Omaha Exploration

Today we head to South Omaha to explore the history of the bar that is now called Beer City on 42 and L Street. I have my doubts, but the assessor tells us that the small one-story building at 4147 L Street was built in 1925. The first newspaper listing I can find for the address dates back to 1951 – perhaps the addresses on this section of L Street changed at some point. 

Born in Papillion in 1905, David Furst served in the Marines from 1926 until being discharged in 1930. Upon his return home he found work as a mechanic operating his own business. He would transition into the bar business at 46 years old when he and his wife Millie opened the Village Bar – not to be confused with the longstanding bar of the same name in Ralston. Details of the bar are sparse but he made a good run of it, operating the neighborhood watering hole until 1960. From there became a deputy sheriff for Douglas County and later a maintenance worker for the Douglas County Courthouse. 

After that Martin Conatella opened the bar and retained the name. He turned it into one of the top spots in the city for its shuffleboard team. Since the time the first shuffleboard tables made their way to Benson in the late 1940s it grew in popularity as a tavern game. South Omaha became the shuffleboard mecca in the early 1950s which saw 10 bars participate in a weekly World Series tournament that attracted the best players across the city.

Long time South Omaha bar owner Tony Leonardo owned it by 1979 followed by Virginia Semin who changed its name from Village Bar to Tweety’s Bar. Reports suggest that it reverted back to the Village Bar name in the late 1980s before becoming Beer City.

The shuffleboard tables have long been absent from the bar due to a lack of space. At just over 1,000 sq ft the bar has a capacity of 64. Today it operates more as a sports bar and is a popular meeting place for Dallas Cowboys games, the preferred team of its current owner Ed Kresl who took over in 1989. Billing itself as “the Biggest Little Bar this side of Texas”, its name was actually inspired by a bar that he visited in the tiny town of Remsen, Iowa that had the same name. In town for a family wedding he recalled that the party drank so much beer that the owner had to make a run to Sioux City to restock. 

Today the bar has lots of televisions to watch the game in addition to a pool table and dartboards. The fun doesn’t stop there as it hosts karaoke nights and is likely the only bar in town with a putting green on its patio out back. 

Beer City has undergone a makeover in recent years and its bright blue mural on its western exterior wall was added around 2022. The neighborhood bar continues to hold its own and has been recognized for its friendly service not to mention its laid-back vibe and commitment to football and its customers even offering free food on occasion. If you plan to pay it a visit to the bar that was ranked ninth out of 32 bars in the 2024 Dive Bar Road Trip, be sure to bring cash as they don’t accept cards.

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