Published July 15, 2025 | Updated May 30, 2026

Emmet’s Tavern always catches my eye as I head east on Leavenworth Street downtown. While it’s nearly a century old, the dark brick building appears newer, particularly since it was refreshed in 2019. Let’s take a step back and explore its history.

The store at 2514 Leavenworth Street originated as Morris Oberman’s Used Furniture Market nearly 90 years ago, though the Oberman family business goes back even further. It likely began after Jacob and Dora Oberman immigrated to the U.S. from Russia in 1886, when Jacob found work as a junk dealer. A city directory from 1895 shows Jacob operating a secondhand goods store at 1002 S. 13th Street.

By the early 1920s the business had relocated to 2512 Leavenworth Street along the streetcar route. After Jacob passed away in 1932, the building from which he operated was in such disrepair that forty nearby businessmen approached the city council to have it torn down. By that time, his son Morris had taken over the family business, operating simply as Used Furniture Market.

Morris constructed the new building next door at 2514 Leavenworth in 1936. After Morris passed away in 1966, followed by his wife Ethel in 1975, a third generation of the family kept it going: their children Burton and Sylvia. They continued to operate from Leavenworth Street until 1982, when they relocated to an 1890 building that originally served as a ballroom in the heart of the South 24th Street Historic District.

The new home of the furniture store was a larger building at 4832 S. 24th Street. When Sylvia passed away in 1998, followed by her brother in 2003, it was the end of an era. Burton, a Navy veteran who served during the final days of World War II, made a gift to Lauritzen Gardens in honor of his sister and longtime business partner. As a result, the gardens established the Sylvia Oberman Bird Sanctuary in 1999.

After the Obermans moved, the Pretzel Bar relocated from its longtime home across the street at 2525 Leavenworth Street, where it had been since Harry and Gertrude Hansen opened its doors in 1936. After a 20-year run in the new location, the bar closed and the building was sold to Tony Caniglia in 2004. The Caniglia family also owned and operated the nearby 11-Worth Cafe from 1977 until 2020. In 2010, Craig and Carlene Cheney opened Joby C’s Midtown Tavern, a well-regarded blue-collar neighborhood bar. The bar offered pool tables, dartboards, a jukebox, and karaoke nights and closed in 2018.

The old Oberman store found new life when Mark McClellan bought it in 2019 and opened Emmet’s Tavern, named after the town of Emmet, Nebraska, where his grandfather operated a bar and barbershop. Mark is a veteran of the bar business, getting his start at his father’s bar, Candlelight Lounge. Mark also owns Alderman’s Bar to the west on 33rd and Leavenworth.

The building at 2514 Leavenworth Street has been renovated and restored since 2019, with a garage door-style window that opens to let in the fresh air. Like Candlelight and Alderman’s, the walls and ceiling of Emmet’s are covered in memorabilia. The neighborhood bar also has a few entertainment options, including a television, pool table, dartboard, and shuffleboard.

The one-story brick building just east of the main bar district has been pouring drinks since 1982. Before that, it kept three generations of the Oberman family in business for six decades, not bad for a junk dealer who arrived from Russia with little more than ambition.

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More pictures

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• Morris M Oberman (1887-1966) – Find a Grave Memorial
• Beacon – Douglas County, NE – Report: 1426900003
• https://wanderlog.com/place/details/2663107/joby-cs-midtown-tavern
• https://www.yelp.com/biz/emmet-s-tavern-omaha
• Emmet’s Tavern – Bar in Nebraska State – Weeblyte