The parking lot at 603 Highway 6 has sat empty since August 24, the first extended closure since Ruhlman's Steakhouse opened its brick-and-mortar location in July 2024. The restaurant that put a linen-napkin dinner option on the map for this stretch of Highway 6 shut its doors for what the ownership is calling renovations and a rebrand. No reopening date has been announced.
Farther up the same highway, the parking lot at the corner of Highway 6 and Nebraska 66 was doing the opposite. Cars circled for spots outside Ashland Brewing Company, where the pickleball courts were booked and the yard games were out. The two parking lots reflect different ways people use the Highway 6 corridor.
The Restaurant Ashland Built A Highway Exit Around
Phil Ruhlman spent decades as Gallup's chief information officer before he decided to bet on a steakhouse halfway between Omaha and Lincoln. He hired Willy Theisen, the Nebraska restaurant veteran behind Godfather's Pizza, as an adviser, and brought on Chef John Benton to run the kitchen. The concept started as a food truck so Benton could refine the menu while the brick-and-mortar location was under construction. That building opened on Highway 6 in July 2024, and it became the anchor tenant of Oxbow Crossing, a development Ruhlman and his brothers had been planning for years.
The restaurant worked. A Flatwater Free Press feature on Nebraska steakhouses described the dining room as nearly full on a weeknight visit, with diners pulling in from both Omaha and Lincoln for dry-aged Angus beef and a menu the reviewer called surprisingly affordable given the polish of the room. By most accounts, Ruhlman's did exactly what a destination restaurant is supposed to do: give people a reason to drive to Ashland specifically to eat there.
The business announced its closure for renovation and rebranding, describing the effort as four years of building something in Ashland, from the original food truck through the brick-and-mortar run. No reopening date has been announced.
A Different Gathering Place On Highway 6
Ashland Brewing Company did not open to fill the gap Ruhlman's left. It opened more than a year earlier, on June 19, 2025, as the anchor of a five-acre development called Salt Creek Station at the corner of Highway 6 and Nebraska 66. The 15,000 square foot building has a two-story layout, with a first-floor space called the Great Hall and a second floor called the Cabin, full bars on each level, and four pickleball courts, two indoor and two outdoor. There is a yard with cornhole and jumbo Jenga, multiple firepits, and a rooftop deck. Owner Tim Uryasz, whose family has had a cabin near Ashland since 1969, designed the space around a slogan he has repeated in nearly every interview about the project.
Uryasz told Omaha.com, "One of our slogans is there's something for everybody to do, even if that's nothing at all."
At Ashland Brewing Company, that range can mean playing two games of pickleball and leaving, sitting by a firepit without ordering food, or bringing the kids to the yard while one parent watches from a patio chair.
Two Business Models, One Highway
Ruhlman's and Ashland Brewing Company offer different experiences along the same stretch of Highway 6: one centers on a meal, while the other combines food, drinks, games, and outdoor spaces.
Reporting on the restaurant's kitchen operation described roughly 2,000 meals served per week, with half of that volume on Friday and Saturday.
Ashland Brewing Company combines food and drink with activities. Its own marketing describes the space as built for "beer drinkers and pickleball dinkers, foodies and patio lingerers," reflecting its mix of pickleball, yard games, firepits, and patio space.
The two businesses offer distinct options along Highway 6. Ruhlman's has announced a renovation and rebrand, but no reopening date has been announced.
What Filled The Calendar This Summer
While the Highway 6 corridor's restaurants drew attention, Ashland's other summer events followed their own schedule. Country Drive Music Fest took over the grounds at 951 County Road 4 for three days in late June. Ashland Stir-Up Days brought its car show and Grand Parade down Silver Street in mid-July, the kind of event where downtown closes to traffic and the chrome comes out. The Watermelon Crawl Charity Golf Scramble filled Country Drive Golf Course on the last Friday of July.
That circuit wrapped by the end of July. What comes next on Silver Street is the Fall Art Walk, when the historic downtown galleries, shops, and eateries stay open late for browsing. Between now and then, the daily rotation still runs through the same handful of names locals already know: KC's Eastside Saloon, Luna Azul, BW's Pub & Grill, Breadeaux Pizza, and the Beanery for anyone who needs a coffee before a hair appointment downtown. Glacial Till Cider House on Silver Street hosts the Chamber of Commerce's monthly meeting on the second Thursday, which tells you something about how central that stretch of storefronts still is to how Ashland does business, even with a bigger, newer building drawing crowds up the highway.
The Trail That Doesn't Take Reservations
If you want the one part of Ashland that never had to adjust to any of this, it is Salt Creek. The Salt Creek Trail is a 2.6 mile out-and-back path that follows the creek near the same limestone ford that let Oregon Trail wagon trains cross safely on their way west. It is rated easy, takes under an hour round trip, and works for walking, running, or biking. A short distance away, the Oxbow Trail System offers a four-mile mountain biking loop built by a local rider who grew up wanting a place to ride near home and eventually built one.
Neither trail needed a grand opening. Neither one has a rebrand pending. They are open every day the weather allows, they do not require a reservation, and they will still be there whether Ruhlman's comes back as a steakhouse, a bistro, or something else entirely.
Different Ways To Experience Ashland
Ruhlman's closure for renovations and rebranding is one part of Ashland's local story. Ashland Brewing Company, which opened more than a year earlier, offers another gathering place, while Salt Creek Trail provides an outdoor option.
A downtown strip with a Chamber meeting place, a highway corridor with different businesses, and a trail system that runs on its own schedule are details that may not appear on a map or listing sheet. They come into view when you pay attention to how people use the town.
If you are watching Ashland for reasons beyond dinner plans, whether that is a move, a new build, or just curiosity about where the town is headed next, Selling Sisters spends a lot of time paying attention to exactly this kind of detail. Reach out any time to schedule a consultation and talk through what a town like this actually looks like day to day.
