The Monster Club: Pub and Grub

Saturday, June 2, 2019

Monster Club

1217 Howard Street, Omaha, NE

Where we went:

Eric is a big fan of horror movies and really loves the old school Universal movie monsters. So you can imagine his excitement when it was announced that a new bar and grill with a classic monster movie theme was opening here in Omaha! On June 2, Monster Club opened their doors in the Old Market, and were right there to try out this new bar and grilled on their opening day.

What We Ate:

We chose a few appetizers to start our meal with, first the fried portabella mushrooms, then the boneless chicken wings in sweet chilli sauce and finally the honey sriracha brussel sprouts.

Kyle had the mushroom swiss burger with fries while Eric spent a lot of time wavering between menu items, he eventually went for the Black and Bleu Burger, and decided to upgrade his side to the sweet potato waffle fries.

The menu also referred to a cocktail menu for ordering drinks, but when we asked the waitress, she said that the cocktail menu wasn’t quite ready yet, but they did have a full bar, and she rattled off a list of what they had on tap, and they also had a cocktail available. It was a little hard to hear the name of the cocktail or what was in it, but as the only special cocktail available, Eric went for it regardless, and thought it would just be a fun surprise to see what it was like when it arrived.

The Food:

To kick things off, the mystery cocktail was actually pretty good. Eric has no idea what was in it, but it was citrusy and strong, and although the mint garnish was a bit excessive, the mint added a nice touch to the drink. He just wishes he could have caught the name better to reorder it next time!

The appetizers were all good, which was a good thing since we arrived at the Monster Club hungry, and by the time we got our appetizers we were starving. The boneless wings were supposed to come as 6, but I think we counted 9 or so in the basket, so the bonus was nice. The sweet thai chili sauce had a great balance of sweetness with heat, and satisfied Eric’s sauce obsession without drowning the wings.

The fried portabella mushrooms were also good, with the fried breading being particularly tasty and well seasoned.

Having not grown up eating brussel sprouts, and his only exposure to them as a child hearing characters on tv and movies complaining about how gross they are, Eric has been trying to get over his internal skepticism over the tastiness of them. He’s had them on occasion as an adult and every time he’s surprised that “oh yeah! These are good!” The appetizer at Monster’s Club was no exception. While the sprouts themselves were perhaps a little crunchy and under cooked, the sauce drizzled on top was very tasty and made for a great, and unique appetizer before our main dishes arrived.

Kyle’s mushroom swiss burger was good. However, he was surprised that the mushrooms that came on it, were the same, giant, fried, portabella mushrooms that came in their appetizer. He had assumed they would be the smaller kind of mushrooms that one normally gets on a burger. His thick cut fries, were also good. At the end of the day, however, though the food was good, it didn’t stand out as anything special or unique.

Eric enjoyed his burger as well. It was a bit drier and less juicy than he would have liked (especially for the price), but it was very well seasoned and had just the right amount of bleu cheese on top to give it a bit of a bite, but not overwhelm the burger. The sweet potato fries were super tasty. They were a bit cold, surprisingly, but also well seasoned and still tasted very good.

The Atmosphere:

The Atmosphere, now THIS is the reason you go to Monster Club! The whole restaurant is a horror movie buff’s wet dream. Classic horror movie posters adorn the walls (some in foreign languages!), and horror movie memorabilia is packed into every square inch, representing monsters from all the way back to the original Universal Monsters, to 80’s icons of Jason and Freddy, and even a life-sized, glowing-eyed Pennywise holding a floating red balloon gazes at you with his maniacal grin as you eat and drink. During our visit, we had a blast just exploring the space and checking out all the cool horror artifacts on display. Some of the highlights include a Gremlin flasher greeting you by exposing himself as you enter, the Alien Queen trying to claw her way through the wall at you, a retro Monster Bash Pinball game,a series of Monsters bursting through ornate gothic windows and reaching out over the dining tables, lampshades over the bar made from old timey horror comics, and busts of countless horror movie monster icons displayed all around the bar, including Pinhead and Cthulhu! And to top it all off, horror movies play on a large projector screen in the corner near the bar (We got to watch “Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters” on our visit). We were also impressed at all the custom artwork incorporated into the menus. There’s a lot of really fun detail in the cartoon monster characters!

