Nite Owl Omaha

Located in Omaha’s Blackstone District, Nite Owl (3902 Farnam Street) is the perfect haunt for after work drinks or late night eats (their kitchen is open until 2 am). Happy Hour is from 3pm to 6pm Monday through Friday. Specials include sliders, fries and tots, $1 off tap beer and both classic cocktails and rotating house cocktails.

The interior of Nite Owl is a hybrid of updated dive bar and speakeasy. Lots of wood throughout with a focus on their rather large bar. All ordering is done there which may throw you off a bit if you don’t read the menu on your table first (Thank you for ordering at the bar is mentioned everywhere). It was rather dark inside, but they are working on an outside patio which I’m excited for (yay more dog friendly patios at restaurants/bars). They put a lot of care into your drink order and the bar setup allows you to see every step. Food came out hot and pretty promptly.

I went with the Toronto ($6: rye whiskey, fernet branca, demerara) on this first visit which is one of their Classics. Again, it’s apparent that a lot of time went into perfecting these cocktail recipes. The fernet wasn’t overpowering and the finish was perfect. A few of these would definitely get the job done.

I LOVE that Nite Owl offers tots ($3: includes house aioli). I totally expected a small side order of tater tots similar to fast food drive thrus but that wouldn’t cut it at this joint. You literally get a tray full (think high school lunch trays) of hot and fresh tater tots. Just the right amount of salt and the aioli is delicious. Even my friend who prefers french fries liked my tots better. There were so many I got to take some with me and give them the microwave reheat test (they passed).

I also ordered the birdhouse slider ($3: fried chicken, honey-sriracha sauce, southern bacon slaw) which came out on a cool little glass dish. The chicken was crispy on the outside even with the sauce and slaw on top and juicy on the inside. I love the honey-sriracha, not too spicy and reminded me of the hot honey trend I’ve been seeing. Plus how can you hate sriracha on chicken. I am not really a slaw person but it made sense on this sandwich. I would have liked a slightly less rough chop on the lettuce, the slider size just made the slaw pieces seem to be too much.

I give Nite Owl 5 smiles. I will be back to try some more cocktails and for another slider and tot order. I’m also excited to try their regular menu items and spend a warm summer day on their patio with a boozy slushie (coming soon) and my dog.