Omaha Exploration

While her name didn’t appear on the signage, much of Big Fred’s success can be attributed to Rose Cascio, whose brothers opened one of the city’s oldest steakhouses.

Rose was the daughter of a large Sicilian family that emigrated from Carlentini. Like many others, they settled in the Little Italy neighborhood, and her father, Filadelfo, found work in the meatpacking plants. When Rose was 16, her brothers, Alfred and Joe, opened their popular steakhouse. She worked in the family business as a waitress in addition to making a double-crusted pizza called Goodie Roonie.

Fred Bruning, on the other hand, had a family with a long history in Omaha. He was the son of an electrician-turned-Hollywood stuntman-turned-police detective. He served in the Marine Corps before following in his father’s footsteps and joining the police force.

The two married in 1955 and started a family of their own. In 1962, they opened Big Fred’s Bar in the Sheelytown neighborhood at 2368 S. 29th Street in a building that had previously served as the Hanscom Theater, then a grocery store, 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.

After 12 years on the force, during which he was promoted to sergeant and worked as a detective as his father had, Fred stirred up further controversy in 1964 when he applied for a liquor license for a new location outside the city limits. That led him to make the difficult decision to leave the police force in order to focus on the business alongside Rose.

They closed the bar in Sheelytown and relocated to West Omaha in 1965, where they opened a pizza parlor named Big Fred’s at 1101 S. 119th Street. Rose was a major factor in this decision given her experience at Cascio’s Steakhouse. The move carried some risk, as there weren’t many businesses in the area at the time.

The Brunings went to work renovating the former Skylark Lounge. First opening as the Skylark Lounge and Pizza Garden, it was soon renamed Big Fred’s Pizza Garden and Lounge. Its 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, a 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 finished with romano cheese. Eventually mozzarella replaced romano as a result of customer requests. Rose also introduced her popular double-crust pizza from Cascio’s and renamed it 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 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 has been recognized as one of the best pizza parlors by both The Reader and Omaha Magazine and has also been named one of “51 Great Pizza Parlors” by USA Today.

With that fateful move from Sheelytown to West Omaha, Lil’ Rose and Big Fred started a legacy that continues today in the pizza joint that remains one of Omaha’s favorites.

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Sources

• Omaha World-Herald archives