Posts From Oliver Pollak
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Oliver Pollak
The 1939 Nazi Diet at the Fontenelle Hotel Amber Room
The Fontenelle Hotel opened in 1915, the Blackstone in 1916. The two hotels and their restaurants competed as Omaha’s iconic images of gracious hospitality. On September 1, 1938 the nazis started their blitzkrieg assault of Poland. Warsaw surrendered on September
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Omaha Restaurant Matchbook Memories
Restaurant memories are intangible and tangible; taste, smell, ambiance, service, stand-out dishes, dining companions, a romantic evening, indigestion, disrupted sleep, heartburn, hangover, and weight gain, evidenced by increasing belt size. And, there is memorabilia. Toothpicks, menu, napkin, swizzle stick, doggy
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Omaha Adventures in Pairing Food and Spirits
Café de Paris and the French Café were wonderful destinations for anniversaries, birthdays or out-of-town guests. Fine dining adventures became ingrained in our lifestyle. My wife and I have been going to food and wine pairing dinners at Omaha restaurants for
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Dining in Lincoln at the Metropolitan Hotel on Saturday, May 24, 1873
The first printed American restaurant menus appeared in the 1830s at Delmonico, the New York pioneer of haute cuisine and wine. “Bill of Fare” popular for much of the 19th century was by1900 eclipsed by “menu.” French and Chinese restaurants
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Barolo – a Place, a Wine, a Book
My wife, Karen, and I were at the Council Bluffs Public Library taking down an exhibit we curated, “Sixty Years of Iowa Jewish Cookbooks,” (22 volumes), now on display at UNO’s Criss Library, and traveling to Des Moines in the
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Literary Wine Travel Tales
Vacation is almost over. You are at the airport. You have some loose change, some odd Euros. There is the duty free store. Will it be perfume or cologne, chocolates, Cuban cigars, single malt scotch whiskey, or wine? Wine can
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Eulogy, Last Supper and Resurrection
When you hear about the death of a friend or acquaintance following a long illness, you wonder how you lost contact and did not know about the health problems. Had you known you would have visited, given support, schmoozed about
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