Sean O'Casey's Pub

2523 S 140th Avenue, Omaha, NE, 68144
402.593.1746
M-Sat: 11am-close

Closed Sundays
http://www.seanocaseyspub.com/

I was driving through Omaha looking for a bar or pub to chow down on for this review because the place I wanted to visit, one I spied a few days earlier on about 150th and Maple called (and I am dead serious) I Don't Care, was closed for good. (Author's note: while doing a little further research, I found out the location I found is, in fact, open, but the previous location, about 108th and Maple, closed about 2012-2013, and this is the one that is reported throughout the internet. Guess I know where I'll be going soon!)

While driving east on West Center I noticed an Irish pub tucked into the same spot where Prima 140 used to be, a place I regret never trying before they shuttered. "Well," I thought, "if its as good as Brazenhead, then I'm in for a treat!" As I pulled into the parking lot, I was greeted by this:

Yes, I took this while leaving the lot, not as I was entering it, as the preceding sentence states. Sorry for the incongruity, but I didn't think about a taking a picture until I was sitting in the restaurant.

Again, this place is making it all too easy. If you think so highly of one of your menu items you're willing to put a "garage sale"-type sign in your front lawn proclaiming it to be the best, then I guess I have to try it.

The pub was split into two sections, a bar to the right and the restaurant area to the left. When I entered there on that Thursday at about 5:30, there was a large group of people having a good time at their table. At first I thought it was a family get together, but there weren't any children, so I thought that it was a business meeting of some kind. (I found out later from my server, who gave it up without prompting, it was a group of nurses.) There were two other groups of two sitting and talking at their table. The room is dark, with old whiskey barrels scattered throughout, and the walls were full of Guinness, Jameson, and other Irish drink advertisements. A large screen with SportsCenter projected on it dominated the northeast corner of the restaurant. Throughout the dinner classic rock like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and Eric Clapton played loud enough to understand the lyrics but not to overpower any conversation you might have. I could get used to this kind of place.

This day I ordered the Three Cheese Spinach and Artichoke Dip, the Chili, and, of course, the Reuben.

I love me some Spinach Artichoke dip. If I see any variation of it on a menu, I'll probably order it. You'll see it a lot on the blog throughout time.

The dip was served piping hot with toasted French bread. For some reason, I was expecting the bread to be baked to the point of being a cracker, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was still soft, though definitely toasted. I'm not sure about the parsley that was sprinkled over everything on the plate, but whatever. There was a thick layer of cheese on top of the dip (I'm assuming containing at least two of the three cheeses). Once I broke through that, the dip was heavy on the cream cheese (the third?), and light on the spinach and artichoke. Maybe it was too hot to taste anything else, but the cream cheese dominated everything else inside. I don't know, maybe it needed a little more of everything. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't terrible by any means. I've certainly had worse, but I've definitely had better.

It was kinda cold outside, and I'd been craving chili for some time. When is arrived, it was very welcome.

Chili can cause fistfights between friends, or so I've heard. I have opinions on what makes a good chili (the best ones don't have beans; beans are filler that only serve to stretch the stuff for more people, and I think it can ruin the texture of the rest of the chili. Come at me, bro!). But I also understand that I'm not the only one who likes chili and other people have different thoughts, no matter how wrong they are. Plus, I love chili, so I'll give pretty much any chili at least one shot. I'll pass on that shot the next time I visit Sean O'Casey's. It had large chunks of ground beef, usually a good thing, but here they weren't seasoned well, or not at all. Also, it was thin. Chili shouldn't be thin. This chili had a broth, and that's kinda weird in my book. The broth was, however, surprising spicy. Not enough to knock you out of your chair, but in a "Really? Something spicy in an Irish pub?" kind of way. And what I'm about to say may make you laugh, but Sean O'Casey's scored big points with me with proper soup crackers instead of a package of saltines I would need to crush into the chili. Very good there.

Oooo, gooey.

