Published January 26, 2025 | Updated July 12, 2026

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.

The home of the first brewery since Columbus Brewing Company would be in a historic building at 2804 S. 13th Street that had been the home of Gottberg Auto. Max Gottberg started his business in 1905 as a mechanic working on his farm. When he became a Ford dealer in 1907, he changed the name of the business from Gottberg Automobile Supply House to Gottberg and Sons and then Gottberg Auto Company. By 1920, he had constructed the building for $125,000. 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 right use for it. It seems that his plans for the site often conflicted with those 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. Dusters, the restaurant portion of the business, is named after a popular coat worn while open-air driving during the 1920s. Honoring the former building’s use and history was important to Mac. According to the brewery, the space “pays homage to the golden age of the automobile” while “reflecting two centuries of Platte County’s vibrant history.”

Mac started to slow down in 2021 and passed away a year later. His daughter Marilea was well positioned to take over and continues to operate the business as the CEO of Tasty Toppings in addition to operating Dusters and Gottberg. She recently modernized the space while also updating the menu, 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.

This is part of a series in which we explore the history of Omaha’s breweries past and present.

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More pictures

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• Midwest Messenger, Dusters brings Columbus history to dining, 2012
• https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/food/nebraska/restaurant-that-used-to-be-something-else-ne