Hey Omaha, it’s Sarah Baker Hansen.
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since we launched Steak Town USA in the Flatwater Free Press. We started examining steak in January, envisioning a yearlong series of steakhouse stories and ratings, plus a first-of-its-kind map meant to examine and explain my hometown’s and home state’s most iconic style of restaurant.
What I really wanted to find out was this: What gives steakhouses such staying power, continuing to define what both lifelong Omahans like me and visitors love to eat?
After 11 stories about Omaha steakhouses and two more about Nebraska steakhouses, I think we got a little bit closer to that answer. We inched even closer to it this week, with our final story in the series about my favorite steakhouse — maybe the most “Omaha” of all the Omaha steakhouses: The Drover.
I launched the series with the steakhouse I most remember from my childhood, Jerico’s, and we’re finishing it with the steakhouse I most love as an adult.
In the coming weeks, we’ll share a list of the best dishes we ate during the year. In the meantime, learn about the origin story of The Drover, its salad bar, its whiskey marinade and why I just can’t stop going back.
Read my review here (or click the photo above).
Sarah Baker Hansen is an award-winning writer who has covered Omaha’s food scene for more than a decade. She posts restaurant reviews and food news on her blog, sarahbakerhansen.com.
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This month, we wrap up the 2025 art scene by celebrating the lunar year, graduating artists and multi-decade careers alongside new technologies presented in traditional ways, zany explorations of popular culture and serious conversations about conflicts in the world. The Omaha art scene never ceases to amaze me.
BFA Thesis & BASA Senior Exhibitions
Come see the Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis and Bachelor of Studio Arts Senior Exhibitions at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Art Gallery and Criss Library. I am especially excited and proud of this group of graduating seniors. Some of whom I have worked with in the classroom and exhibited with in our community!
– When: Combined reception: Thursday, Dec. 5, 5-7 p.m. Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., until Dec. 18
– Where: UNO Art Gallery, Weber Fine Arts Building & Criss Library Gallery, UNO Campus, 6001 Dodge St.
C418 ALPHA
Award-winning multidisciplinary artist and educator Reagan D Pufall returns with a brand-new exhibition of laser-cut paper works in 3-D printed frames. Ever the explorer, Pufall continues to mix traditional and digital technological methods to create thought-provoking works. This exhibit explores the worlds of myth and fantasy through a lens firmly located in the Great Plains.
– When: Opening reception: Friday, Dec. 5, 7-10 p.m.
– Where: Petshop Gallery, 2725 N. 62nd St.
Year of the Snake Invitational
Ming Toy Gallery celebrates 2025: The Year of the Snake with their annual themed exhibition series based on the Chinese lunar calendar. This year’s invitational features dozens of local and regional artists, all exploring the positive and negative aspects that shape those born under this zodiacal sign.
– When: Opening reception: Friday, Dec. 5, 6-9 p.m. Gallery hours: Wednesday and Friday 1-6 p.m., Thursday 1-8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and by appointment through Dec. 27.
– Where: Ming Toy Gallery, 6066 Maple St.
Liora Ostroff Artist Talk
Baltimore-based artist Liora Ostroff comes to Project Project to speak about her current exhibition, All Are Responsible: Anti-War Prints. For the past two years, Ostroff has been making imagery in reaction to what she sees as an ongoing genocide in Gaza, with an aesthetic inspired by her Jewish heritage and visual culture. This is sure to be a moving presentation accompanying such a powerful exhibit.
– When: Tuesday, Dec. 9, 6 p.m.
– Where: Project Project, 1818 Vinton St.
Dan Crane’s Joslyn Castle Show
I mean this in the best way: I’m not even sure where to start with this one. If you’re familiar with the Omaha art scene, then you already know the zaniness of Dan Crane. Crane transforms paper, fabric and wood into bizarre mixes of representation, abstraction and pop culture that make us all laugh and think. This show will feature fresh and classic art and merch that will be sure to entertain everyone.
– When: Opening reception: Friday, Dec. 12, 6-10 p.m.
– Where: Joslyn Castle & Gardens, Carriage House, 3902 Davenport St.
Remaining Strata
Award-winning sculptor Travis Apel explores the last two decades of his career in a very non-traditional way. Instead of exhibiting his past work from that time, he has created brand new works fabricated from the left over and unused parts, materials, and “remains” of them. These new biomorphic amalgamations will make you question the relationship between abstraction and figuration in sculpture, while leaving you in awe of Apel’s mastery of materials.
– When: Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., until Dec. 24.
– Where: Fred Simon Gallery, Nebraska Arts Council, 1004 Farnam St., lower level
— Bart Vargas is a visual artist, educator and advocate based in Omaha, Nebraska. He publishes a weekly list of local arts, culture and entertainment events on social media and operates an international studio with his wife Bekah Jerde.
As an Air Force pilot, Skip Bailey logged 5,200 flight hours over a quarter century of service. He flew one of the nation’s four “Doomsday Planes,” specially modified and heavily fortified Boeing 747s in which the president, secretary of defense and other high-ranking officials can direct military forces from the air during a full-on emergency.
Now, college kids call him “coach.”
