Local Beer, Patio and Kitchen

We came in at about 10pm on a Saturday night and it was packed. And loud. So so loud! You better be prepared to scream if you want to be heard or really like the person you’re with because you’ll be putting your mouth directly to their ear. It was a little ridiculous. Noise levels like that just aren’t healthy.
But to the beer and food… The Infusion Vanilla Bean Blonde tastes very much like a cream soda. If you like lighter beers or aren’t much of a beer drinker I definitely recommend it! The Nachos are good, but not your typical nachos. They come topped with beer cheese (I seriously love beer cheese) instead of a spicier nacho or queso, and so the heat comes from the chorizo and jalapeños. Delightful. The Cheese Curds I’m a little conflicted on. On one hand, the curds themselves are sort of «meh» but on the other hand the beer cheese dip they come with is really good!
I’m definitely open for another visit! Just not on a night there are so many people that it makes me think we need a new plague… ;)

Tucked away near the river is LOCAL. It has a lot of LOCAL beer on tap along with some great food. I was new to Omaha so Natasha set me up with a beer flight of local IPAs. I had the open faced meatloaf sandwich for dinner which was tasty with a little jalapeño kick.
I’m definitely glad I found this place on Unilocal.I will be back to continue my LOCAL brew tour.

I have visited this restaurant twice, trying really hard to like it, but I don’t think I will be back anytime soon. The location is great, but with the choices of restaurants in the old market, I will choose other options.
The first time I visited, they messed up my order and forgot my side dish. When I told the waitress, she gave me a measly $ 2 discount. I thought this may be some of there kinks that needed to be worked out in a new restaurant, so I waited a few months and gave it another chance.
I visited again when there was a limited menu for Creighton game. I was excited about the gluten free options, but they were all taken off the limited menu. I ordered the nachos, which came with skimpy toppings. The two of us paid $ 43 for a subpar experience again. The service was also spotty. It will be a long time before I give it another chance.

Solid experience. Good beer– great selection. I especially like that they lost the beef both by Brewer and by type — helpful when you’re not familiar with the brewery.
Friendly and attentive servers.
Good food. The hummus was tasty with a good variety of veggies including olives, radishes and cucumber in addition to the standard carrots and pita bread.
Across the street from Courtyard Marriott so super convenient.

If I were rating Local on the food alone, this would be a two star review. If the service hadn’t been exceptional, it may even have been a single lonely star.
Why was the food strangely disappointing, with so many exceptional local spots to source from? Our meal was sadly forgettable, save for the pretzel bites… Which I think were served with some kind of cheese sauce.
On reflection, I also remember some kind of Mac & Cheese that I not only didn’t finish… But didn’t even want boxed up.
The saving grace here was the massive beer list. So I can easily recommend Local for some brews, but I’d have to recommend moving on when it comes to dining.

I sat at the bar and enjoyed several beers in a flight… which is a very nice option.
The chicken wings were also very good… I had two half orders. The first being decent enough to make me want a second. I had that and the waffle fries nachos and called it dinner!
I do need to come back here for some different food. The beers are always changing, so that’s a second reason to visit again.

I was so excited when Local opened. A new downtown craft beer bar, with a focus on locally-​produced beers? Excellent! By and large, Local lives up to my expectations, with a huge number of taps, supplemented by some great bottled offerings. Just about every Nebraska and Iowa brewery (well, those that distribute here) are available, and they often get offerings that don’t make it to anywhere else. Specifically, they’re just about the only place I know of that consistently has Scratchtown beers available — which is exciting, because they’re one of the best new breweries around. Turnover on beers is often very quick, and the printed tap list doesn’t do a great job of keeping up, so be sure to ask if there are any updates before you order.
The service can get a bit slow during busy times, but at a bar like this, that’s fine, and to be expected. More importantly, the bartenders and waitstaff are consistently friendly, knowledgeable, and passionate about their products. It’s always a great feeling when I can ask a question about a beer and get an informed answer.
Prices are also quite reasonable, with great Happy Hour pricing that drops many beers into the $ 3 range — an excellent price for a craft beer pint. This makes it easy to try several things, which is nice, considering the breadth of delicious options.
I’m less impressed by the food, which is solid, but nothing special. What they have is good, but sometimes lacking in flavor or character. With a name like «Local,» I’d love to see them up their game and have a menu based on locally-​sourced products.
I can’t complain much though — the beer is the star of the show, and Local is an outstanding place to grab a few pints.

