SPENCER'S FOR STEAKS
AND CHOPS
Hoppen Hierarchy: ★★★⭑
District: Downtown Omaha
Upscale Steakhouse
Perfect For: Date Night; Upscale Dining; Drinks
Standout Dishes: New Bedford Sea Scallops; Spencer’s Steak; Jon’s Naturals Pork Belly
From the moment you step in the door, everything at Spencer’s for Steaks and Chops screams “old-school steak house.” Dim lighting reveals gigantic red leather booths adorned with enormous wine bottles. There are chef’s knives proudly displayed on the wall, and the servers glide through the dining room with an upright, urgent posture that assures you they mean business.
And yet, putting Spencer’s in the typical steakhouse bucket would be selling it short. The restaurant may be best known for steaks, but there’s much more going on here than great beef.
The credit for that belongs to executive chef Glenn Wheeler, one of the bedrocks of Omaha’s culinary scene. A staple of the community since 1994, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a chef or cook in the city that Wheeler hasn’t touched or inspired in some way. When you experience his cooking, it’s not hard to see why.
His mastery is immediately evident in Spencer’s signature item: steak. The moment you bite into the Spencer Steak, a 14-oz. USDA Prime boneless ribeye, you appreciate the skill of the hands in Spencer’s kitchen. The steak is perfectly seasoned—it’s light enough to let the beef itself be the star, yet a dash of salt and pepper add a nice accent of flavor.
The meat is perfectly tender and oozes pleasant, moist bursts from a consistent butter basting.
Spencer’s employs a similar formula to make its burger, The Big Spence, shine: great beef, perfect cookery, just the right amount of seasoning. Here, the meat is aided by sweet bourbon-bacon onions, thick-cut black pepper bacon, and a tangy “special sauce.”
Wonderful as these items are, they can be found at any steakhouse (maybe not of this quality, but they’re present on the menu). It’s in Spencer’s other offerings that Wheeler and chef de cuisine Pat Ratigan get to show off their skills.
Take, for instance, the New Bedford Sea Scallops (featured in the header photo). The scallops feature a brilliant sear on one side and dutifully surrender to the slightest cut of your fork, releasing a pleasant sweetness with each bite. They’d be excellent alone, but then a red onion-braised short rib marmalade arrives to add some fat and tang, and the beautiful butternut squash puree not only provides visual brightness to the plate, but a subtle sweetness that complements the scallops and makes the dish worth every penny.
Dining at Spencer’s is an invitation to experience the perfect blend of sweet and savory. While the side salad is often a forgotten sideshow at most steakhouses, a delightful champagne vinaigrette and candied walnuts give life to the Spencer’s Signature Chopped Salad. Similarly, the Calamari Fries are emboldened by the sweet-savory combo of the unique chipotle-tomato ketchup—or, if you prefer the more classic combo, a creamy preserved lemon tartar sauce.
But no dish better exemplifies the sweet/savory balance than Jon’s Naturals Pork Belly, which became one of my favorite appetizers in the city upon first taste. The pork belly alone is everything you want from such a rich dish; it’s decadent, fatty, and salty all at once, with a brilliant outside sear the brings to mind the best bacon you’ve ever tasted.
But then you add a heap of the onion-fennel marmalade, which provides just the right amount of sugar to cut through the rich pork. It’s a master’s lesson in balance even before the spicy notes of the provided stone ground mustard arrive.
And yet, possibly the best side dish comes from the simplest of origins—the Roasted Garlic Yukon Gold Smashed Potatoes. There’s nothing fussy or overcomplicated about the dish, but the spuds are creamy and have just the right amount of garlic to balance out the starchiness. Plus, a “half order” (which resembles a small mountain) is just $4. It’s like stealing money.
While the atmosphere is certainly formal, Spencer’s avoids the stuffy vibe that infects most classy steakhouses. It’s approachable for all audiences; if you want to splurge and enjoy a date night, you can do so. Same if you want to have a business meeting, or maybe just a burger or drink at the bar.
By definition, Spencer’s is a steakhouse, and this is a wonderful place to enjoy a well-cooked steak. But limiting Spencer’s greatness to beef isn’t fair. This restaurant displays true culinary excellence in a way that few Omaha steakhouses can.