What I Learned From a Day in the Dante Kitchen

It’s one thing to talk to chefs and cooks about what life in the hospitality industry is like, but it’s another to experience it firsthand. So when chef/owner Nick Strawhecker invited me to work a shift in the Dante kitchen, I jumped at the opportunity.

Those 9 hours showed just how little I knew about restaurant life. Here are my 4 main takeaways, which are things I think every diner should know).

Omaha Food Mount Rushmores

Omaha Food Hunts

Restaurant Hoppen Dinners

Battle of the Chefs Running Diary

In the summer of 2024, Long Walk Farms conducted a wholly unique and innovative cooking competition. The farm, a supplier of many of Omaha’s best restaurants, put some of the city’s best chefs in a bracket to battle for city supremacy.

The farm transformed a portion of its grounds into a commercial kitchen and cooking stations, complete with serving tables, grills, and pizza ovens. They then invited diners to come to the farm, meet the chefs, taste their dishes, and vote on the victor.

As the event’s emcee, I wanted to provide a running diary of each battle until a champion was crowned. Follow the competition here.

Travel to Trucks & Taps

There’s simply nothing like Trucks & Taps, an old Sonic Drive-In that’s been converted into a bar/food truck hub with a cozy patio. Come along with me as I sample BBQ, lobster rolls, and maybe Omaha’s best fried chicken sandwich (and certainly its biggest!).

Watch the full video here!

Restaurants featured: Burning Bridges; Three Kids Lobster; Big Green Q

Redefining All That Bar Food Can Be at Nite Owl

At its core, Nite Owl is a bar. And if all it did was serve its delicious, creative cocktails, it would be a success.

But this place is also raising the level on burgers, wings, and other traditional bar staples. Come with me into the kitchen to meet the owners, learn the secret behind the Korean BBQ wings, and make Nite Owl’s best-selling cocktail.

Watch the full video here!

Spreading Love & Cheese at WD Racletterie

WD Racletterie is doing something not yet seen before in Omaha: building a restaurant concept entirely around cheese.

Gooey, melty, luscious cheese, scraped off a giant wheel right onto a sandwich.

You have to check this place out! Come along with me to meet chef/owner Piero Cotrina and learn more about this cheesy paradise!

Feast w/ Visit Omaha at The Switch

The Switch Beer & Food Hall may not be around any more, but it’s memory lives on in this video I did with Visit Omaha. I’m no Guy Fieri on camera, but I can certainly eat like he can!

Check out the video here!

Restaurants featured: Dirty Birds; Little Ve’s; El Arepon; Ansel’s Pastrami & Bagels

Published Articles

Love Letters to Omaha

Taste Buds Blog

While the rest of the site is dedicated to restaurant reviews and rankings, this blog exists for whatever random food thought is in my mind that day. It might be about specific dishes in Omaha, or ranking specific types of restaurants. It might contain Twitter polls. I might just go crazy and create fast food dopplegangers for Nebraska’s football coaches (yep, I actually did that once upon a time).

Feel free to comment or critique anything you read. While this blog is based on using taste buds (the body part), it’s also for taste buds (as in food friends). Yes, the pun is lame. Just humor me.