Wohlner's Neighborhood Grocery & Deli

2289 South 67th Street (in the heart of the developer's dream, Aksarben Village)
Omaha, NE 68106
(402) 551-6875
Breakfast 'til 11am, lunch 'til 3:30, dinner 'til 7:30 or so, see website for details
www.wohlners.com

Wholner's French Dip--
Roast beef, sauteed onions, peppers, mushrooms, Swiss cheese, toasted hoagie roll, au jus,
side of tomato bisque soup that was tasty but served room temp,
and if I was over age 65 I totally would have sent it back. 

"Noddle" Special (a "tribute" to the company who owns Aksarben Village?)--
Penne tossed with olive and artichoke tapenade, sun-dried tomatoes, broccoli, parmesan, grilled salmon filet,
looks great, tastes like nothing.

I'm a Whole Foods loving dork. Yeah, make your jokes about how expensive it is and how it's stuff white people like, but if Omaha didn't have a Whole Foods, I wouldn't live here. A supermarket where you don't have to read the labels to make sure you're not poisoning yourself is truly great. To suggest the steep prices aren't worth it is like telling me you know a friend who could have done my tattoos for way less than I paid--a comment I regularly encounter, by the way. Point is, cheaper is not better when it comes to your body, and I am a fan of Wohlner's not because it's "Omaha's oldest grocery store," but because they carry some decent stuff, their inventory representing a sort of Whole Foods/Baker's hybrid. The food at their restaurant is also half good, half bad. Check out their presentation of the French Dip. It's on a chic square plate, but with the soup and au jus in styrofoam bowls, a curious combo of classy and wasteful. The meat was half flavorful brisket, half inedible fat that should have been trimmed off to avoid the spitting after every bite. The "Noddle Special" had a fancy description but turned up with minced ingredients and zero seasoning. At Wohlner's they've got high prices and long waits (over ten bucks per person and more than a twenty minute wait), with food prepared by someone who doesn't eat food, perhaps an alien or something. That's all I can think about a piece of grilled salmon that hasn't been salt and peppered, and beef that is so tough and fatty your average old person would totally choke on it.