It appears that Lazlo's in Fremont had to close the doors after building a nice new building and only being in business for little over a year. This is the reason for creating this blog, to stop this from happening in communities across Nebraska. I encourage you to read the comments in the article, they are amazing and enlightening to say the least. It appears that Fremont has it's own problems. Heck, Lazlo's bring your business to Broken Bow, we have two new restaurants serving your quality of food at your prices and they are doing well and routinely have waits on Friday and Saturday night. They are also serving craft beer on tap and that includes your beer. It is embarrassing to me that a Lazlo's couldn't survive in a town the size of Fremont. I hope this doesn't discourage you too much in future expansions because I am sure there are many more communities that would love to have you.
Nebraska beer lovers out there keep this story in mind, regardless of your feelings on Empyrean brews, seeing a brewpub close is never a good thing, unless their beer is terrible, obviously not the case here. Use this blog, pass it on to friends, and visit these establishments and tell them how much you appreciate their risk they take. Tell your friends to try new beer and a new restaurant and help keep the brewery growth going in this state. Without it our lives would be far less enjoyable.
What are you thoughts on this? I have heard rumors that we may be losing another one in Omaha soon, I hope that is not the case but it could happen, at least they are getting a new one. This is a call to action people, drink local think global I think is the statement.
9 comments:
I heard about this last week. I personally stopped in there whenever I was in town to visit my parents or friends. CJ can attest to the following since we are both from Fremont. Restaurants have a really hard time making it Fremont. Fremont it too close to Omaha and that hurts the entertainment scene. People go to Omaha on the weekends to get out of town. Whenever something good opens in Fremont, its lifespan is only about 2 years.
I remember a great blues bar that had opened around 1998. It was only open a couple of years and this place closed too. It had live blues music on Fri and Sat, plus import and craft beer on tap. This was relatively rare back then, and even more so considering it was Fremont.
The proximity to Omaha is not the only problem; part of it is the culture is about 5 years behind everyone else. A craft brewery was too much for them to handle. I’m sad but not surprised. Get it together Fremont!
I was actually going to check this Lazlo's out this weekend! I'm supposed to pay a visit to place in Fremont called Thornhill's. Anybody know if they have any good beer there?
Hopefully somebody can come in and utilize that building. Sounds like a lot of resources went into it. It may have been the first Lazlo's that was built from scratch, but just barely...they then built one in Omaha and a Fireworks in Lincoln.
Brewpub?? I'll have to say that this was not, in any way, a brewpub. That headline here is inaccurate. No brewing was every done there in any way. This was a restaurant. They did serve Empyrean beers. The people of Fremont weren't rejecting a brewpub, they were rejecting the restaurant. There isn't much 'pub' feel to the Lazlo's concept, its all about the meals. You eat and leave, and maybe have a beer while you are there.
So I think this is about the food/atmosphere/price(maybe)/LOCATION not the beer. Anybody ever hear that line about the three most imporant things in retail...one was location, and I think the other 2 were as well ;)
I'm sure Telesis will survive, as will Empyrean. They may just not be spreading their wings as quickly as they thought...Its a tough time to try growing, I think.
Cheers
matt
Lazlo’s, seemed to me, to be a bad fit since day one in Fremont. I think Lazlo’s is much better off opening restaurants in Bellevue or Papillion-LaVista.
It is a shame they closed as I don’t want to see any craft beer spot go under.
First Jobber’s Canyon now Lazlo’s in Fremont, Nebraska Brewing Co. needs to get the beer mojo for Nebraska going in the right direction again!
Sorry Matt, I just assumed they brewed. Still not a good deal, sorry for the misleading headline.
All brewing is done in downtown Lincoln, none of the other restaurants have brewing equipment in them.
Didn't get the offical work on Jobber's...I did hear the writing was on the wall though. I heard their beer was pretty pedestrian, so I could never be bothered to go in there...will it be missed?
Cheers
matt
Well, you all have some good comments there. Nick makes a good point about Fremont being so close to West Omaha.
Seg knows a lot about the inside business practices of many brew pubs in Nebraska and also makes some good points in his comments.
My personal opinions are that Fremont is way too far behind the beer curve and that Fremont, although rich in O town commuters does not have the income base to support a restaurant like Lazlo's. Although I will say that Lazlo's prices are along the lines of Applebee's that apparently is doing well in Fremont. I remember when I came back to Nebraska in 1999 to live, work, and go to college in Lincoln after I had spent 5 years in the Military. I still had friends and family in Fremont. I remember taking Sam Adams to parties and putting the beer in the fridge and knowing that none of my beer would get stolen at that party because people in Fremont other than Nick had ever even thought about drinking anything other than Busch Light or Bud Light. And no, they wouldn't even touch Budwieser...that stuff was way to heavy....ha ha ha.
With that paragraph done, I will admit that I think Lazlo's had many more problems then just under educated beer drinkers. I have heard stories of untrainable employees from people in the know. And it seems that the Fremont location had problems with service. I have never had a problem with service at the other locations, so I would again lean towards poor employees rather than a poorly managed restaurant or company.
Fremont will be a great place to open a brew pub or upscale eatery in about 25 years when West Omaha has expanded to the point where it is infringing on Fremont's borders.
Peace out
I didn't know that Jobber's Canyon went under. That's too bad, I actually enjoyed their food and beer. I guess being around the corner from Upstream probably isn't the best thing for a new brewpub.
That's too bad for Lazlo's as well, but I'm sure they'll survive. Most people will only give a restaurant one shot to impress them, and if they didn't enjoy it, they won't be back. If there were problems with the service, that could certainly do them in. I hope it wasn't the beer.
I was reminded recently how good beer can be bad when not served properly. I had some beer at Fireworks last last week, and all the beer was so overcarbonated it was almost undrinkable. If that were my only experience with Empyrean beer, I wouldn't go near the stuff again. I'm not sure where in the organization the fault lies for that, but you'd think someone would notice and do something about it.
I wanted to review the article from FremontTribune.com but they wantme to register and pay for the "privilege" of looking at their articles.
Behind the times, as nickspies says!
I found this blog by accident, and would like to comment. We had a restaurant in Fremont for 26 years, Called KC's EMPORIUM. We had a seating capacity of 155 on the main floor and a party room upstairs that could seat 140.
Without saying what was wrong with Lazlo's, I would like to say what I feel we did right. Firstly, the wait person that waited on you would take your drink order, your food order, pick up your plates, get you dessert and give you your ticket. Our Wait Staff made a special effort to get to know our regulars. We had many people that when they walked in the front door we knew what they drank and had their drinks sitting on the table when they sat down. Our Wait Staff would remember if a customer really liked a special we ran, and when we ran it again they would call them up and tell them.
A lot of restaurants have someone that takes your order, a different one brings it out, and another different one brings your drinks. And they all have to ask "Who had what"? Where is the personalization here? Customer's like to be able to have the same person taking care of them during their dining experience.
And if someone asked for a liquor that we didn't have? Instead of telling them we didn't carry it, we told them the next time they came in we would have it waiting for them.
Our Wait Staff had such a good repoire with customers, when they called for a reservation, they would request their favorite Wait person. Speaking of Reservations, why doesn't anyone take reservations anymore? Missing out big time there.
The bottom line here is that in a town like Fremont, it is imperitive that you run your business on a personal level. People like that. And in the Restaurant business, pleasing the customer is what it's all about.
Thanks's for listening.
K&C
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