Descriptive phrase: hip hangout pub.
Local is the first restaurant you see coming off the freeway into downtown Omaha from the east, and its outdoor patio with firepit caught my eye right away. We came in on Saturday night around 9PM for some food and to watch sports. It’s cool-​looking inside, if a bit cold with lots of stone and metal. They’ve got an unbelievable amount of local beers on draught, but my enthusiasm was tempered when ours were served in plastic solo cups that cracked extremely easily. They’d do well to invest in some glassware.
It wasn’t mentioned anywhere, but their food menu at this hour was about a third of their normal offering. We split a Nachos ($ 7), which was good (can nachos be bad?). I nom’d on my friends tater tots that came with his Bacon Cheeseburger ($ 11); also good.
Local’s food was totally fine, and their beer list is unbeatable. The place was packed with well-​dressed yuppies as well as punks rockers and sports fanatics: a nice mix. I’d just recommend they get real glasses for the beer and pay to have more variety in sports channels on their million TVs.

Service was excellent. Every question I had, they answered. Love he concept – everything made with 100% local ingredients. Quite a hefty beer selection.
I had a hard time deciding on food – the whole menu looked so darn good. Eventually I decided to try the spicy spam sandwich – I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not, since I’m not the BIGGEST spam person, but I thought to myself, «Why not? When in Omaha…» So I pulled the trigger and got the spicy spam sandwich.
I was skeptical. I had my doubts. But once I tasted it, my mind was seriously blown. AMAZING. Seriously a work of art.
I can’t wait to try making this at home.
Also, I really appreciate that this place put on the game I requested (Go Chargers!) without hesitation, and on a TV that was right in front of my face.
There’s honestly nothing I can think of that would support me removing a statement, so this place gets all 5 from me.

Fun spot in Omaha! Great to watch a game and enjoy some craft beer. My big thing is to try a brew that’s local when I’m in a different city. This is certainly the spot to get any Iowa /​Nebraska local brew. They have over 60 local beers on tap.
I really appreciated that the flights came with a paper with a number and name of each beer. The flight board was numbered too. Most places you forget what you ordered or the line up may be different than what the server tells you.
Food was good too. I went with the house salad since I had heavier meals earlier in the day. This came with cheese curds, croutons, and barley. I also got a side of the malt vinegar tater tots too which were excellent.
We were part of a large party of about 20 people but the Local was able to accommodate us very nicely. The food came out quickly and everything seemed to be accurate.
My girlfriend and I also enjoyed a few games of the giant size connect four boards!

Life sized Connect Four!
If that wasn’t a big enough reason to go the food and literally every beer made in Nebraska should be.
On my last visit my love of potatoes wouldn’t let me skip over the waffle fry nachos. The actual waffle fries were super crispy and well seasoned. Thick enough to actually support the toppings and crispy enough to emulate a chip sort of crunch. The beer cheese was a great substitute for nacho cheese, having the same amount of space while having more depth of flavor.
I’ve gotten the Peace Tree Blonde Fatale my last two visits and it hasn’t disappointed yet. Love the patio and the fact that there is an option for parking in the back (still metered and normally full unfortunately).

Local is a wonderful establishment. The main draw is the fact they have 100+ local beers available, many of them on tap. Stop by, chat up one of the very knowledgable bartenders and sip, sample and enjoy the glorious beer offerings from Nebraska and Iowa breweries. Many are seasonal small batches or one off runs, so the selection is constantly changing.
Also, the food is great, naturally focusing on using locally sourced foodstuffs. The menu consists of reimagined pub grub. Yes, you can get a delicious hot dog, but with bacon jam on top. For my next visits, my eyes are set on trying the spicy Spam sandwich and the BPLT (p for pastrami!). Plenty of vegetarian options as well.
If you’re into craft beer and/​or supporting and trying all things local, well, Local is a must try.