When my server came with my Reuben, I got a little more than excited. I love me a Reuben. And Omahans like me don't take their Reubens lightly, this being the birthplace of the venerable sandwich. So I was interested to see the liberties taken with it (and chefs out there, take notes: take liberties with the classics!) Two things of note here: it is served club style, with three slices of bread, and the corned beef is in tender chunks, not slices. Do you see that chunk of meat that fell off just in front of the sandwich half on the left? As soon as I took that picture, I ate that piece to test it out. And it was amazing. Salty and tender, the rendered fat and connective tissue made the chunk melt in my mouth. I haven't had corned beef that good in years. But here's the thing, and this is something thought I'd never find myself saying: there was too much of it in the sandwich. Or, conversely, there wasn't enough of the other ingredients. I could kind of tell there was some Swiss cheese, but the Thousand Island dressing and sauerkraut, usually two things that are quite capable of standing up to other flavors, were completely drowned out by the beef. Also, the double decker-style made the already-difficult-to-eat sandwich even more messy and uncontrollable. I can definitely see why some people would like this sandwich, but I'll keep looking for Omaha's best.

The tab, including tip and a pop, came to just over $25. The service was kind of slow, but there was just one poor server helping the entire room, and that big group of nurses seemed a bit demanding. I figured it would be much better the next time I visited.

That next time was on a Tuesday, at about the same time as the last. And sure enough, the service was much better. This time I ordered the pub classic Fish and Chips and a cup of beer cheese soup.

Again with the soup crackers. Good stuff. And again with the parsley. Weird.

The soup was good. Not ground breaking, but certainly not inedible by any means. I was hit a bit by the bitter taste of the soup. I'm not sure if it was the cheese or the beer, but it was slightly bitter. Also, is it weird to think the shredded cheese on top was a bit much for cheese soup? Because I think it was a bit much. Maybe bacon pieces if you want dress it up? Just a thought.

This picture was washed out a little bit by the flash, but I needed it in that dark room. The fish was a much better looking brown when it arrived.

I was given two fairly large fillets of cod. The first was sadly tough and over done. I could tell there was an area where the oil and gotten through the batter and started to fry the fish directly. Cod should not be leathery. But the second fillet was much better, with the meat soft, flaky, and not overcome with grease. The batter was good, though not the star of this show. I would give that crown to the tarter sauce. I'm not entirely sure, but I would not be surprised if this was made in house. The sauce was not overly sour with too much pickle, and the addition of dill was a very nice touch. The chips were thick steak fries that were very lightly salted, which means I was overcome with potato with each bite. A lot of malt vinegar and ketchup helped. 

With the pint of beer I had (on Tuesdays, all draughts are $3, including Guinness) and tip, my tab came to just over $21.

Overall, I'll be searching for better Irish pubs in town, though I may show up again on a Thursday, where the special is Corned Beef and Cabbage. That may be the diamond here.

El Basha Mediterranean Grill

7503 Pacific St. Omaha, NE, 68114
402.934.6266
M-Th: 11 am - 8:30 pm
F-S: 11 am - 9 pm
Sunday: 12 pm - 7 pm
http://www.elbashagrill.com/ (Warning: albeit nice and soothing, music will play as soon as you navigate there.)

I won't claim to be an expert in all things Lebanese. In fact, I'm very far removed from expert status. One of my best friends from high school is Lebanese. I spent a lot of time over at his parent's place playing pool (alliteration, much?), watching bad movies, chattering away with idle talk for hours. I got drunk for the first time at his house (Was that with the bottle of stolen Absolut a different buddy nicked from The Champion's Club? Or was that the second time I got drunk? I forget.) and we planned firework shows throughout June there, as well. I was never offered hummus or falafel, nor did I expect to. I have had Sabra hummus from the grocery store on more than one occasion, so I feel like I have a decent idea of what passable hummus should taste like. And I ate at Amsterdam Falafel and Kabob once, a while back, so I feel like I have an okay idea of what good falafel is. But that's about the extent of my knowledge of Lebanese cuisine. This is all a long winded way of saying "I had no idea what to expect when I walked in to El Basha."

