John Skradis’ Leavenworth Bar

April 12, 2024

Sitting just east of Saddle Creek Road along Leavenworth Street is its namesake bar, one of the few remaining dive bars along a road that used to be full of ’em.

The story of Leavenworth Bar starts with John Skradis, an Army veteran who returned home in 1946 and found himself at the helm of the Outpost Bar at 6311 S. 36th Street. The son of Russian immigrants, John took over the bar after its previous owner died after accidentally discharging his gun while cleaning it. John presumably ran the bar well enough that he was able to construct a new building just four years later in 1950. Once built he moved Johnny’s Outpost next door at the intersection of 36th and Jefferson Street.

The Outpost Bar started in the brick building on the right before John Skradis built the building on the left and relocated it in 1950. It’s still known as The Outpost Bar to this day.

Around the same time that John moved the Outpost, Warren Gates opened Gunner’s Bar at 4654 Leavenworth Street. Just five years later, John relocated and took over Gunner’s former establishment in 1955. Perhaps he desired a bar along a busier stretch of road as Leavenworth was one of the main arteries from West Omaha to downtown.

This 1961 aerial photo is looking northeast from around Saddle Creek. Leavenworth St runs diaganol from top to bottom. Leavenworth Bar is the white building on the north side of the street with two cars parked on the west side and another park on the east. Courtesy of Durham Museum.

Just as he did with the Outpost, John constructed a new building next door at 4556 Leavenworth Street and by 1960 he changed its name to the one we recognize today, Leavenworth Bar. The bar near the intersection of Saddle Creek certainly had much more visibility. It probably didn’t hurt that it was next-door neighbors with Billy Barnes’s second Bronco’s Hamburgers location. John unexpectedly passed away in 1977 at the age of 58. Tragedy struck the Skradis family again two years later when his son, also named Johnny, passed at just 29.

1963 Durham Museum photo of the Leavenworth Bar sign on the right facing the street.

The son of a physician, Maurice “Mo” Howard would take over Leavenworth Bar after that. Mo had a number of run-ins with attempted robbers over the years. During one attempt in 1981 he chased the would-be robber out of the bar after being struck in the face. After the man fled, Mo pulled out a gun and the two exchanged shots. Neither person was hit.

1971 Durham Museum photo of Leavenworth Bar on the left. It appears to have had a mural back then as well. The Bronco’s sign can be seen on the far right.

A bullet whizzed by his head in 1992 after someone entered through the back door. Fortunately, the stray shot only broke a bottle of whiskey behind him. As he did a decade earlier, Mo ran outside and the two exchanged shots. He attempted to shoot out the windows of the escape car but missed. In 1994 a robber escaped the confrontation unharmed and with cash in hand. Something about this particular bar made it a hot spot for those looking for trouble.

2022 photo of Leavenworth Bar with its Nebraska mural on the western wall.

Mo retired from the bar business shortly thereafter and unsuccessfully ran for the register of deeds in 1996. Like John before him, Mo also passed away relatively young at 60 years old. Its current owner, Kirk Anderson, bought the Dundee Dell with a partner in 1989. He also owned O’Connor’s Irish Pub downtown with a partner beginning in 2001. While he sold the Dell in 2016 and closed O’Connor’s two years later, he still owns The LB.

2019 photo of the Sedusa mural on the eastern wall of Leavenworth Bar.

While it may not be the most recognizable or even the oldest bar along Leavenworth, it has staying power as witnessed by the fact that it will turn 70 years old next year. It’s an impressive run especially considering the ever-encroaching Med Center which sits just northeast. The working class dive bar with a 70’s feel is a dying breed as other bars in the area such as Marylebone (present day True American Bar) and Bud Olson (Secret Park) give way to more modern bars with new concepts. Perhaps the most distinctive thing about the bar is the colorful Sedusa mural by Maggie Weber and Nicholas Clark that sits on its eastern wall.

Photo looking inside the narrow bar. Courtesy of Leavenworth Bar Facebook page.

The small but cozy bar continues to fly under the radar despite being mentioned as one of the best neighborhood taverns by The Reader as recently as 2023. In addition to being a stop on the Leavenworth Bar Crawl, if that’s still a thing, it still has an avid crowd of regulars that gather to watch Jeopardy while blurting out the questions. It also attracts an eclectic crowd from old-timers to college students and those who work nearby. In this way, the bar mirrors the street it sits on.

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