There’s nothing like a good girls’ night out on the town! I’m lucky to have a great group of friends who like to explore Omaha and have fun as much as I do. So, when one of their birthdays rolls around, we always make sure we celebrate properly with a girls night out. One of our favorite places to go is Aksarben Village. With its multitude of bars and restaurants, it’s the perfect place to hop around and enjoy some bites and drinks.
Herbe Sainte for Dinner
To start our celebration, we all met up at Herbe Sainte, a New Orleans inspired bar and restaurant that always has top-notch service, delicious food, and tasty drinks. They also have a great happy hour from 4 to 6 with $6 house wines, $1 off beers, several cocktail specials, and really inexpensive food ($5 cups of gumbo and $6 artichoke crab dip!!). We skipped the happy hour food as we wanted to explore the Omaha Restaurant Week menu, but indulged in $6 Chardonnay and Cab.
We were excited that the Restaurant Week menu was released a little early and couldn’t pass up the chance to try the 3-course options. Between the four of us, we ordered pretty much everything on the menu except the jambalaya (not that we don’t LOVE jambalaya, but the etouffee won out for us). That amounted to two full three-course meals, a perfect amount for us when paired with a couple orders of cornbread muffins because you simply CANNOT eat at Herbe Sainte without the cornbread muffins and honey butter.
The food came in the perfect amount of time (meaning we had plenty of time to gossip and drink but not enough time to wonder if they’d forgotten about us). And when it did come out…it was sooo worth it. The salads—a really unique green bean and couscous salad and a house chopped salad—were fresh, bright, and delicious. The entrees, which came shortly after, were also amazing. The etouffee was creamy with a nice amount of kick and plenty of crawfish to go around while the braised shortrib atop a bed of Monterey jack cheese grits was incredibly tender and flavorful.
Dessert came rolling out next and we ate the chocolate torte (with walnut toffee filling yummmmmmmmmm) and King Cake bread pudding in about ten seconds flat. It was the perfect way to end a delicious meal. Both of these meals were absolute perfection, and you don’t even have to worry about making it here during Restaurant Week as all the dishes are available on their regular menu.
Sonny’s For Drinks and Chatting
Once we finished up at Herbe Sainte, we headed across the street to Sonny’s, a lovely outdoor area with a bar, seating, and outdoor lawn games. Sonny’s is only open during the warm months, so we wanted to hit it one last time before it closes. Though the space often has live music and other events, there wasn’t anything going on that night (except a LOT of people speaking French, which we couldn’t figure out). That was fine by us, though, because we were able to snag a comfy couch and talk without having to battle crowds or be drowned out by music.
The Sonny’s menu isn’t very big, but there is still plenty to choose from depending on your mod including craft and domestic beer, wines, and classic as well as signature cocktails. For the non-drinking crowd, there is also mocktails and NA beverages like soda and energy drinks. The most responsible gal in our group grabbed a Watermelon Sugar mocktail while two of us ordered wine and another tried out the Lemon Berry Cooler.
This is such a fun place to spend some quality outdoor summer time with your family or friends. They’re still open for a little while, but if you miss it this year, make sure to put in on your calendar to visit next spring.
For a fun late summer girls’ night, we couldn’t have picked a better place than Aksarben. What are YOUR favorite places to go out with the girls (or guys)? We’d love to do a feature article about them! Reach out to [email protected] with your suggestions.
Written by Angela Chaney, publisher WhirLocalOmaha.com and partner, Pixel Fire Marketing
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