El Basha is a very, very small restaurant. And that's okay. The cramped quarters are well adorned with busy Middle Eastern patterns in deep reds and gold. The tables have pretty table cloths with a glass top (easier to clean; I don't blame them there), and the chairs are well padded and covered with faux leather, and some of them are showing their age a bit. There was nice Middle Eastern music playing over the speakers. In the very few places of open counter space, they have various Middle Eastern vases and other kitsch. They have a small area of outdoor seating as well, but this being January in Omaha, well, it obviously wasn't in use.

I went twice for this article. The first time I visited was on a Wednesday night, strategically chosen so it wasn't busy. There were two couples already eating when I entered. The second time I went was mid Saturday afternoon, about 2:30. I was surprised to see how busy the place was. After I sat down at the last available table along the wall, the only open tables were the two in the middle of the room.

You place your order at the counter at the back of the restaurant, pay, fill up your drink at the pop machine just to your left, find a table, and wait to be served. The menu is a little larger than I thought it would have been, considering the size of the room, and I can only assume, the kitchen. The service was very quick, even on the busy Saturday afternoon.

On Wednesday, I ordered the Beef Shawarma wrap platter, which comes with a drink, potato salad, and either a lettuce salad or soup, and with tax comes to a paltry $9.86. The soup that day was Lentil, and it being as cold as it was that night, soup sounded really good.

I've never had lentils before this, let alone in a soup. The bright yellow kind of surprised me.

The soup looked like it had gotten the blender stick treatment, which is alright. That gave it a creamy consistency. It was topped with paprika (I think) and a little bit of chopped cilantro. I know of some people that wouldn't like that latter touch, but I thought it was a nice addition. I was served with a lemon wedge and a nice crispy piece of toasted pita. Although it was good by itself, there's a reason it comes with the lemon. The tart citrus flavor a little squeeze imparts brings the soup to life. I thought I tasted some mint sometimes. Good stuff.

Not sure why I thought the potato salad was more important.

I've never had shawarma before, so this was an interesting experience. First, I know there's all kinds of flat breads along the Mediterranean and throughout the Middle East, but I'm not sure tortillas are one of them. No biggie, though, I can look past that when what's inside is so good. First, the thin strips of beef, well seasoned, were tender and easy to bite away. The grilled tomato was excellent, and tomatoes, as a generality, are something I avoid if they're not in season. They make their own pickles, which are very thinly cut lengthwise and give a nice salty, tart flavor that doesn't overtake the rest of it. The thin tahini sauce ran out the bottom as I came to the end of the wrap, but otherwise was a good addition.

As you can see from the picture, this is no Hy-Vee potato salad. More of a mashed potato, but less creamy, and with nice big chunks of potato throughout. It had a surprising tart flavor with it, a nice bit of lemon that works very well with the other seasonings that was used. Although certainly not cold, it was certainly not a hot salad.

When I next visited on that following Saturday, I was just coming of a day's work, and was a little hungrier. I ordered the hummus, which has received rave reviews in the past, and the falafel wrap platter. This time I opted for the salad. 

I'll never go back to Sabra again. Well, not immediately.

I'll just come right out and say it: the hummus was excellent. It was very creamy, and the addition of olive oil made it even more so. It was served with four halves of warm, fresh pita. Simply, if for no other reason, you gotta come here to try it at least once.

I love it when the salad I'm given has no iceberg lettuce in it.

The salad was good not great. It came with thin slices of green pepper, cucumber and tomato, and very lightly tossed with a vinaigrette of some ilk. I'm really not sure as I was never told. No big deal, I could at least tell it was made there and not something that came out of a squeeze bottle. The dressing was good, but there was just a small bit of it; my dad, who likes to drown everything in sauces or dressings, would have been very displeased.

I really need to work on my staging when I take these pics.

I'm not exactly sure what made me choose another wrap, as there is very little difference between the two I ate; the only difference was they swapped out the beef for falafel, everything else was the same. Well, except for the addition of the house-made pickles and what are, I think, sport peppers as a garnish. The potato salad this time was oddly a little warmer than what I was served Wednesday.

