"Omaha's most Omaha steakhouse — rib-eyes soaked in a secret whiskey marinade since 1977, eaten in dim cowboy-kitsch booths with the city's classic salad bar."
The Drover holds a low brick building at 2121 South 73rd Street, near 73rd and Pacific. It anchors part of our Omaha guide and our steakhouse coverage as the most quintessentially Omaha room in the city.
It started in 1969 as the Cork 'N Cleaver and took the Drover name in 1977; the whiskey steak has been the signature for more than forty years. The dining room is all wood beams, brick, fireplace nooks and cowboy kitsch.
The order is a whiskey steak. A rib-eye or filet is dropped into a secret marinade — whiskey, soy and other house ingredients — for exactly fifteen minutes when you order, so it seasons the Certified Angus beef without burying it, then grilled over open flame. More than 95 percent of steak orders go out this way.
Cuts run from an 8oz Whiskey Filet up to an 18oz Trail Boss Prime Rib and a 24oz T-Bone, each served with the salad bar, warm wheat bread and a baked potato. Expect roughly $35-60 a head for a steak dinner; it sits in the $$$ band.
The salad bar — once among the first of its kind in Omaha — is part of the ritual, and the lighting is low enough that the booths feel like a different decade. This is a steakhouse that has refused to update itself, and the regulars want it exactly that way.
Dinner runs Monday to Friday from 5pm, with earlier weekend hours; lunch is weekdays 11am to 2pm. Reservations are taken through OpenTable and advised at weekends.
The Drover suits a steak-led business lunch, an old-school anniversary dinner or a hearty team dinner. For other Omaha tables, compare Le Bouillon, V. Mertz or Au Courant.
Not for diners after a modern, design-led room or a light meal — it is dim, retro and steak-forward, built around a whiskey marinade and a salad bar, not subtlety.
Whiskey-marinated steaks. Rib-eyes and filets are soaked for fifteen minutes in a secret marinade of whiskey, soy and house ingredients, then grilled and served with the salad bar.
It opened in 1969 as the Cork 'N Cleaver and took the Drover name in 1977 — it has poured the whiskey marinade for more than forty years.
At 2121 South 73rd Street in Omaha, Nebraska, near 73rd and Pacific.
It sits in the $$$ band — roughly $35-60 per person for a steak with the salad bar, warm bread and a baked potato included.
Yes — reservations are taken through OpenTable and advised at weekends. Dinner starts at 5pm on weekdays with earlier weekend hours.
Reservations are taken through OpenTable and advised at weekends. Find it at 2121 South 73rd Street in Omaha.
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The Drover anchors part of our Omaha guide — whiskey-marinated steaks and a classic salad bar in a cowboy-kitsch room going since 1977.
See the Omaha guide →
