The son of English immigrants, Dan Hawkes was born in Chicago in 1886. He moved with his family to Iowa by 1900 where his father farmed. After his mother passed away, he moved with his father to Colorado where Dan found work as a laborer in the freight office for the railroad. While his father remained in Colorado, Dan moved to Omaha in 1915 and went to work with his uncle George who owned a restaurant called Douglas Lunch at 1718 Douglas St. Starting as a cashier, Dan would end up managing the restaurant until serving his country in World War I starting in 1918. The restaurant closed in 1920 at which point Dan found work operating billiard parlors for a time.
During the Great Depression he found work as a painter and did some bootlegging on the side during prohibition. Everything would change when he opened a restaurant of his own in 1942. Located in East Omaha, he named the restaurant after the night time crowd that was looking for a meal to sober up after leaving the pool hall across the street or one of the nearby bars. Nite Hawkes Cafe which, of course, also incorporated his surname, was located at 4825 N 16th St. At the time, 16th was a major link to downtown Omaha with many businesses lined along the street to serve the working class families many of whom worked for the railroad.
Located at the SE corner of 16th and Grande Ave, the two story brick building that previously housed a grocery store on the first floor and apartments on the second floor. Dan operated the restaurant with the help of his wife Alice. With a streetcar stop right outside, Nite Hawkes proved quite popular not only with the railroad workers from the neighborhood but day workers, the late night crowd and families headed to or from nearby Levi Carter Park. His son, also named Dan, took the reins of the busy restaurant by the time his father had passed away in 1961. Dan Jr. operated the restaurant alongside his wife, Nadean. Looking to expand the size of the restaurant, the original building was demolished in 1966 to make way for a new single story building that was five times larger.
The new building was built on the same lot as the old one but directly behind it allowing the front to be used for parking. The restaurant remained as popular as ever and attracted a diverse crowd that included police officers, politicians, blue collar workers and even Hell’s Angels. During those days the restaurant served 800 meals per day during lunch time alone. That number would dwindle as the city continued to move west causing many of the businesses to follow suit and relocate. The situation worsened after the Hilton Hotel blocked 16th when it opened in 1970. It was further exacerbated when the Storz Expressway to the north was connected to the North Freeway to the west. While this allowed for quicker travel, it resulted in traffic completely bypassing the once busy street. All three of these changes resulted in the area surrounding Nite Hawkes to become even more isolated and poor.
Despite all of the changes, the Nite Hawkes restaurant that Dan Hawkes Sr opened more than 80 years ago remains a cornerstone in an area that now has few businesses. Even though it is surrounded by run-down buildings and houses, not to mention vacant lots and rusted out freight cars, it still attracts a consistent crowd of old-timers living in the area, workers and families. Known for its home-cooked food and large portions, Nite Hawkes is the oldest continually operating diner in North Omaha if not the entire city. These days it only serves breakfast and lunch and is popular for its French toast, biscuits and gravy, hot beef sandwiches and the Dan Special. Named after its founder, the special consists of a ⅓ pound hamburger patty inserted into a grilled cheese sandwich and then topped with French dressing and tomatoes. The cafe, now operated by Tracy Hawkes, was mentioned as being one of the best cafes/diners in Omaha as recently as 2023.
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