Steak Town USA: Committee Chophouse straddles past, future — and mouth-watering present

A Committee Chophouse chef can pinpoint the first moment when he sensed the restaurant he works for was an honest-to-goodness steakhouse. 

It was the day that a few Nebraska  ranchers arrived with their families, unannounced, for dinner. Then the ranchers’ friends started showing up, too, to this landmark spot inside the historic Cottonwood hotel.   

“That was when it really clicked for me that we’ve embedded ourselves as a staple steakhouse in Nebraska,” said Brandon Kalfut, the Committee’s chef de cuisine. 

Kalfut’s experience is a decidedly old-school one. For more than a century, Nebraska ranchers, packers and beef purveyors of all kinds have come to Omaha for business and, at the end of the long workday, changed their boots and gone out for a steak dinner. 

Case in point: My husband Matthew’s late grandparents, John and Ardis Yost, were in the meat business in Red Cloud.  

After John finished his day doing business at the Omaha stockyards – then the largest livestock market in the world –  Ardis would put on her best dress and they’d go out for steak at Johnny’s Cafe. Those meals were so special, she could recall almost every detail nearly 50 years later. 

Traditions linger. Cattlemen still look for a well-cooked piece of meat — maybe even one they raised — and a fine dining experience to go along with it.

The Committee Chophouse delivers on that desire, straddling the past and the future of Nebraska steakhouses with vintage cuts of meat and old-school side dishes almost any Nebraskan would recognize. They are prepared with skill, with precision, with a modern flair. I’ve dined at the Committee many times by now. I have never had a subpar steak, or a bad experience. That’s saying something.

For our recent visit, we stuck to our Steak Town parameters, see below. (Read the first installment of Steak Town USA, my love letter to Jerico’s.)

And reminder No. 2: We built this handy-dandy steakhouse map, with the goal of listing every steakhouse in the state for when you’re hungry.

When at the Chophouse, I highly recommend starting your evening with a cocktail in the adjacent Cottonwood Room, a space that’s been carefully recreated to remind diners of those glory days of Omaha beef in the 1950s and ’60s. It feels undeniably glamorous to sit under a golden, softly lit cottonwood tree and sip on a clean, sharp Manhattan. Matthew’s negroni came served on one large, clear rock in a crystal glass. Cocktails at the Cottonwood are served in gorgeous glassware with a vintage feel, and the presentation is crisp and on point. 

The physical space throughout both the Cottonwood Room and the Committee Chophouse are filled with history: the building dates to 1916 and many original details remain, including a grand marble staircase and original tile and terrazzo floors throughout the Committee. The dining room has all the steakhouse tropes: warm wood, cozy booth seating and the kind of soft lighting that makes everyone look good. 

“You can’t really recreate in a new building the feel of a building” built more than a century ago, said Joshua Nelson, the Committee’s general manager. “There’s a sense of nostalgia, but there’s also the responsibility to maintain the memories and experiences people have had in this building for a hundred years.”

It reminds this diner of a bygone era, to be sure. 

The Committee’s shrimp cocktail is going to be hard to beat. The five prawns are impressively large, and they come served with a horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce, a creamy tarragon aioli and a small dollop of glossy seaweed salad. The horseradish has quite a kick here, a plus, and the quality and freshness of the seafood is astounding. The bit of seaweed lends an unexpected hint of umami and is heavy on sesame. 

Steaks at the Committee are served à la carte, and we ordered the Delmonico, a 16-ounce bone-out ribeye, cooked medium and the 8-ounce center cut filet mignon, cooked medium rare. For side dishes, we stuck with a loaded baked potato, but substituted a new dish, creamed corn, for the onion rings, which weren’t available. 

These dishes are old fashioned, yes. But they’re also just good. The steaks come wonderfully charred and both of ours were perfectly cooked, with juicy, flavorful finishes. Though the Delmonico had some extra fat around its edges, it’s easily carved off and, in the end, added to the rich, salty flavor. Though leaner and with a softer texture, the filet is outstanding in its own right, with a pure, well-seasoned beefy flavor. I wrote down “salty-juicy-perfectly seared-bliss” and that about captures it.

The Committee upgrades every single ingredient on its loaded baked potato: bacon bits get swapped with impressively chunky cubes of lardon, sour cream with crème fraîche and shredded cheese with a hot spoonful of cheese fondue. All that gets topped with a hunk of butter and curled green onions. The soft, pillowy interior is all held together by a super crisp, salt-coated potato skin. Is it over the top? Absolutely. Is it damn delicious? You bet it is.  

Creamed corn is a far cry from the canned variety you might have had growing up. Here, it’s made with grana padano cheese and Espelette, a French red pepper with fruity heat. The whole thing is incredibly rich, with the flavor of Nebraska summer sweet corn. In February, this is a particularly welcome indulgence.  

And now, for maybe my favorite part: The chophouse is one of the only places in Omaha where you can get a classic baked Alaska. My research only found one other, a steakhouse we’ll be visiting later this year. 

The restaurant has offered several flavors of the dish since opening. The current flavor, s’mores, gives off the aroma of toasted marshmallows almost instantly after the server lights it with flaming alcohol; flavors of roasted graham against a cold center of Coneflower ice cream, made just a few blocks away, make it unforgettable. It remains one of the best desserts in the city. My only wish is that it got a bit more brown at the tableside. Our flames went out while the meringue was still a bit pale for my liking. 

Service at the steakhouse is relaxed and friendly, but professional at the same time. It’s fine dining, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Nelson and Kalfut, plus executive chef Jason Sirois, told me after my visits that after spending many years collectively in kitchens they aim to create a culture that fosters better mental health and lets all staff have an opinion and a voice. “It’s the first time in my career that I have ever had a kitchen that’s just, relaxed, even during the peak of service,” Kalfut said. “It’s a blank canvas and it lets our team express themselves.”

That contributes to the experience for diners. 

“The food is only going to taste as good as the guest feels when it gets to your table,” Nelson said. “We take every opportunity to improve that experience.” 

I can feel that when I dine in the restaurant. I’m sure others can, too. It’s a thoroughly modern way to run a space filled with such history. If there were to be an Omaha steakhouse with its eye and its menu looking toward the future, the Committee feels like the one.