When you walk into a fancy type sports bar and they are cranking, your favorite Elvis Costello tune, «Man Out of Time,» you know you have found a good spot!
Thanks to a tip from Omaha Elite Mike S. we found ourselves at Local!
This is the ultimate spot in Omaha for trying multiple Local Nebraska Brews, and it’s got a cool modern layout, lots of tv’s, massive connect 4 for kids, great pub food, and they were playing killer music!
I have never heard my favorite band the Olivia Tremor Control in a bar, I had to ask the bar tender about it and he directed me to another bar tender who made tonight’s playlist! After we high fived and I did a R.I.P toast to Bill Doss of the Olivia Tremor Control we ate some grub!
We got some Fries to start with sea salt and black pepper, then dug into our main dishes! I got a Mushroom sandwich was quite delightful and it came with Tots which were darn good as well!
They let me try multiple beers and I ended up having a couple different local pints! With all the ones I tried I forgot what I ended up drinking, but they were both awesome and got me in the right mood for my last night in Omaha!
This is a must stop, if you are in the area, its a bit off of the Old Market, but was perfect for us as we were staying at the Courtyard Marriott! Would be a killer spot to hit pre or post show at the arena!
They also have a nice patio as well! And non alcoholic beers if you need one of those too!
Something for everyone here!

Coming in, I was very skeptical. My wife and I have had several bad experiences at the places previously located here, so we were going in with very low expectations. That being said, they blew us away! They had several options for vegetarians, did some excellent upgrades to the layout and had a great selection of local beers and mixed drinks.
I had a delicious bloody mary that was made of everything that could be locally sourced and it was delicious. I got the breakfast poutine (as we went for a sunday brunch) and my wife got the breakfast sammy. It was all very good and flavorful. Best part was, great service from the bartender (granted they weren’t very busy, but still a huge upgrade from the last place in the same location).
Overall I would recommend this to anyone, especially if they are fans of locally sourced, owned and operated type of business.

I am sooo happy this location has finally turned in to something worthwhile! The Local is a huge upgrade! It’s got a fantastic urban, industrial feel to it. They only have local beers on tap, which I support 100%, of course! Their menu is varied and reasonably priced. They have great vegetarian friendly options. I hear the crispy mushroom sandwich is excellent but haven’t tried it yet; looking forward to it tho. We actually stopped in for their Sunday brunch. I can attest that their bloody marys, breakfast poutine and the breakfast sandwich are all great. I’m loving their happy hour menu. Good beer specials… ~$ 2 off regularly priced beers. Small HH food selection but worth checking out and decent discounts. $ 1 bierocks and shroomrocks! Lots of tvs. NFL network. Good service (yay!). I hope they do well and stick around!

I came on a Monday evening, so the place was somewhat empty.
I initially felt overwhelmed by the large selection of beers and the large menu.
I started with a chocolate double stout, which didn’t pair well with my delicious spicy spam sandwich. After I expressed this to the bartender, he offered me to taste other beers till I found out the right one.
This is another good example of a new wave of young entrepreneurs bringing good food to Omaha.

I think this place has a ton of potential but still has a few kinks to work out (which is to be expected as they are still pretty new). I went on a Sunday afternoon with a friend to eat and have a couple drinks. I really enjoy the decorations and the set up. They have a really nice patio with a good view of the downtown area. I think that having entirely local beers is an awesome concept and was impressed with the large selection they had. This was tempered a little bit when I was told that they were out of the first two beers I tried to order. Luckily they had my third choice and it was very good.
Since it was Sunday afternoon, they had their brunch menu. I wasn’t super hungry, so I just ordered a single pancake with their maple bourbon syrup and a side of fruit. My friend ordered the Local Hash (shredded potatoes, chorizo, onion jam, gooseberry gastrique, with a fried egg) and the Breakfast Poutine (fries, bacon, cheese curds, hollandaise sauce, green onion, and a fried egg) at which point the waitress told us they were out of fries, but could replace them with tots. This was a perfectly acceptable (and delicious) substitution, but at this point we were raising our eyebrows at the fact that they seemed to be out of quite a few items. This was at the end of a weekend with two festivals downtown, though, so it is possible that with being new they are still trying to figure out demand.
About 15 minutes later, two other friends unexpectedly joined us and also ordered food. About 15 minutes after they ordered, the newcomers’ food came out, but my original companion’s and mine was nowhere to be found. It was another 5 minutes before our food came out, which was odd considering we had ordered 15 minutes before them, and my order was pretty far from being complicated. Also, we had planned to order a second drink, but our waitress went MIA after our food came until we were finished eating.
The pancake was a pretty average pancake, but the syrup had a nice flavor. The side of fruit contained a nice selection of good quality fruit. I tried my friend’s Poutine and it was pretty good. One of our friends ordered the Chilaquiles, which was supposed to be topped with Chorizo but wasn’t. She also said the tortilla chips were pretty soggy. We all agreed the food was good, but needed some work on the presentation to make it great.
I will probably wait a few months and give this place another try after they have some time to address some of their issues. They have an awesome beer selection and their menu has many interesting items on it that I would love to try.

