I don’t live in Lincoln anymore and probably won’t again for a long time. I would like to eulogize my experience there from the past 5 years by listing out some of my favorite things about Lincoln, Nebraska. Sorry if this gets a bit long, but it should be in an easily skimmable format. You can also check out all of the places on this list on a Google map I created here.

Food
I love eating out, and Lincoln has a surprisingly wide variety of food options available in a small radius. Below are a few of my favorite restaurants in Lincoln in no particular order. Every one of these restaurants (with the exception of Bison Witches) is locally owned/run as far as I am aware.

• The Oven – Amazing Indian food. Definitely try their mulligatawny soup. The place also has a cool laid back atmosphere and is pretty reasonably priced.
• Thai Garden — Pretty good Thai food and you can’t beat the price– or the bridge you cross as you enter. This is my favorite Thai restaurant in town.
• Magnolia – When I first walked into Magnolia, I expected it to be quite expensive, but it turned out to be very reasonable. The atmosphere inside is as fancy as you’ll find downtown. The food is also delicious, and nearly half their menu is vegetarian options. It makes a great date restaurant.
• Lazlo’s/Fireworks — Lazlo’s is a locally owned brewpub for Empyrean Brewing located in the Haymarket (original), South Lincoln and Omaha. It is the go-to place for delicious American food and good beer in Lincoln. Fireworks is another restaurant owned by the same people that specializes in wood-fired cooking.
• La Paz — My favorite Mexican restaurant. Margaritas are a must here.
• Bison Witches — Not your typical sandwich/soup joint. This place offers huge sandwiches and delicious bread bowl soups. They also have great happy hour beer specials from 4-7. This is a popular lunch stop so if you’re planning to go over the noon hour, be prepared to wait.
• Yia Yia’s — Best bottled beer selection downtown, and it’s a Pizza joint. Their pizza by is also very good and is made by the slice to your liking. This is a great place to just hang out, have some pizza and beer, and relax to some good music.
• The Watering Hole — 12 grilled hot wings please. Hands down the best wings in town, served with good beer. My friend also tells me they have the best veggie burger in town, but I was never able to actually order anything other than wings once I stepped in the door.
• Bread & Cup — A fairly new sandwich/soup shop that offers other dishes at their leisure. They also have great people, good beer/wine, and fresh baked bread. This is one place I wish I would have gone more often while I lived in Lincoln.
• Thé Cup — Another sandwich/soup restaurant, but is not open in the evening and serves good coffee rather than beer/wine.
• Maggie’s Vegetarian Wraps — A small local restaurant in the Haymarket that makes delicious wraps/soups/etc. They strive to use local ingredients when possible so some of their menu items are seasonal. They also don’t take credit cards, so bring some cash.
• Danny’s Downtown Deli — A nice local deli with very friendly people. Makes a good quick lunch stop.
• Ivanna Cone — Homemade ice cream done right. They always have new flavors for you to try out as well as some of the classics. This is hands down the best ice cream in town.

There are quite a few other good restaurants in town that I considered mentioning on this list, but the ones above are as I said my favorites, and I had to draw the line somewhere.

Coffee
I spent a lot of time as a student at Coffee Shops around town. Below are a couple of my favorites with a brief description. All of these shops are local, offer wireless (except maybe a couple of the smaller Cultiva locations), and offer whole bean or ground coffee for sale.

• The Coffee House — This is the college indie crowd coffee shop in town, and my favorite downtown coffee joint. They rotate original artwork fairly often and always have plenty of fair trade/organic coffee on hand. My only complaint is that the wireless is sometimes spotty and electrical outlets are sometimes hard to find during busy hours. They have two separate rooms which is nice– One for conversation and one for studying, with a smaller third back room that can be reserved for meetings/events.
• Meadowlark Coffee — I started hitting this place more often once I moved off campus. Since it’s not near the university, Meadowlark draws a more age diverse crowed, with anywhere from high schoolers and retired people in there at any given time. They also host a lot of community events like open mic nights and poetry slam competitions.
• Cultiva Coffee — Located near Meadowlark on South Street, this is one of Lincoln’s local coffee roasters. They also serve freshly brewed coffee while they are open. Recently they have started serving coffee in the back of Indigo Bridge Books across he hall from Ivanna Cone, and downtown out of the State Theater.
• Kopeli Coffee — Almost did not throw this one in here. The coffee at Kopeli is so-so, but they have delicious lunch soups and paninis, their wireless is usually superb, and they are open later than most places, so it gets visited fairly frequently.

Bars
This list wouldn’t be complete as a University student without mentioning at least a few of my favorite bars.

• Doc’s Place — Doc’s is a great lounge, but a little bit out of the way from most of the bars. They have a good beer selection and fairly reasonable prices for the most part. Typically draws an older crowd.
• Zen’s Lounge — Zen’s used to be my favorite bar before they raised their prices, now it is probably the most expensive bar downtown, but is still worth visiting occasionally. They have a nice beer and cocktail list with some originals created by their bartenders. The lounge also has WiFi should you feel the need to work over a beer.
• Duffy’s Tavern — The home of the fishbowl, Duffy’s is a great all-around bar with pool tables, live music, a beer garden, and a window into the gyro place next door for those late night munchies. They used to do karaoke with a live band on certain nights but I am not sure that is still going on.
• Box Awesome — This is the place for local music in Lincoln, with shows every Friday and Saturday night at minimum. They also recently remodeled to make the place better for shows.
• Zoo Bar – A jewel in the center of downtown, the Zoo bar is a blues bar that pulls some amazing acts, both local and national. They have posters on the wall of some famous past visiters and the list is fairly impressive. The drinks are good and the atmosphere is excellent. This is another place I wish I would have gotten too more often.
  
• 12th Street Pub – Good drinks, good prices, good people, and live local music. What more do you want? If you get lucky, you might be able to see the famous Nate & AJ band perform.

Misc
Just some random places that don’t fit into the categories above but are worth mentioning:

• Indigo Bridge Books – A new, independent bookstore in the Haymarket, featuring books on a variety of topics. As mentioned earlier they also have a coffee stand inside selling delicious Cultiva coffee. This place is also host to The Table, a pay-what-you-want community lunch endeavor focused on bringing people together. I will write more about The Table in a later post.
  
• A Novel Idea – A locally owned used bookstore located downtown. They have a surprisingly wide selection of books and a good variety.
• Empyrean Brewing — I mentioned Empyrean already when talking about Lazlo’s, but I feel the need to re-iterate that this is the best local brewery in Nebraska. They also do free brewery tours the first Monday of every month as part of beer school. Make sure you get there early though, as it’s a popular event.
• Open Harvest — A local natural foods co-op. I believe they are currently raising money to build a new, bigger store.
• Haymarket Theater — I’ve only been here a couple of times, but I was impressed with the quality of the venue and the shows. The building also hosts a youth theater as well.
• Illuzion Glassworks – A new head shop in downtown Lincoln. Much of their glass is locally blown and I believe they have plans for a lounge or coffee shop in the front part of the building.

That pretty much sums it up. Make sure to check out the map if you’re interested. I’m sure I’ve missed something, but I am leaving with a fairly good impression of Lincoln overall as a city (or at least the downtown area). I was skeptical when I first arrived but something I’ve realized is that if you look hard enough, you will find the right kind of quality people and establishments in almost any city. Lincoln might actually have more than most.