History of Johnny's Cafe in Omaha

Published December 5, 2023 | Updated September 15, 2026

December 5, 2023

Frank Kawa was the “beer baron” of Omaha by the time he opened Johnny’s Cafe next to the stockyards. At 10 years old, he had emigrated to the United States from his native Poland, where his parents were farmers. Despite not speaking a word of English when he arrived, Frank caught on quickly and began aligning himself with powerful people.

Prohibition was already underway when he returned from World War I and took over a building at 27th and L Street in 1922. That building, it seems already had the name Johnny painted on the side. At the time, Kawa did not have the money to paint over it, so he left it as is. Frank operated a sandwich shop out of the building but it’s likely that booze was his primary focus. He used the sugar from his small bakery operation to produce alcohol. Soon he aligned himself with Tom Dennison and reportedly earned as much as $40,000 per month, resulting in the “beer baron” nickname. Although Frank served nine months in prison, the brewery supplying the beer was never discovered. This likely had something to do with Dennison’s political machine, which ran the city at the time.

Postcard for Johnny’s Cafe. Date unknown.

By the time the Volstead Act was repealed, ending Prohibition, Frank was well known and had a big enough customer base that he pivoted into the restaurant business. In 1934 he relocated what became Johnny’s Cafe to its current location at 4702 South 27th Street, just steps from the stockyards. The new location occupied the top floor of George Hoffman’s small packing plant. As the stockyards next door continued to grow, so did Frank’s restaurant, which built its name on steaks. Billing itself as Omaha’s original steakhouse, Johnny’s drew a steady clientele of cattle traders, livestock brokers, and farmers who rarely had to look far for a good meal.

1962 Durham Musuem photo of Johnny’s Cafe in its current location.

Business exploded when Omaha’s stockyards became the largest in the world in 1955. As Johnny’s continued to expand, George Hoffman moved his plant out in 1957. This gave the restaurant the perfect space to age its steaks after acquiring them from nearby packers and cutting them in-house. Activity at the stockyards never stopped, causing the restaurant to remain open for up to 20 hours per day.

1963 Durham Museum photo of Johnny’s Cafe with the stockyards in the background.

Johnny’s Cafe remained family-owned after its founder passed away in 1961. His sons, Jack and Tom, were responsible for turning it into the restaurant we recognize today. A renovation they oversaw in the 1970s changed the exterior, removed the second floor, relocated the kitchen, installed the brass steer horns on the front doors, enhanced the large dining room mural, added carpeting and the red leather booths.

1974 Durham Musem photo of Johnny’s Cafe after the renovation.

By the 1990s, Jack’s daughters Kari Kawa Harding and Sally Kawa assumed day-to-day operations, becoming the restaurant’s third generation of ownership. By the end of the century, the stockyards were long gone, but Johnny’s survived on the strength of its name, the quality of its food, and a loyal clientele of regulars from South Omaha and beyond.

Johnny’s continues to hand-cut its steaks and age them on-site. Its prime rib is finished in-house and served daily. Its Polish vinaigrette dressing is so popular it is bottled and sold in the restaurant. That reputation has earned real recognition. It has been named one of Omaha’s best restaurants by Eater and one of just 50 small restaurants nationwide to receive a $50,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Backing Historic Small Restaurants Grant Program, which funded exterior improvements and new landscaping.

The massive bronze doors with steer horn handles. Photo courtesy of Johnny’s Cafe.

What makes that recognition meaningful is the road it took to get here. Over its 100-year run, Johnny’s survived Prohibition, the collapse of the stockyards, the construction of the Kennedy Freeway, and a pandemic that temporarily shut its doors.

What remains is a third-generation family restaurant that still earns its place through the quality of its food, a place where you can enjoy a ribeye while sipping an Old Fashioned beneath the bull with glowing red eyes, surrounded by antiques, cowboy memorabilia, and chairs made from vintage saddles. Frank Kawa arrived in this country at 15 without a word of English and built something that outlasted the industry that made it famous. It still stands as perhaps the most visible connection to Omaha’s once-thriving stockyards.

Inside the entrance to Johnny’s Cafe. Photo courtesy of Coburn S.

Johnny’s is one of just five classic steakhouses that remain open in Omaha. In order, they are Johnny’s Cafe (1922), Gorat’s (1944), Cascio’s (1946), The Drover (1968), and Brother Sebastian’s (1977).

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