Solid 4 stars for a new place! The inside remains mostly unchanged from when it was 9^th Street Tavern. Big open room with a large bar in the middle. There’s tables along the wall and windows, a back room near the kegs with large picnic style tables, and of course the patio with the giant fire pit! Did I mention there’s giant connect 4?
This place has over 50 local beers on tap. However, this does not mean local as in Nebraska. I am OK with this though! Local includes outstanding breweries from Des Moines and elsewhere nearby. Local enough! They were the first to have beer on tap from several different Nebraska breweries which is awesome, as well as the ONLY place to have some stuff on tap. A+
Food menu is small but great. Some good appetizer choices and some pretty unique dinner choices. As a SPAM lover I HAD to order the SPAM sandwich. Two slabs of SPAM with melted cheese, a fried egg, and jalapenos all over it on Hawaiian bread. It was AMAZING. Super, super spicy though so watch out. My parents ordered a BLT and a burger and unfortunately were not impressed. I’ll have to go back so I can form my own opinion on those items. Overall great job on the concept of a completely local place! If you love beer and want to try more stuff from your own state and nearby this is the place to go.

I would give Local 5 stars just for the concept itself. As many on here know I am a huge beer snob, so hearing that there would be over 50 Local beers on tap they immediately captured my interest.
My second visit was on a Friday evening and really enjoyed the atmosphere and how they changed the place from its previous tenants. Eric and Sara came over and entertained my guest and I, sharing stories of different breweries in the area.
My next visit was for a Sunday brunch (which is open till 3), and tried a flight of the previous tap takeover Kinkaider from Broken Bow. I ordered the Dad’s Breakfast, and loved their hashrowns, and I love my hash browns! But their bacon was exquisite. I couldn’t find out where it as from, but it was perfectly cured and seasoned. I will go back just for the bacon itself (and, of course, the beer). Sara also came over and chatted for a while… She is such a peach!

Waited a couple of weeks after the open, and after the Garth Brooks rush to check this new place out. There is some parking in the back lot with easy access to the eatery. I like the décor, the huge Connect Four games, and I really like the «local» branding. Sat at the large bar and noticed all the taps were either Nebraska or Iowa (and the Nebraska handles had a tag hanging from them saying «Local» for those from out of state-​and probably many instate).
Bartender hit me up immediately and asked what kind of beer I liked. I told him and he handed me two samples right away. I chose a Zip Line IPA based off of his recommendation and the sample. I ordered a mushroom cheeseburger with «frots» (a mix of fries and tots). While waiting for the food I enjoyed looking at the walls with the names of Nebraska towns on them, and checked out the nice patio area.
My food was up in a good amount of time and arrived hot in a burger basket. I dove right into the burger, and wow! Moist Brioche bun, perfectly cooked juicy medium/​medium rare burger (quality meat) and the cheese! The cheese was at the perfect place when it stretches from your mouth to the burger and you have to cut it off with your finger. Kind of like what you see in commercials, but that rarely happens in real life. I didn’t even put ketchup on this burger and I normally drown things in ketchup. I was so focused on this burger and enjoying it that I let the tots and fries go cold. They were still good though and not over seasoned or over thought. Just good basic fries and tots.
Good atmosphere, focus on local, good beer selection, a great burger, and excellent service. Sounds like a winner to me.