As I mentioned before, I'm no expert in Lebanese food, and if given a choice I'd prefer my food undercooked rather than overcooked, but I think I can speak fairly confidently when I say the falafel was overdone. The outside was a little bitter and the inside was dry. The tahini sauce helped a little, but overall I came away much less impressed. Given the track record I've had up until now, however, I'd be willing to give the falafel another go. Maybe after I sample the kabobs, though.

P.S.: www.elbasha.com is something completely, hilariously, different.

Welcome!

My name is Dan, and I have a growing passion for food, and Omaha, my family, and my family's business has helped fuel that. Let me explain.

Omaha

I love Omaha. I'll defend it to the death. But just about the only thing to do during the weekend is going out to eat and drink. Oh, sure, we do concerts pretty well. And there's those two weeks during June around that one baseball stadium where things kinda get hopping. But let's not kid ourselves; Friday and Saturday you'd better have reservations or show up before 6 if you want a seat at pretty much any restaurant in town. And there are a lot of restaurants in Omaha. There are 1300+ listings on the Yellow Page's website when I posted this. Obviously, this includes all fast food restaurants and the like, but still, that's a lot of places to sift through when you're trying to figure out where you want your next basket of wings or whatever. And the sheer volume of restaurants in Omaha means that you, as a customer, can be very picky when deciding where you'll spend your dollar. Which also means the restaurants out there need to do at least one thing spectacularly if they want to survive this town. Because of this, a big portion of this city has developed a bit of a refined palate. I won't place myself in that category, but I will say I'm wading through the morass of food joints in Omaha trying to reach that level.

My Family

I'm sure a large portion of you out there can say just about the same thing that I'm about to: my family makes damn good food.

I'm part Italian (most Italians in Omaha can claim distant relations with the Caniglia family, and I'm no different), part Polish, and part Lithuanian. Now, the last two can't claim a culinary history that the former can, but I will put up kugelis (koo-gah-liss) and Lithuanian stuffed chicken legs against nearly any classic French dish. So here I am surrounded by sugo and salsiccia, or crazy good Lithuanian ribs and cabbage, or mom's homemade pizza, or chocolate pecan pie, or totos (pronounced"the-those"), or...you get it. I'm going to develop a taste for more quality foods.So I'm not going to like that crappy pizza with bitter sauce and cardboard crust. Sorry, cheap college bros.

My Family's Business

My family owns the Lithuanian Bakery. I've been working there in some way since May 1999. Everyday, I'm surrounded by Sourdough Rye breads made with a sour culture more than 50 years old, and of course the Omaha-famous Napoleon Torte. And all those other, really-shouldn't-be-a-secret-but-for-some-reason-they-are things like the Bacon Bun, Hazelnut Torte, and zagareliai (commonly called "bowties"). I work at one of those places that the kids in Buddy Holly glasses, tight jeans, and flannel seek out because they're foodies, and I totally share that mentality (if not their fashion sense).

I'm surrounded by good food. So now I'm looking for more good food. I hope I can help you wade through the choices in Omaha as I go head first into it.

I hope to post a new review every Thursday. I don't know if that will be possible, but that will be my goal.

There are, however, some places I won't review because of a conflict of interest. I will just say this: you should go to all four places at some point. The three are:

7M Grill - My cousin, Aron Mackevicius, is the head chef here. He works in what he calls "comfort fusion." I've eaten there more times than I'm willing to admit (no, they don't give me a price break, and they shouldn't), and I've never had a bad dish. Website. Facebook.

Lot 2 and Baxter's Pizza - I know the owners of these two trendy eateries through a weekly poker game that lasted about three years. If you can get into either place, and they have limited seating in both places, you need to. Lot 2 website. Lot 2 Facebook. Baxter's website. Baxter's Facebook.

Lithuanian Bakery and Kafe (obviously) - My aunt makes great soups and an awesome Reuben. We only do lunch until 2 pm, but that location is open unto 6 pm for pastries, breads, and tortes. Website. Facebook.

I hope you enjoy my reviews!

Dan.