On the outskirts of town, friends Ken Bliss and Gayle Gainsforth opened a restaurant selling loose meat sandwiches in 1953. The sandwich consisted of finely ground beef that is cooked loose in the sauce and pressed between two buns. The sandwich was invented 100 miles north in Sioux City, IA in 1924 at the Ye Olde Tavern. It gained in popularity in the midwest once Maid-Rite opened in 1926.
The friends worked together in Fremont before moving to Omaha to open their resaurant next to a golf course on 84th and Dodge. The building had been the home of Nelson Tastee Treet which I suspect sold loose meat sandwiches as well. When Nelson closed, B & G Tastee Treet opened in the little shack which had no seating. Employing car hops, they changed the name to B & G Drive In by 1958. By the time they moved their popular restaurant to Beverly Hills Plaza in 1973, they had changed the name to B & G Tasty Foods. This was probably the result of switching from a drive in to a sit down restaurant.
Everyone in both families worked at the restaurant at one time or another. After Ken passed away in 1977, Gayle continued to cook at the restaurant six days a week in 12 hour shifts. Gayle was described as a “lively man who loved to greet customers, especially children, as they entered his restaurant.” He would talk to anyone on the street whether they said hello or not. The co-founder, owner and cook retired in 2000 and passed away in 2004.
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The restaurant struggled under two different owners for the next five years. It wasn’t resurrected until a former employee, Eddie Morin, bought it in 2009. He refreshed the restaurant by adding a new counter, painting the interior and hanging old ads from the 1950’s. He also used old bicycles as decor.
During the 10 years that he owned the restaurant, he managed to triple the sales. Unfortunately, not even that was enough to save it. There was a perception that loose meat sandwiches should cost less than a hamburger even though it cost more to make once the labor and ingredients are factored in. When he decided to close the restaurant in 2019, he told Omaha Magazine in an interview that despite having lots of loyal customers he wasn’t making enough money to continue to operate the restaurant.
While he received multiple offers for the restaurant, he turned them all down until he was approached by someone that wanted the brand and the recipes but nothing else. All of the previous offers were from people that wanted to keep everything the same even though it wasn’t sustainable long term. In addition to the food costs, the current location had extremely high rent, a single cash register and lacked a drive thru window.
Eddie appreciated the new vision which included a drive thru, new food items such as alcohol-infused ice cream as a dessert option. The process of replicating its loose meat sandwhich took a couple of years in addition to help from the previous owner and chef. Only after nailing the recipe for the bee gee did he reopen the restaurant in Nebraska Crossing.
While it opened with much excitement and grand plans in July 2023, it closed four months later in November due to irreconcilable differences with its landlord. In November 2024 it reopened at the Hy-Vee on 180th and Q Streets.
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