Upon retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel, Skip traded Offutt for UNO to oversee the Aviation Institute’s flight training program, and for the last three years, he has been the head coach of the school’s flight team.
If you read the sports section of the newspaper, you likely know the Mavs who shoot hoops, spike balls and sling pucks, but you may not have heard of the Mavs who fly planes competitively. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Skip’s elite squad of aviation nerds.
For that, we return to our old friends Tyler Thieman and Thomas Reid, two standouts on the UNO team of 14 who clashed with pilots-in-training from six other Midwestern universities at Regionals in October.
Collegiate competition is like “track and field but for flying,” with rivals facing off in a series of specialized events, Thomas said.
The “ground events” assess the pilots’ classroom acumen. There’s a math-based test demanding strong command of the mighty E6B manual flight computer. Another written exam requires navigation and planning calculations for a simulated cross-country flight.
An aircraft trivia event deemed “insane” by Tyler and Thomas asks contestants to name a plane after seeing it (or just a part of it) for three seconds. Any plane ever in production can pop up on the screen.
Most of the team’s tri-weekly practices are dedicated to training for these mental quizzes, but, of course, the most alluring events happen in the air.
In the short-field landing event, pilots try to land their plane as close as possible to a target line on the runway. Another event calls for pilots to simulate an engine failure by shutting off their power and gliding to land near a target line.
“Everyone loves the landings,” Tyler said. “I feel like that’s probably what flight teams started as.”
At the weeklong Regionals competition in St. Louis, Thomas and Tyler each took on five events. Both finished as top-five scorers in the field of more than 70 competitors, leading UNO to 2nd place behind perennial powerhouse University of North Dakota.
In May, the team will compete at Nationals for the 17th consecutive time.
For co-captain Tyler, Flying Mavs are “the students that you want to surround yourself with.” Thomas said the initial draw for him was competition and free flight time, but now it’s all about the community he has found in the team.
With all that’s demanded of aviation students, it’s admirable that a select few are willing to take on a time-intensive extracurricular, Skip said. It all pays off in the end, he said.
“The best of the best are on that flight team, and they compete hard, and because they compete hard, they are better pilots,” Skip said. “And that’s our goal, right?”
Join us next time when FFP reporter Destiny Herbers and I will tell you all about our second run at the flight simulator. Prepare for controversy! To catch up on previous “Learning to Fly” segments, click here.
Last week, I had perhaps the greatest bowl of soup of my entire life. A soup that inspired me to open Google and leave a real-time five-star review. Where’d I get it? Dan’s Thai Cuisine, an unassuming restaurant in a plaza on 78th north of Dodge. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since moving to Omaha, it’s never to overlook a strip mall on my quest for a good meal.
The Guay Tiew Nuer (Thai Classic Beef Noodle Soup) was unbelievably tasty, with luscious broth that coated every rice noodle and bitter Chinese broccoli to balance it out. I haven’t seen it on a menu before, so I’ll be heading back to Dan’s for many more bowls.
— Destiny Herbers, Flatwater Free Press
Omaha police shot and killed a man at a South Omaha gas station Wednesday. The 28-year-old man had shot and injured three police officers as well as a 61-year-old man at a North Omaha grocery store earlier that day. The officers’ injuries were not expected to be life-threatening, write multiple World-Herald staff members.
(You may need a World-Herald subscription to read this story.)
Terence “Bud” Crawford was stripped of his super middleweight title by the World Boxing Committee over unpaid fees, Jake Anderson at KETV writes. Crawford expressed his frustration with the committee on Instagram Live (warning: he says a lot of bad words). Omaha celebrated Crawford winning the title and becoming the undisputed world champion in September.
By now, we hope everyone has heard about our city’s Hot Pocket Heroes, but for those who missed their viral TV interview, three North Omaha brothers — Dauntae, Jaxxon and Donovan — abandoned their Hot Pockets to help drivers victimized by icy roads over the weekend, KETV’s Beth Carlson reported. The slippery conditions caused dozens of crashes across the city.
State Sen. Terrell McKinney, an Omaha Democrat, accused state officials of holding up funding for North Omaha’s Inland Port Authority and hindering the development of housing and businesses, the Nebraska Examiner’s Cindy Gonzalez reported. In a September email exchange, former State Treasurer Tom Briese told McKinney that state law on the port authority was vague and that releasing funds to the project would be unwise. McKinney denies that the law is vaguely worded.
Spike Lee is coming to Omaha on Dec. 7 for a sold-out event, and Leo Adam Biga has a great story for The Reader about the legendary filmmaker’s deep Omaha connection — Monty Ross. Lee’s college friend and early collaborator grew up in North Omaha, blocks from Malcolm X’s birthsite. Ross later helped produce Lee’s biopic on the civil rights icon.
An Omaha Public Power District-commissioned report shows a power plant in North Omaha poses no health risks under federal pollution guidelines, Melissa Wright at KMTV reports. T. Michael Williams, president of Omaha’s chapter of the NAACP, was “disappointed” with the report, which he believes will influence a Dec. 18 vote to delay converting the plant’s remaining coal-fired generators to natural gas.
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