Born in Scottsbluff in 1937, its founder Gordon (Mac) Hull grew up working on a ranch. A recent law school graduate in 1964, he bought the recipe for Dorothy Lynch salad dressing and founded Tasty Toppings in order to expand production of the salad dressing. From that point forward, he worked to put it on the menu in nearly half the country.
Mac also had ambitions to open a fine dining restaurant. He changed his strategy after craft breweries began to catch on in the early 1990s. That led him to instead open a casual restaurant with a focus not only on good food but craft beer and soda. While lagging behind much of the country, Nebraska did have five craft breweries by 1995: Lazlo’s (current day Empyrean Brewing Company), Jaipur, Sharky’s, Jones Street and even Johnny’s Cafe for a time. This one, however, would be the first outside of the Omaha and Lincoln metro area.
Columbus, Nebraska was the home to a pre-prohibition brewery that started in 1866. It would go on to become Columbus Brewing Company and survived prohibition by selling ice and soft drinks. It would continue selling beer after the Volstead Act was repealed until closing in 1954.
The home of the first brewery since Columbus Brewing Company would be in a historic building at 2804 S 13th St that had been the home to Gottberg Auto. Max Gottberg started his business in 1905 as a mechanic working on his farm. When he became a Ford dealer, he changed the name of business from Gottberg Automobile Supply House to Gottberg and Sons and then Gottberg Auto Company. By 1920 he constructed the building for $125k. When Max passed away in 1944 it was among the oldest Ford dealerships in the country. In the 1950s and 1960s the building housed the corporate offices for Dale Electronics and a roller-skating rink.
The building sat vacant for much of the 1980s and became an eyesore in downtown Columbus. While the city had plans to raze it and replace it with a parking lot, Mac didn’t want to see it torn down so he bought it. He sat on it for a long time while waiting to find the correct use for it. It seems that his plans for the site often conflicted with that of the city.
He started to renovate the building in 1993 which included gutting and rebuilding the interior while leaving the brick and terra cotta exterior intact with its two unique Model T front ends protruding from the top corners of the building. The upper two floors were to be used for brewing while the main floor was shared between the brewery and the restaurant. He opened the doors to both Gottberg Brewpub and Dusters Restaurant in 1995.
The name of the brewery, of course, is derived from Max Gottberg’s one-time business while the restaurant, Dusters, is named after a driving coat which was popular among women in the 1920s. Honoring the former building’s use and history was important to Mac. As such, the interior space pays homage to the golden age of the automobile in addition to celebrating Nebraska’s rich agricultural heritage reflecting two centuries of Platte County’s vibrant history.
By the time Mac started to slow down in 2021, his daughter, Marilea was well positioned to take over. Today she serves as the CEO of Tasty Toppings in addition to operating Dusters and Gottberg. She recently modernized the space while also updating the menu but making sure to retain its classics such as the jalopy wings and lahvosh. Today the building is also available as a rental space and hosts live music and other events.
While I have yet to personally visit Gottberg Brewery inside Dusters Restaurant, I plan to do so in the near future especially considering a lineup of beers that includes a hazy IPA, grapefruit pale ale, pineapple sour and some delicious food.
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