue