Omaha Exploration

Ask someone what Omaha’s best cocktail lounge is, and it won’t take long before the Green Onion Lounge comes up. Reputation aside, it might surprise you to learn that this bar, tucked away in a nondescript strip mall in west Omaha, was once involved in one of the city’s largest gambling operations.

Its founder, Harlan Warddrip, was a World War II veteran who found work as a salesman for a wholesale feed company. He was living in Sioux City before making his way to Norfolk, where he went into the bar business. In 1956, he purchased Larry’s Bar at 120 S. 4th Street and renamed it the Office Bar. While Harlan would make his way to Omaha by 1960, the bar in Norfolk lives on.

When he opened “West Omaha’s Finest Lounge” at 11414 Davenport Street in 1970, Harlan was nearly 50 years old. Like me, you may be curious about its name. While its origin remains something of a mystery, owner Krystle Caniglia speculates that it may have been inspired by the 1962 song Green Onions by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. If the name Caniglia is familiar, it is because her grandfather operated Mister C’s while his siblings ran some of Omaha’s best restaurants, including Caniglia’s, Venice Inn, and Piccolo’s, among many others.

To secure the necessary funding to start the cocktail lounge, Harlan got involved with a bookie for whom he referred all gambling business while collecting bets. The Green Onion was not the only establishment involved in the scheme and its size caught the attention of federal authorities. Soon the IRS and FBI moved in. Property was seized and a wiretap led to the indictment of 15 people, including Harlan. By the time investigators uncovered his involvement, he had already sold the bar and had just undergone open-heart surgery. Fully recovered in 1977, he relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona.

Jerry Carmoney took over the 90-seat cocktail lounge after Harlan. The new owner’s claim to fame was starting a prank that continued for the next three years. In 1975, he discreetly dropped a 2,700-pound green-and-white blarney stone at the entrance of Fahey’s Pub at 19th and Leavenworth. After that, the stone mysteriously appeared at various bars, including 19 West at 19th and Farnam; Clancy’s at 72nd and Pacific; Mulherin’s in northwest Omaha; and the Old Maple Inn, now known as Heron Haven Nature Center. In 1978, regulars at Fahey’s staged a daytime raid to return the stone to its home. That same year, Jerry announced plans to place a six-foot-tall blarney stone made of concrete and weighing 30,000 pounds in front of the Green Onion.

By 1982, the bar was sold to Jesse Jergensen, who would operate it for decades. In an arrangement that reminds me of Wild Willie’s Bar and Godfather’s Pizza, Jesse installed an intercom so customers could order food from the Rib Cage BBQ joint next door. As part of the 12-member Green Onion group, Jesse and his friends often traveled to Lake Erie to fish for walleyes. You could also find the group enjoying libations at the bar that inspired its name.

The Green Onion Lounge found new life once again after Krystle took it over in 2020. No stranger to the service industry, she had worked at the bar for 15 years after growing up at her grandfather’s restaurant. Despite multiple changes in ownership, the lounge has maintained its 1970s vibe. With its sunken bar, brick fireplace, and green lounge chairs, it likely looks much as it did when Jerry remodeled it in 1973.

I remember the Green Onion as a place for strong pours going back to my early 20s. That tradition continues today. The Reader named it the best place for cheap drinks in 2023, and it was also named Best of Omaha for cocktail lounges in 2025.

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