This past weekend was full of fun adventures that were easily some of the best highlights of the past month. That may or may not have had something to do with the fact that Jeremy was here visiting. Jeremy was not the only important person in my life who was here, though. One of my best friends, Stacy, and her husband, Chris, made their way out to visit me in Omaha for the first time. We filled up two days full of gallivanting around Omaha, eating delicious food, and drinking plenty of beer. You are not doing Omaha right if you aren’t eating and drinking at the best local places.
A few weeks back, Jeremy let me in on a fun Omaha tourism activity that was news to me. The Visit Omaha website offers tourists an opportunity to experience the best craft beer that Omaha has to offer through their Craft Brewery Tour. Since I am an Omaha resident, I sadly was not eligible for the goodies. But Jeremy, Stacy, and Chris all signed up on the website about two weeks prior to their visit, and received an Explorer’s Journal with free beer coupons to eight local breweries <– we like our beer here in Omaha!
Lucky for me, Stacy is not a huge beer person so I was able to snag her coupons at the majority of the breweries we visited!
We started our brewery tour at Borgata Brewery and Distillery in the Old Market. We loved the building and decor, and the staff was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. Even though I did not have a drink coupon (Stacy found a cider beer here), the bar tender hooked me up with a free beer!
I chose the Hefeweizen and really enjoyed it.
Stacy and I at the brewery.
I may or may not have been representing my black and gold Iowa colors. I may live in Nebraska now, but I still have loyalty to my home state.
One of the bartenders was kind enough to take a group picture of the four of us back in the brewing room. I love how we all just happened to match the mural in the background!
After spending a couple of hours at Borgata, we walked a few blocks to eat lunch at Omaha Tap House. This was my visit here and I was not disappointed. I ordered the “Hangover Burger” and subbed in a house-made veggie patty. The veggie burger was topped with American cheese, hashbrowns, and a fried egg. It was seriously delicious. I also loved the coleslaw that I ate on the side.
Jeremy ordered the Cheese Curd Cheeseburger. It looks pretty legit, right? He had an order of their jalapeno french fries on the side. I tried them and loved them!
P.S. To my local readers- they have a Thanksgiving burger right now (which Chris ordered) and it looked and sounded unbelievable. Who wouldn’t want sweet potato fries ON their burger?
I love that Jeremy and I both love to eat delicious food and drink cold beer. We are two peas in a pod.
With full bellies, we were back out into the cold and windy day. I am not at all ready for the Winter weather that will soon be upon us. I always enjoy the first snowfall, but that is about all I can get excited about.
Our next stop was Upstream Brewing Company. Since I am allll about the pumpkin right now, I ordered the All Hallows Pumpkin Weizen. It was delicious and perfectly pumpkiny. I honestly do not think I could ever get tired of pumpkin beers.
Our fourth stop was to a fairly new brewery in town, Farnam House Brewing Company.
Jeremy and Chris drank IPAs, while Stacy and I took a break from the drinks. I opted for this instead:
What? You mean you don’t eat apples at a bar? 😉
After our fourth bar, we were just a tad bit exhausted. We headed back to my apartment for a quick nap. But we were not down for the count. After a 30 minute snooze, we were up and ready for dinner and a couple more beers!
I took my three amigos to one of my favorite restaurants in Omaha: Benson Brewery. While waiting for our table, I chose the Apple Cinn beer to drink. I loved this beer because it had strong apple and cinnamon flavors without being too sweet like a cider would be.
I also enjoyed some of the most delicious food, including these vegan seitan wings. I ordered half spicy barbecue and half beer honey mustard. They came with veggies and the most amazing vegan ranch dip. Jeremy enjoyed the seitan wings we ate in Colorado so much that he actually ordered these wings too! I’ll share more of our delicious appetizer eats in tomorrow’s What I Ate Wednesday post.
Chris and Stacy!
We ended our evening by walking a block down to Infusion Brewing Company where I ordered the Vanilla Bean Blonde beer. It had a strong vanilla flavor that I really enjoyed, but only made it about halfway through the beer because I found it to be a little too sweet. Next time I would definitely mix it with another beer to cut down on the sweetness of it. Stacy and I played a never-ending game of war (the card game), and Jeremy and Chris took a very strange beer shot with whipped cream. Basically, it was a wild time.
I had an absolute blast this past weekend with some of my favorite people. I was so sad when the weekend had to come to an end. We made it to five of the eight breweries on the tour, and I am looking forward to visiting the other three soon to get stamps in the Explorer’s Journals that Stacy and Chris left behind. You receive a free pint glass if you get stamps from all eight breweries. If you ask me, there is never not a good reason to add to your beer glass collection!
Since this entire weekend was essentially one big treat, I am linking up with Becky for Treat Yourself Tuesday! Let’s make it a good one!
