More Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives book
By Guy Fieri

Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room
Est. 1995 • The Great Melting Pot of Handmade Food

One the things you’ve learned, no doubt, on Triple D is to slow it down and keep your eyes peeled, because you’d never want to cruise by a joint you didn’t notice, but you didn’t want to miss. Like here on Leavenworth Street.

There’s no sign, so you’ve got to be in the know. This is eclectic, real food done by a serious chef, René Orduña, who cooked all across the country before coming back to Omaha, where he started out in his parents’ Mexican restuarant. He’s got a little Cajun, a little cosmopolitan, a little Latino influence, a little of everything…

The book is available at Dixie Quicks.

The Long Road to Lincoln
Story and Photographs By Mike Whye

“We started our trip at Dixie Quicks, a rather funky restaurant with excellent fresh food at the corner of 19th and Leavenworth in Omaha. The chalkboard in the main dining room lists the always-changing menu. “If it’s not fresh, it’s not on the board,” says co-owner Rob Gilmer who notes some of the foods come from the gardens near the outside seating area. “Our food is comfort food – Southern, Cajun with some Tex-Mex.”

Gilmer strongly suggests reservations. “We want people to come knowing they have a place to sit rather than having to wait like one may have to do in other restaurants,” he said.

Occupying what had been a row of five stores on Leavenworth, Dixie Quicks uses three of the spaces as art galleries until winter when one of them is used to offset the lack of outside seating. Meredith and Alex liked the unisex bathrooms where ink markers are provided for visitors to add their messages to the witty observations and comments already there. The one that I love best reads: “Just because I accept you as you are doesn’t mean I have given up all hope for your improvement.” Possibly written by a woman about a man?

Leaving Dixie Quicks, we angled north and west to enter…”

Specializing in Cajun Southern, and Southwestern comfort food, Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room has a regularly changing chalkboard menu and plenty of personality.

Omaha Nebraska – The prairie city is anything but plain.
By Maria Elena Baszek

Most Unassuming Great Restaurant
Dixie Quicks

Blink and you’ll miss it. This charming luncheonette is hidden behind a nondescript (literally, gray) storefront on Omaha’s industrial Leavenworth Street. But those with eyes peeled will be rewarded with a menu that ranges from classic Midwestern biscuits and gravy to a tasty spin on ceviche.

Chef Renee at Dixie Quick’s Magnolia Room gets my vote for Favorite Place for Comfort Food. No doubt about it, that man holds my heart (and stomach) when it comes to catfish & pork chops…

Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room

1915 Leavenworth St. René Orduña’s restaurant is a Bohemian delight. The dining area features a colorful mural by former Bemis artist Helen Brough and a menu board written in bright colors that showcases Orduña’s Cajun-Southern-Southwestern dishes and is apt to change with his moods. Reservations are strongly recommended, as the restaurant is small and can close for private parties. 346-3549

Regulars come to enjoy his Southern-Creole style dishes, the vibrant colors of the mural that dominates one wall of the dining area and the vibrant flavors of Orduna’s ever-shifting menus.

Orduna is not your typical chef.

How many chefs eschew printed menus? Or decide what to serve only hours before customers arrive? Orduna shops the market early in the morning, to see what’s fresh and good.

Only then does he decide what to cook that day. He writes the menu on a chalkboard – pasta, salad and soup choices along with six specials.

I didn’t have any idea what to expect from a restaurant with a name like Dixie Quicks, and even after the meal, I’m still a bit uncertain as to what the place really is. Fortunately, that’s the charm of Dixie Quicks. It’s cool and very different.