My favorite brunch spots are the ones that mix just the right combination of good music, great coffee, funky decor and an excellent plate of food, be it a burger or an egg dish.
Saddle Creek Breakfast Club has always had that combination, with its tiny midtown Omaha dining room, a never-empty cup of coffee that made the line out the door more palatable and, once you got a table, downright excellent food, both classic and creative.
When the restaurant moved west this year, from its location on North Saddle Creek Road to a new spot in Countryside Village – a former Starbucks off 87th and Pacific – I’m sure I wasn’t the only one hoping it would keep that magic equation.
It largely does.
The restaurant continues to nail its menu, including a list of cocktails, and serves great drip coffee. Mexican-inspired breakfast items are flavorful and well executed. The burger is solid.
I also tried a few new gems I’ll return for, like the toast and a bright, delicious salad.
And though I perhaps liked the decor at the old place better, the food balances things out.
About that toast: I really liked the idea of a shortlist of four toasts set up as sort of a shareable breakfast appetizer. We tried the lox toast, which arrived beautifully plated and spread with whipped cream cheese, prettily folded fish, a sprinkle of dill, a handful of capers and red onion sliced so thin to be transparent.
Served on a Le Quartier rustic slice that’s browned until crisp, it’s a few savory bites – just enough to whet your appetite for what’s to come.
In my case, it was the Certified Piedmontese burger, a perfectly sized 6-ounce beef patty served in classic style, with cheddar cheese, butter lettuce, house made pickles, shaved onion and “fancy sauce” on a brioche bun.
Chef and owner Chase Thomsen said he used to make the burger with wagyu but more recently switched to the smaller Piedmontese patty, made with meat from Nebraska-raised Italian breed cows.
“I think a 6-ounce burger is the perfect size for a restaurant burger,” he said.
I agree. It’s a small, delicate diner style burger, the right size for lunch, served with toppings obviously homemade.
SCBC has several Mexican inspired dishes on the menu. The restaurant has also debuted a Taco Tuesday where they open in the evenings from 5 to 8 p.m. and serve a menu of street tacos, salsa, margaritas and tequila shots.
Thomsen said he and one of his long-time chefs, Maria Batista, who is Mexican, together conceptualized that menu and the ones on the brunch menu.
“She just makes some of the best Mexican food that I think you can make,” he said.
The Dos Salsas de Maria — named after Batista — is a good example of that: two eggs, cooked to order, are topped by two house-made, flavorful salsas and fresh crumbled queso fresco cheese. In the center of the plate, Mexican rice sits next to hunks of chorizo; next to that is a sliced avocado. The whole thing sits atop one large, homemade flour tortilla.
It’s bright in color, spicy in flavor and fun to eat. In the best way, it reminded me of the Mexican breakfast at the long-gone Dixie Quicks.
Another morning, my friend enjoyed the steak and eggs burrito, a flavorful, kicky dish, this time with scrambled eggs and sliced beef tucked inside a tortilla along with Mexican rice, pico de gallo, jalapeno and Monterey jack cheese.
The cocktails match the food’s quality, and the mood.
There are two versions of an espresso martini on the menu, one creamy and one not. I tried the latter and really liked the rich caramel notes that I think came from a brown sugar simple syrup. The Bunny Mary, a classic version of the tomato and vodka drink, here comes with the addition of carrot juice, which lightens up the thick vegetal notes of tomato juice with sweet flavor. Our table loved it.
I liked the OG mimosa, which I got with orange juice and fruity Schilling pineapple passion fruit, a hard cider. It’s fruitier than expected and packs just the right amount of kick.
We only tried drip coffee; the espresso machine was out of order during those two weeks. You can still expect a wait at SCBC, but not terribly long during either of our visits. The process has been streamlined, and you’ll receive a text when your table is ready, allowing you to wander around Countryside Village until then.
Toast made another appearance in the ham and eggs, a take on a classic Benedict, but with bread instead of an English muffin, a delicious edit. I got my hollandaise sauce on the side, and I was glad I did, as the texture was a bit too thick for my liking. Poached eggs arrived nicely runny, and a sweet, brown sugary note to the ham was an unexpected, tasty touch.
A flaky, tender croissant is the star of the Cali club, an upscale take on a bacon, egg and cheese croissant. It comes with the well-executed ingredients plus avocado and chipotle cream cheese. Smoked cheddar offers a savory element.
My friend ventured into the salad portion of the menu with great results: the “beet it” is both beautiful and an interesting variety of layered flavors, with elements of both salty and sweet.
A colorful, fresh take on a brunch salad, the dish combines marinated beets, prosciutto, burrata, orange slices, butter lettuce and a sprinkling of pistachios. It’s crunchy and juicy, crisp and soft.
The new dining room seats just about double the number of diners the old one did: from 33 to 65 chairs. Thomsen said originally, the owners planned to keep the midtown location open while they opened the west location, but after the west location got delayed and their lease in midtown came to an end, they closed one before opening the other. It was always their intention to move to just one location, he said.
The new SCBC dining room is hot pink — inspired, I imagine, by the pink neon sign they’ve become known for, which sits in the window of the new location. Thomsen told me his wife,
Niki Nichols Thomsen, designed the space, filled with pink bunnies peeking out of frames on a custom printed wallpaper that’s a collage of photos of celebrities in bed, a take on the idea of breakfast in bed, he said.
My taste leans more toward the sparser, DIY feel of their old dining room that had the worn-in look of the comfortable neighborhood haunt that it eventually became. The new space feels designed specifically to be shared on Instagram and TikTok, and though it’s cute, it’s a lot to take in. It’s less timeless, more trendy.
Thomsen said there are plans for patio seating next year, and eventually, he’d like to add a bakery into the mix. SCBC also has use of the lower level beneath its dining room. A new set of diners who have discovered the restaurant in its new location are interested in lunch, and Thomsen said he’s working on building out a more robust mid-day menu. He plans for several new dishes to rotate onto the menu in the coming months.
Until then, Saddle Creek Breakfast Club is, as one of my friends put it best, just what it’s always been: the best brunch in Omaha, elevated but simple.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The Skinny
Name: Saddle Creek Breakfast Club
Address: 8734 Pacific St., in Countryside Village
Phone: 402-932-5970
Info: https://www.facebook.com/SCBCOmaha
Hours: Open daily 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Tuesday evening from 5 to 8 p.m.
