Omaha Exploration

West Omaha has its fair share of classic watering holes. One of them is the Office West Lounge, whose history dates back much further than I anticipated.

Before it was Office West, it was The Office Bar downtown. The bar was opened by Merle Fimple in 1950. Merle’s days in the bar business go back to 1934, when he received just the 13th liquor license issued by the State of Nebraska after Prohibition was repealed.

The president of Cornhusker Liquor opened his first bar, the Pine Board Lounge, in the Elks Club Building at 18th and Dodge Streets. Its name was inspired by the use of pine lumber, which he used to create shelves and a bar held up by two sawhorses. After a few months of earnings, he completed the aesthetic by lining the interior walls with pine paneling. Without chairs in those early days, customers sat on the cases left behind whenever a brewery made a delivery.

Merle’s first bar did so well that he opened a second one in the nearby Lyric Building at 213 S. 19th Street in 1950. The name of this bar was the result of a contest that yielded more than 1,400 entries. Of the three finalists, which included Tag Inn and The Chop, the winner was The Office. The winning name was determined by applause measured by a device provided by radio station KOIL. The winners received 64 silver dollars, which they split among the six of them.

The Office featured a “sandwich bar” during lunch that proved popular with nearby office workers. Merle’s policy of earning no profits on lunches from 10:30 to 2:30 must have been offset by those three-martini lunches. The bar’s slogan was, “It Pays to Come to The Office Early.” From about 1955 until it closed in 1970, Leonard “Whitey” Knutson operated the bar. He was assisted by his partner, Kenneth “Shorty” Benham, until his untimely passing in 1965.

With the closure of The Office, Whitey took over Merle’s original bar, the Pine Board Lounge, which in 1966 had the distinction of being one of very few, if not the only bar, to operate within a city hall. This occurred after Omaha sold its old city hall, known as the Red Castle, to Woodmen Life in order to build its tower. The city then relocated its interim city hall to the Elks Club Building, which was home to the lounge. They coexisted until 1975.

Whitey opted to relocate his bar to West Omaha after the city moved its offices to the city-county building. He found a home for his new bar in the Boardwalk Shopping Center at 119th and Pacific Streets. He took the opportunity to revive The Office name by calling the new establishment Office West. Located at 1266 S. 119th Court, the decor matched that of the downtown bar. With a capacity of 85, it was popular for its singalong piano.

After Whitey passed away in 1979, the bar appears to have relocated to northwest Omaha near 108th and Maple Street. By that time, it appears that Clyde Pittman owned Office West when it moved to 2946 N. 108th Street in a space currently occupied by Moe & Curly’s Pub & Grill. Meanwhile, the former Boardwalk location became home first to Sedsel’s Lounge and later Sparky’s Lounge.

Office West made a surprising return to 119th and Pacific in 1993 and by 1996 was owned by Gene Fisher and his wife, Patty Ferguson, who also owns Clancy’s Pub. While Gene passed away in 2018, his legacy lives on through Office West and its event space, The Jack Room. Popular for its St. Patrick’s Day celebration, the bar today is equipped with pool tables, dart boards, and televisions. Rather than being a lunchtime hangout as it was in the 1950s, its focus now is happy hour and beyond, with the slogan, “Another late night at The Office.”

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