The son of a Hollywood stuntman turned detective, Fred Bruning Jr. served in the Marine Corp. before following in his father’s footsteps and joining the police force. Soon afterwards, he married Rose Cascio in 1955 who was working as a waitress at the family restaurant. Fred remained on the force for 12 years eventually being promoted to sergeant and then changing careers altogether.
In 1962, the couple opened Big Fred’s Bar in the former Sheelytown neighborhood. The building at 29th and Castelar was originally the Hanscom Theater before becoming a grocery store and then a bar called Hanscom Inn. Even though the liquor license for the bar was under Rose’s name, it caused some controversy due to Fred working as a police officer.
He stirred up further controversy in 1964 when he applied for a liquor license for a new location outside the city limits. That led Fred to make the difficult decision to leave the police force in order to focus on the business. At the same time, the Bruning’s shifted their focus to food and pizza in particular. Rose was a major factor in this decision given her experience at Cascio’s Steakhouse. With that, they closed the bar at 2368 S 29th St and relocated to 119th and Pacific. The move carried some risk as there weren’t many businesses in the area in 1965.
They went to work renovating the former Skylark Lounge. First opening as the Skylark Lounge and Pizza Garden, it soon was renamed as Big Fred’s Pizza Garden and Lounge. The location and the focus on pizza paid off as they doubled the size of the restaurant within four years by taking over a third bay in the strip mall. When they finished, the space had a new kitchen, large, square-shaped bar and two dining rooms.
Sitting in his usual spot at the end of the bar while chatting up customers, “Big” Fred was the face of the restaurant. “Lil” Rose, however, was the driving force behind it. She did much of the work of making sure the restaurant ran smoothly in addition to making the food. The recipes for the pizza dough, sauce and spaghetti came from her family. The pizza for which it became known was thin crusted and loaded with sauce and toppings before being topped with romano cheese. Eventually mozzarella replaced romano as a result of customer requests. Rose also introduced her popular double crust pizza they called Goodie Roonie. The restaurant was so popular that they even opened a second location near 108th and Mockingbird for a time.
Calling the same strip mall its home for the last 59 years, the restaurant features a large bar, gray and red walls, photographs and televisions along the wall and ample seating. Even after the passing of Fred in 2006 and Rose in 2012, the restaurant remains family owned and follows the lead of its founders by supporting a number of charitable organizations. Both Fred and Rose were inducted into the Omaha Hospitality Hall of Fame in 2012. The bar-turned-pizzeria, meanwhile, has been recognized as one of the best pizza parlors by both The Reader and Omaha Magazine. It has also been named one of “51 Great Pizza Parlors” by USA Today.
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