In addition to all the cool props and characters, Monster Club also does an excellent job of creating a horror movie setting in every aspect of the dining area. The walls are designed to mimic dark stone and make you feel like you’re inside a gothic castle. A series of booths along the wall are designed to look like you’re sitting in converted coffins, and the silverware is engraved with skull designs reminiscent of the Parisian catacombs. There are even skull candlestick chandeliers throughout the restaurant adding an extra macabre touch.

While some might assume that a horror themed bar would be very dark and brooding, Monster Club is actually fairly brightly lit. There’s some eerie green mood lighting on display at the bar, but other than that, supplementary spot lights in the high rafter ceilings kept the dining area well lit to facilitate people being able to see their food as well as highlighting the awesome memorabilia, but at the same time not bright and harsh enough to kill the horror vibe. Various soundtracks from horror movies played on the sound system to provide further spooky ambiance. Like the lighting, the music volume was just right to set the mood, without providing a disruption/distracting to those enjoying an evening of conversation out at dinner.

We did notice a bit of a shift once 9:00 pm hit and the kitchen closed so Monster Club could transition to full on bar mode. The music shifted away from atmospheric soundtracks and moved to some more up-tempo “horror” pop music, like “I Put a Spell On You” and other hits you may hear on a Halloween Party playlist. There was still a horror theme present, but it was definitely shifting to more of a party atmosphere for the bar patrons. Kyle also noticed the lights dimming a bit, but we would love if in the future they added some more cool lighting effects once the sun goes down to really dive into the horror bar theme.

Service:

Have we mentioned that this was the very first day that Monster Club opened? Because the inexperience definitely showed through with the service. Opening nights can be notoriously difficult (even the opening day of Disneyland was, in Walt’s words, “a complete disaster”). We want to be honest, so we will tell the truth about our experience with the service with hopes that it will only improve the longer they are open. Please don’t let our opening day experience prevent you from trying Monster Club yourself.

The service has room to improve. A LOT of room to improve. From our greeting by the flummoxed hostesses to the multiple scrambling managers, all the staff seemed to be in a general state of bewildered panic. It actually reminded Eric a lot of some dress rehearsals for shows he’s done recently where he thinks he knows what he’s doing and then he starts doing it and OH MY GOD there are so many unexpected things to keep track of!

So we get it. This is a brand-spankin’ new restaurant, and it was definitely going through some growing pains during our visit. We don’t want to belabor each instance of service snafus, but suffice to say we waited a LONG time for just about everything. Except to get seated at our table, surprisingly. We managed to snag the last one in the place, though it took a few moments for the hostesses to confer and figure out where to put us.

For the most part, the wait wasn’t a huge issue because it gave us plenty of time to really take in the awesome decor of the restaurant, but even the most enthusiastic of us was starting to feel weary towards the end of our nearly . . . 3 hour visit. We had at least three managerial type folks stop by our table and ask how we were doing. Each time we told them something we were waiting on, and within a few minutes the item(s) would be brought to our table. In the end, the only real issue was the wait times. Each and every employee was really kind and helpful, even if they looked like they were about to drop from exhaustion. No one ever snapped or was rude, and our orders all came exactly as requested (eventually).

The closest thing to an actual issue we had was when we asked for silverware so we could eat the appetizers that finally arrived, and a harried waitress fought her way back to our table and cringed as she asked us if our party of 4 could share two sets of silverware because they had run out. Of silverware. Eventually they found (or washed) some more and brought it to us, but even then, it was like the staff knew about the gaff, and were trying to fix it as they went along. The managers all made a point to say that they were really interested in feedback, so we have faith that things will move in a positive direction.

In the End:

As a brand-spankin’ new eatery, The Monster Club holds a lot of potential. They definitely have some improvements to make, but it’s nothing that we’re not confident that will come with time. The atmosphere and decor alone warrant a visit to check this place out, as it’s one of the few places in Omaha that you can feel like you are truly transported to a different place during your visit. We’re excited to come back and check out how things are progressing. Why even just the other day, Monster Club finally unveiled their cocktail menu and it looks DELICIOUS. Plus, we need to try each and every one of the shakes once they are up and running. While we were lucky in snagging a table, we’re sure they Monster Club popularity will start to soar once they find their footing. After all, the College World Series starts this weekend, and the Old Market is going to be flooded with visitors. Right now, seating at Monster Club is mostly designed for small groups- the tight, intimate space doesn’t seem to have an area dedicated to a group larger than 6-ish.

Well, this has definitely been one of our longer posts. We've said a lot. In the end, we definitely think that Monster Club is worth checking out and supporting, as a local business that is bringing something new and unique to the area.