When I was growing up, my parents gave me two choices each year for my birthday dinner: the now long-gone Imperial Palace in Old Mill, or Jerico’s Steakhouse.
You see, my birthday is on Christmas, and we weren’t going out that day. Instead, my parents took our small family out to dinner on Christmas Eve. But my dad wasn’t going to drive beyond a couple of miles from our west Omaha house on those evenings. Santa had work to do and cookies to eat by 10 p.m.
Thus, my choices were limited to just two. My sister preferred a plate of Imperial Palace’s cashew chicken and a glimpse of bright orange koi swimming in an indoor river to celebrate the day of my birth.
But me? I preferred Jerico’s, where I could get a big baked potato, a blood red medium rare steak and a giant slice of banana cream pie all to myself, just as the birthday girl should.
Several decades later, I’m kicking off a new Flatwater Free Press series called, “Steak Town USA” – a yearlong series of steakhouse stories and ratings and a first-of-its-kind map meant to examine and explain my hometown’s and home state’s most iconic style of restaurant.
What is the Omaha steakhouse, anyway? What are its hallmarks? Who is doing it the best in 2025? And what gives it such staying power, continuing to define what both lifelong Omahans like me and visitors love to eat?
And because steak is truly statewide, I’m also going to roadtrip across Nebraska this year, highlighting several of the Cornhusker State’s iconic steakhouses.
But it felt right to start this right around the corner from my childhood home, and close to my heart.
So we’re beginning near 120th and Dodge streets, under the shadow of the elevated expressway, cars humming by.
Jerico’s always felt so fancy to me as a child, with its dim golden lighting, busy open kitchen and bar and big cushy chairs. In my childhood the brown plates were divided into sections, each one holding one wondrous part of the classic steakhouse dinner: piece of beef, potato, green vegetable, dinner roll and butter.
Those plates are long gone, but returning to Jerico’s now still feels special to me.
The memories hit clear and strong. I can taste the banana cream pie I know I’ll order long before I’ve finished my salad.
I’m far from the only west Omahan with these memories. Jerico’s has been an Omaha staple since 1978.
Jerry Foster, a Falls City native, opened the steakhouse and is responsible for its signature prime rib, slow roasted in a special oven. Foster sold the restaurant in 1989 to Chuck DiDonato Sr., who had worked as the director of meat merchandise at Hinky Dinky grocery store. He used his vast knowledge of meat to upgrade the quality of cuts served at the restaurant, and grew the menu from just a handful of dishes to many more.
What DiDonato Sr. and the restaurant really became known for during that era, though, was the massive collection of Nebraska Cornhuskers memorabilia he displayed through the space, including many signed footballs, helmets, photographs and other items. DiDonato Sr. died in 2014. The next year, the son named after him took it over.
Chuck DiDonato Jr. runs Jerico’s today, meeting regulars in the dining room as early as 4:30 p.m. for Saturday dinner.
Sometimes he chats. Sometimes he sits quietly in a corner behind the bar, surveying the scene while giving off what even he admits is a bit of a Tony Soprano vibe.
He’s no mafioso. He’s a retired police lieutenant.
And now he’s making some changes that make Jerico’s his.
Change one: He removed the Husker memorabilia.
Change two: He closed off part of the formerly open kitchen, leaving the restaurant with a cleaner, more modern look, now finished with crisp white tablecloths.
But that’s pretty much the extent of Junior’s revolution.
“For the most part, I just let the meat do the work and get out of the way,” he said.
The meat does do the work at Jerico’s. The steak comes from several suppliers, including Iowa Beef Processors. Steaks are cooked in a flame broiler; the prime rib gets cooked in a “cook and hold” oven, which DiDonato said seals in the juicy texture, low and slow.
During a recent Saturday dinner, we tried a ribeye, cooked to medium, and a filet, cooked to medium rare.
We’re going to repeat these orders at every steakhouse we visit for the next year. (Read more about the dishes we’ll try in the Steak Town USA box accompanying this story.)
Both arrived at the temperature we ordered, with dark char marks and a heavy hand of salt. Depending on your palette, the beef could have read a bit salty. Not for this Jerico’s fangirl – I love salt.
The loaded baked potato comes piping hot, topped with shredded cheddar cheese mingling with crispy chopped bacon and a big dollop of sour cream. Mine came topped with longer, angled pieces of scallion, and my one gripe is that I’d rather have had them chopped small.
The onion rings at Jerico’s are super crispy, shimmering with a hint of grease, and served with a house-made, vibrant pink dipping sauce that I later learned includes horseradish, chipotle seasoning, sour cream and chili powder. It’s unusual — creamy, spicy, a bit smokey — and it goes great with the onion rings.
Cocktails are Sinatra-era classics at Jerico’s, and we ordered our standards: a Negroni on the rocks for Matthew and a Manhattan straight up for me. They’re made in the way you’d find at most old-school steakhouses: strong, ice cold, balanced. I preferred the nuance of the Jerico’s signature Manhattan, made with higher-end ingredients and a skewered brandied cherry.
Jerico’s also has something that most of those other old-school spots don’t, and something that I think is rarely seen in Omaha dining: a full list of ice cream drinks.
