I'm not sure about this one. This is my husband's town where he grew up so he rec'd the place and I trust him. However. "Old-school" diners generally know how to cook food. This one apparently cannot. How do I know? I asked them to cook something. So, let's begin from the beginning.
Generally on Christmas morning, I like to get a slab of country ham with gravy and biscuits for my Christmas morning breakfast. However, this year I didn't get the chance while I was visiting my family down south. My mom is getting old and she didn't want to make it. I said don't worry, I'll get some when I get home. So when we got back to Omaha, we went to buy some country ham for me.
If you want to try country ham, Shirley's diner has it on the menu; however, after my experience, I would NOT recommend it to you, as they are PROBABLY not cooking it correctly. It isn't like city ham and has to be prepped and served right.
Here's what happened. I ordered country ham with soft scrambled eggs, biscuits, and grits. And I asked for a side of gravy because you always have gravy with country ham. They said, sausage gravy? (RED FLAG!) No, I said the plain gravy. They have it on the menu. You can look. It's on the sides menu, listed as just, well, gravy. The waitress was like, what? I said you know, the plain gravy. Béchamel. Milk gravy. Isn't it on the menu? Here? Where it says gravy? She said, huh? I guess she'd never heard of it. So, I tried to explain.
Béchamel is a classic gravy from a white roux (butter and flour) and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper. Three simple ingredients are found in every single kitchen, especially one that serves chicken and waffles and biscuits. If the food is from scratch, and not falling off the back of the Sysco truck ready for a 16 year old kid to chuck into the fryer, the kitchen will have these ingredients and any chef worth his job title is going to know how to make it. I am not a chef and never have been, but I've been able to make béchamel since basically birth. Ain't any of y'all ever been to Louisiana before? Don't y'all do gravy? Gravy is basically a beverage in New Orleans. I think I made a mistake ordering it in Omaha. Whoops.
I mean it's cheffery 101. It's literally the first course you take in culinary school.
So she pops off and I have to say, Shirley's diner has really nice staff and courteous service. I had no worries about the gravy until she came back and said to me,
"We don't have it." So we had to leave. This is a HUGE red flag in a restaurant. An "old-fashioned diner" that does not stock flour, milk, and butter in the kitchen - and I believe that this place has a kitchen, or at least they say they do - is called McDonald's. And a chef that does not want to make VERY SIMPLE special orders is called a 16 year old kid throwing frozen stuff from a bag into a fryer.
We apologized and left. I felt kinda bad for confusing them, but honestly seeing gravy on the menu and then not being able to get it for a food that ALWAYS takes gravy is just dirty pool. They're not up to the kind of service that is standard in other parts of the country. Omaha, for me, will remain the sort of place where food supposedly comes from, but I still haven't found anyone here who understands it.
Thanks for giving it your best shot, guys, you are so sweet and your restaurant is super successful and it's obviously working great for everyone else. But now I don't even want to try the chicken and waffles, because now I'm scared that you will serve me Tyson nuggets on top of an Eggo. I mean, if frozen and canned, microwaved food is your thing. Fine. But I like to shoot a little higher when I eat out.
As for me? For the price of 2 meals here, I ordered a salt-cured, attic-aged, country ham out of Virginia. A whole one. It's all mine. Every slice, every bite. And I'm going to eat it up with cathead biscuits and SCRATCH GRAVY that I made with my own two very Southern hands and Omaha, Nebraska does not get to see it, smell it, or taste it. That is your loss. Stick to what you know: canned and frozen, microwaveable food. Have a deliciously convenient 2026! read more