Clean Plate

Last Saturday I headed down to 13th and Webster to check out the new experimental resturant concept Clean Plate. A little background; Clean Plate exists in a place called the Empty Room, which is a very small store that is in the bottom floor of the 22 Floors (not actually 22 floors) lofts next to the Filmstreams/Slowdown complex. The only way to actually see the space is if you are in the Slowdown parking lot. Basically a handful of creative people in Omaha submitted ideas of what they would do with the space and the best ones were chosen to operate for a month, rent free. This month is a raw food resturant operated by Elle Lien, who apparently has been making food like this for a while out of her house and has been hosting some brunches, which I have somehow never heard of.

On entering the restaurant I was struck at how small it actually was; the centerpiece of the room is a very large rectangular family table with stools all around it, this is the only seating. Towards the back there was a taller table with all sorts of things to nosh on to the right of a large standing fridge, which other than a sink is the only "kitchen-y" type thing in the place.

The food that night appeared to be a smattering of things from the appetizer section of the week 1 menu. Kimchi spring rolls, salted chili almonds, several kinds of olives, a berry tart, chocolate ganache tart and what I believe were the sloppy nut joes on onion bread sans slaw. I tried the spring rolls, both tarts and the sloppy nut joes. I would have no problem paying for any of the items I tried with the exception of the chocolate ganache tart, it was very dense and dry and I thought it just tasted like "health food", a bit like chocolate Genisoy bars which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not what I had made them out to be in my mind. The berry tarts on the other hand were to die for and I don't know what exactly the sloppy nut joes were made out of but it was good, and surprisingly meaty tasting.

The best thing I think they are doing is offering a late night menu every night Slowdown has a concert. From 12-2am they will be open for your healthy drunk cravings. I have always been irritated that unless you want to go to the Donut Stop or one of the casinos there really isn't anyplace in Omaha that is open late. For a city that has a thriving music scene with lots of young people out till all hours of the night you would think someone other than Taco Bell would want to cash in on some of that. I can say with certainty that if I go to a show this month at Slowdown I will go to Clean Plate afterwords, and I recommend anyone else to do the same. Ms. Lien has something here, here's wishing her all the best.