DiDonato Jr. told me later that many are named after children and grandchildren in the family. We didn’t try Anthony’s Treat or Jessica’s Java, instead opting for the 1960s classic, a grasshopper, made with ice cream, creme de menthe and white creme de cocoa.
Imagine a liquified glass of creamy, cold Andes mints. Honestly? Hard to hate.
Shrimp cocktail is delivered with mid-sized shrimp served with a zingy cocktail sauce. It’s nothing to write home about and a bit short on presentation, but it’s solid enough to polish off either way.
By this point, in both this story and in the city, the pie at Jerico’s feels legendary. Made in-house daily, Jerico’s has three cream pies: banana, coconut and chocolate, plus key lime.
DiDonato said the same chef, Fred Kurbis, now semi-retired, still makes those pies every day.
“If it’s not broke,” he said, “don’t fix it.”
The pies are exceptionally creamy, with a thin, flaky crust.
Cream pies can be cloyingly sweet. Not at Jerico’s, where the airy filling gets balanced with chunks of banana, a hefty layer of whipped cream and a sprinkling of crispy shaved almonds. Before I could even think about the calories, my slice was gone.
Nebraska Steakhouses
Today Flatwater Free Press begins a new, year long series called Steak Town USA. The series will include a year of reviews of Omaha steakhouses, plus four feature stories about steakhouses around the state of Nebraska.
It also includes this map, of every steakhouse in the state of Nebraska. Before today, such a map has not existed. Click the map for steakhouse details.
We see this list as a work in progress. Do you know of a steakhouse that we missed? Let us know and we will add it. Email Sarah Baker Hansen with the name of the steakhouse and the Nebraska town where it’s located.
DiDonato has kept Jerico’s much the same restaurant I remember from my childhood. But he’s also quietly added specials like short ribs and halibut, and higher-end craft cocktails like a maple Old Fashioned and the Jerico’s Manhattan that I enjoyed.
Jerico’s still flies a bit under the radar. DiDonato said the 2006 opening of the Dodge Street Expressway meant that the steakhouse became less visible to drivers — and diners.
“A lot of people forgot about us,” he said. “Or they come in and say ‘hey, I’ve lived here for 30 years and I’ve never heard of your restaurant.’”
His father has passed. My parents have, too. The neighborhood around the restaurant has changed, as kids like my sister and I become adults, sell the family home and watch new families with new kids move in.
And I’m happy to report: Jerico’s appears to be experiencing a moment of rediscovery.
More couples with children are coming in for dinner, DiDonato said. He’s working to strike a balance between the old-school classics his diners love and newer, more contemporary tastes. And though he has no intention of competing with the restaurants he calls “big and bold and hot right now,” there’s always a place, I think, for standards in any town, especially in a town like Omaha, and especially when it comes to steakhouses.
DiDonato said those younger diners will be Jerico’s future.
“Hopefully, they will have the memories that you had when you were growing up,” he said, motioning toward me as our interview wrapped up.
I could see that 9-year-old birthday girl devouring pie, surrounded by her family on the Night Before Christmas.
I hope so, I thought as I told Chuck goodbye. I really do.
8 Comments
Hi Sarah,
Your review of Jerico’s and your plan to review Nebraska Steakhouses is wonderful and could probably be the basis for a nice book. I also have great memories of a steakhouse for birthday’s and special occasions. For me it was Rod’ Ranchhouse in West Orange, NJ. (I have been in Omaha for over 30 years but started my journey in NJ.) Rod’s was our family goto place for years. It was a jacket and tie restaurant when I was young and felt exotic for a young boy. As with Jerico’s, it was Manhattan’s and Martini’s prior to the meal , a variety of beef entrees for the main course and wonderful rich deserts. We celebrated holidays, birthdays and various special occasions at Rod’s and I cannot remember ever being disappointed.
Places like Jerico’s, The Drover, Mahogany and the other nice steakhouses in our state are not only great places to eat they can be great memory makers too.
Reading SBH reviews always a treat. It is fun to sit back and take in the entertaining and descriptive culinary tastes and images they create.
Looked at the map and it’s missing Ruhlmans in Ashland. Open less than a year.
This piece made me a little misty. I grew up a few blocks from Jericho’s, and I worked in the speed bar at Imperial Palace for a few months during college.
But then, I spent a few decades trying to get away from West Omaha and old-school Italian steakhouses. I even lived close enough to Thomas Keller and Alice Waters restaurants to learn how much I’ll never know about food.
Now that I’ve been back in Omaha for a few years, I follow SBH’s recommendations and learn just how much great dining we have here. And I’ve grown to love the things about Nebraska food that I used to dismiss or ignore.
I’ll be following this series with enthusiasm.
I’m so excited to find out about this homemade coconut cream pie! My favorite. I will be visiting Jerico’s very soon because of it. Thank you for highlighting!
We love Jerico’s! Thanks for this great review!
You are spot on! Steak Houses in Nebraska are an individual beauty. Thank you for showing appreciation for why they are such iconic and loved hometown spots.
It’s probably because of my lack of ability to understand and operate computers, but I don’t see a map or a list of steakhouses. Probably just as well – as a diabetic, my blood sugar surged when I saw the picture of banana cream pie.