At 2620 N. Main St., the dining room has original 1897 brick, a pressed-tin ceiling and schoolhouse pendants. Above the bar, a floating rack holds the wine list. Behind the counter there's a wood-fired oven baking sourdough that has fermented for more than 72 hours. A year ago, none of that was happening. Omaha Food Magazine reported that the most recognizable storefront in Olde Towne Elkhorn had sat dark for nearly three years.
It's lit again. That changes how this year's Main Street holiday Saturdays can go. The open house on Nov. 7, Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28 and the Merry Main Street Christmas Festival on Dec. 12 all start in the morning. This year they all have a restaurant in the middle of the block, and a second one is due upstairs between the first two dates.
Sixteen years of Bella Vita, then nearly three years dark
For 16 years, 2620 N. Main St. was home to Bella Vita Ristorante. After Bella Vita's owner retired in 2023, Chuck and Deb Olson bought the empty building. They also own Main Street Cellar, a block away.
The building has more history than most on the street. It went up in 1897, two years after an April 1895 fire destroyed ten buildings on Elkhorn's Main Street. Omaha Food Magazine calls it one of the oldest commercial buildings left in the historic district. The Omaha firm Carlson West Povondra Architects guided the historic details, and Ideal Construction of Elkhorn handled the build.
The work took longer than planned. A May opening had been announced the previous December. La Vita Nuova quietly began serving in early October, and the ribbon cutting came on Thursday, Oct. 15. Grow Omaha had announced that afternoon ceremony for 4 p.m. The name means "the new life" in Italian.
Why the plan became two restaurants
Chuck Olson told the ribbon-cutting crowd that buying the building was never really about running a restaurant. Here's what he said, as reported by Omaha Food Magazine:
"The downtown area is something special, and it needs to be protected. This building needed to be protected."
The way to keep the building, the Olsons decided, was to renovate it into two separate restaurants under one roof, each with its own kitchen. La Vita Nuova has the main floor. Upstairs is a fine-dining room built around a chef's tasting menu.
The downstairs kitchen is run by chef Ben Maides, best known as chef and co-owner of Au Courant Regional Kitchen in Benson. Au Courant has been on Omaha's best-restaurant lists since it opened in 2016. Sara Wallace runs the front of the house as general manager.
What's on the menu downstairs
La Vita Nuova is open for lunch and dinner, and you can book a table on Resy. The menu is Northern Italian, follows the traditional Italian order of courses and is mostly made in-house. Here's how it was priced at the October opening, according to Omaha Food Magazine:
- Pizza: Six wood-fired pies run $19 to $21. The organic sourdough uses a heritage-grain starter from Niobrara Grain & Milling. Options include the mushroom-and-parmesan-cream Mercato and a Calabrian-sausage Della Casa. A gluten-free crust is available, and every pie comes with crust dippers and local Calabrian honey.
- House pastas: $25 to $27. They include gnocchi alla pomodoro, bucatini with rock shrimp, and a tagliatelle amatriciana made with house-cured guanciale and a farm egg.
- Secondi: Half chicken cacciatore, pork chop alla parmigiana and pan-roasted trout run $27 to $31. The top of the menu is a 14-ounce wagyu New York strip at $44.
- Crudi: Beau Soleil oysters, tuna carpaccio and wagyu carne cruda.
- At the bar: The Nuova Spritz is made with your choice of house citrus liqueurs: limoncello, limettacello, arancello or pompelmocello. A non-alcoholic version uses a house citrus cordial.
The wine list is curated rather than long, which fits owners who also run Main Street Cellar. Olson also told the crowd that guests had already filled the dining room in its first two weeks. On a Main Street Saturday, plan on a reservation.
Upstairs, aiming for mid-November
The tasting-menu restaurant on the second floor is targeted for mid-November. At the Oct. 15 ribbon cutting, Olson kept its name under wraps and promised the plans "will be newsworthy," according to Omaha Food Magazine. The La Vita Nuova site only lists reservations for the downstairs restaurant. Watch the restaurant's email list for the upstairs opening, and keep in mind the main floor already opened about five months after its first target date.
If the mid-November target holds, the upstairs room opens between Main Street's first two holiday Saturdays.
Three Main Street Saturdays, with dinner right there
The holiday calendar for Main Street Studios at 2610 N. Main St., posted on Dave Biehl Art's events page, lists three Olde Towne Saturdays this season. Each one starts at 10 a.m.
| Date | Event | Listed start | What's been announced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Olde Towne Elkhorn Holiday Open House | 10 a.m. | Listed at Main Street Studios; no other details posted yet |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Small Business Saturday in Olde Towne Elkhorn | 10 a.m. | Activity passport, free trolley rides, photos with Santa, the Grinch and Olaf, crafts, games and a tree lighting |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Merry Main Street Christmas Festival | 10 a.m. | Listed at Main Street Studios; no other details posted yet |
The Nov. 28 details come from Family Fun in Omaha's holiday calendar, which lists the day as free and welcoming to all. None of the three listings gives an end time, so check with Main Street Studios or the shops before you plan around a closing hour.
The Nov. 7 open house comes two days after this post goes up. That makes it the first chance this season to pair a Main Street shopping morning with lunch at 2620 N. Main. On Nov. 28, the tree lighting and trolley rides on the Family Fun listing are the kind of event that keeps families on the street through the afternoon. This year there's a sit-down meal a few doors from Main Street Studios at 2610. Main Street Cellar is a block away for a bottle to take home.
Village Pointe's holiday kickoff falls on a Friday
Elkhorn's other holiday center is Village Pointe, on a different day. The shopping center's Santa Parade & Tree Lighting is Friday, Nov. 20, at 6 p.m. on Davenport Street. Santa arrives by carriage to light the tree, and storybook characters join him. The event is free. That's a Friday evening, and the Olde Towne events are Saturday mornings, so a family could go to both without a conflict.
Village Pointe has added several new places to eat and shop this year, according to Grow Omaha's weekly market reports:
- Culinary Dropout opened Aug. 12. It's the brand's first Nebraska restaurant.
- KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot opened at 305 N. 170th St. the week of Sept. 10.
- Drybar had opened at 17305 Davenport St., Suite 103, by mid-October, with franchisee Julie Rhule as the local operator.
- Fogo de Chão filed a building permit on Sept. 18 for 295 N. 170th St., the former Kona Grill site. No opening date has been reported.
If you're thinking about Olde Towne Elkhorn because of afternoons like these, whether to buy or sell or just to know the blocks better, Selling Sisters would love to talk it through with you. Schedule a consultation and we'll tell you what we're seeing around Main Street and the streets nearby this season.
