Omaha Exploration

After closing his OK Bar at 13th and Dorcas Street, Bob Lewis applied for a liquor license to open a new bar in the heart of the Aksarben neighborhood. He clearly saw an opportunity given its proximity to the nearby Aksarben Race Track and Coliseum.

At the time, the city council was not required to post a legal notice advising neighbors of pending applications. Upon learning of the bar, 150 neighbors turned out to protest it, claiming that it was incompatible in a neighborhood with a school and church nearby, not to mention the increased traffic and the undesirable patrons it would attract.

The fierce opposition resulted in a months-long battle that caused the city council to rescind its earlier recommendation that the license be approved. It also adopted an amendment requiring that signs be posted on every building for which a bar was being considered. The council also required that the license applicant supply a list of neighbors so they could be informed by mail of the pending application.

While waiting for the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission to make a ruling on the license, the bar was pelted with eggs. After the commission denied the request to cancel the license, the house in which the bar was to reside, along with Sed’s Barbershop on the first floor and a private residence on the second floor, suspiciously caught on fire the next day.

While Bob was finally allowed to open his Trackside Lounge at the intersection of 60th and Woolworth Avenue in December, the fight was not yet finished. When the license came up for renewal the following spring, the city council opposed it, claiming it was in violation of the zoning ordinance which allowed for restaurants, not bars. The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission approved the renewal after learning that the bar could be considered a restaurant since it had a broiler, fryer, and refrigerator onsite and that it served its customers chicken and hot dogs.

With the liquor license issues settled in 1965, Bob was finally allowed to operate his bar, which he intentionally designed to look like a rec room. With its horse racing theme, Trackside was quite popular with crowds going to or coming from the tracks.

He took the horse racing theme one step further in 1968 when he asked customers to bring their losing tickets to the bar so that he could staple them to the wall. There is no way he could have imagined the response, as he received an estimated 22,000 tickets totaling $280k in losing bets. By the time they finished the arduous task of stapling the tickets to the wall, it made for colorful wallpaper, as each ticket had a different color based on the amount wagered.

Bob’s Trackside Lounge even offered Hawaiian tours in addition to chartered buses to Husker home games in Lincoln. It was not until the Bicentennial in 1976 that Bob painted the bar’s exterior its distinctive red, white, and blue colors, which remained for the next forty years. It was also around this time he began advertising that his bar had the best beef sandwiches and the hottest chicken.

After the race track closed in 1995, the horse racing tickets that had been hung on the walls in 1968 came down. By that time, the bar had a new owner in Mary Goodman, who also owned Park Avenue Bar. Business began to decline at the family friendly bar, which had long been a melting pot for all age groups, even as the arena continued to attract events such as the Douglas County Fair, River City Roundup, Omaha Lancers, and Racers games. Goodman retained the original chairs that Bob had salvaged from a Union Pacific passenger train while also updating the bar to be both lighter and airier.

While Trackside closed in 2013 after its then-owner Stan Voecks passed away, it would find new life as Tracks Lounge in 2014 following an extensive renovation by Anne Konen. She replaced the bar and added nostalgic memorabilia from the horse racing days at Aksarben, along with craft beers, cocktails, and a large bourbon and whiskey selection.

After a rough patch, Tracks has since recovered and remains popular, with another change in ownership in 2023. It largely remains the same, with its nod to the horse racing days inside and a sign outside that still reads “World’s Best Chicken.” Even though its chicken may be the best around, its char-buffed wings remain its most popular item alongside its variety of sauces. By the way, those wings were named Best of Omaha just this year.

60 years after Bob Lewis opened the doors to his horse racing themed bar, it opened a second location in West Omaha bringing its famous wings to a new group of customers. The popularity of its new location at 18111 Q Street demonstrates exactly why the establishment has lasted this long.

I’d love to hear what you have to say so please feel free to comment. Until next time, keep exploring!

Bonus pics

Sources

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ak-Sar-Ben_(arena)#:~:text=The%20racetrack%20closed%20in%201995,and%20the%20Aksarben%20Village%20development.
• https://www.3newsnow.com/news/cheap-eats/cheap-eats-tracks-lounge#:~:text=Since%201965%2C%20Tracks%20Lounge%20has,%2C%22%20explained%20owner%20Mark%20Pogee
• https://strictlybusinessomaha.com/news/business/tracks-lounge-re-opens-business-extensive-remodel-omaha-nebraska/.