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What a fun weekend! I love the idea of doing a beer tour, just not so sure i’d be able to handle all the beverages. I do like that y’all split up the time in between for some downtime & food. I’m sure that helped w/ being able to continue drinking.
Yes!! That was a must. Otherwise it would not have been pretty… 😉
What a fun day! And that cheese curd burger?! OMG, looks so good. I love how you said that you both love to eat delicious food and drink cold beer- haha, I feel the same about Scott and I!
It is so great to have very similar hobbies! It makes just spending the day together doing simple things SO much fun 🙂
A beer tour is such a great idea! Sounds like a fun weekend.
It was an awesome weekend! We had a blast!
I love that Omaha has all these amazing things that I’ve never heard of. I think Jeff and my dad would LOVE this (and once baby arrives, I will too).
You really need to get the photo in front of that mural framed – so perfect!
They definitely would!! Also, I just have to say that your dad seems like a pretty cool guy 😉
Good call on the picture, too! I hadn’t thought of that, but now I am definitely going to do that.
All I can see is that burger! I’ve spent probably a longer time than I should have trying to figure out how on earth one would even attempt to eat that!
Yeah, when I saw them bring it out I was thinkin… “that is going to be a challenge!” It was a mess, that’s for sure. But all that matters is that it tastes good, right?
This sounds like a crazy fun day! I love that your meat-eating boyfriend is open to trying vegan things – so sweet! One time during lent we were eating at PF Changs and Brian subbed our usual chicken lettuce wraps for veggie lettuce wraps for me since I couldn’t eat meat but he was not happy about it 😉
I am SO lucky that he is literally willing to try (and often likes) pretty much anything that I order or make. I honestly don’t know what I would do otherwise. FYI… we went to PF Changs over the Summer and they gave us half tofu/half chicken for our lettuce wraps! I promise I won’t tell Brian that though 😉
Annnnnd now I’m craving beer and a hangover burger before noon. 😉
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that!! 😉
The beer tour sounds awesome!! Omaha is a quick trip from KC, so I may have to make a long weekend of it. 🙂
You totally should! KC and Omaha are a great distance from one another. I love making trips down there for the weekend!
I’m impressed with your mid-crawl snooze! If I did that I’d be down for the count for the rest of day 😉
Haha, it was MUCH needed! And trust me… I definitely woke up groggy. But the idea of delicious food got me going! 😉
How fun!! And where is your black vest from? I love it!
Old Navy!! Got it for like $15!
It looks so awesome there! Looks like you guys had a really fun day out and took some nice pictures too!
We have such a great time! Omaha is really a wonderful city with SO much to do!
What an awesome sounding weekend! So many good people and good food and drinks! I love the sound of the brewery touring you guys did!
It was a wonderful time. I never wanted the weekend to end!
Mmmmmm. Brewery tour! Love them.
I was in Omaha last year visiting a friend and we went to a brewery for dinner. Of course I don’t remember the name now, but I know it was in the Old Market! And I know it was delicious!
It might have been Upstream!! I have not eaten there yet, but I hear the food is delicious. I need to try it soon!
Yeah! That sounds right! I think I had mac and cheese. Yummmm.
I’ll definitely be keeping that in mind!
This sounds like a fun activity! I will have to have my friends do this next time they come visit. I had Infusion’s Vanilla Bean at Ramen Fest a few weeks back. I thought it was so good with a slight vanilla flavor.
You should absolutely plan something like this for your friends! I think they would really enjoy it. It is a great way to show a little side of what Omaha has to offer.
What a fun weekend! I think you showed off a lot of great sides to Omaha – good beer, great food and fun places.
It really was a wonderful weekend. Omaha has so much to offer and I love sharing about it here on my blog 🙂
Your picture in front of the mural turned out great! So glad you came down to Borgata! Come down and visit again soon.
Thanks so much! I absolutely will. We all had a great time!
How fun! Having lived in Omaha for the last 8 years (I too am an IOWA girl) I had no idea such a prescribed tour even existed. Looks like fun – so will have to check it out. Something to do when our IA friends come hang with us. 🙂
I had no clue either until my boyfriend mentioned it! It was SO fun, so you should definitely do it with your friends. P.S. Yay for IOWA 🙂
I love this idea! I’m so glad you made it to Infusion… it’s my FAVORITE. The Vanilla Bean Blonde is actually not my favorite, but I love their lighter IPA’s. Sometimes they have a Blood Orange IPA that is SOOOOOOOOO GOOD.
Oh geez… a blood orange IPA sounds amazing! You’ll have to let me know if you are there and they have it back sometime!
Wow! I moved away from Omaha in 2010 and none of those places were open. I will be back to visit family soon and I hope to visit a few! 🙂
Oh gosh, there are so many great places open now! I never ever tire of the breweries and restaurants that we have here 🙂