Nick Bartholomew - Dandelion Pop-Up

MARCH 21, 2020 © Right Here, Right Now.

We set up Dandelion as an outpost for people who need the resources and make Omaha feel comfortable with what's going on and feed them at the same time.

The day they announced it we all decided what pivot we were going to make. We decided on what turn was going to be next for us not only as individuals but as business owners so, as the owner of Dandelion and Overeasy, Overeasy decided to go to a full day menu with delivery and carry out and Dandelion is sitting in the middle of the Old Market doing absolutely nothing and so, if we can’t have chefs we can definitely give away what makes those chefs special and that is evident today in the food that they created and the giveaways we all pitched in to make it happen.

Josh - As someone in the industry, what would you say to someone else in the industry that is going through a hard time right now?

I’d say that every day that passes, a new opportunity opens up or someone becomes more comfortable so as bleak as it may seem now, tomorrow is a new day and someone, anyone, everyone is gonna find a way to do what they can and we’re all going to need help doing that. So we’re thankful with the help down at Dandelion today, tomorrow it will be Overeasy but we’ll be here to help and if you would like to help, whether we can pay you or not, we can definitely feed you in the least, and we’ll go from there.

You know, I think that what this makes us appreciate now is the sound of busy restaurants and the bustle of not being able to get a table, and just the normalcy sense that we all took for granted. I hope to get back to those feelings again because I promise to not be frustrated by them anymore, and I promise to not let them go unnoticed and really just be in those moments that are sometimes taken for granted. So for me, what I’m hoping for is that normalcy returns just as fast as possible and more things like what Dandelion’s doing show up everywhere so we can find our collective strength.

You know, we finally got Dandelion back, with some help with RDG and the Colliers Group and since we can’t do food and have people in line and having people sit around each other it wasn’t doing anything you know? And the part of town it’s located in the part of town with some of the most need. So what we decided is, people were going to throw away their perishables, people weren’t going to be able to use some of their proteins. So a collective group of us got together and decided how we could reach out to the people we knew and what we could do with some of the produce and proteins and created this lunch and we hope that it’s really helping because we have seen over 120 guests at this point already.

So chef Glenn Wheeler and I put together the effort. We called Jon Nelson from Jon’s Naturals and Lincolns Pub and so Chef Glenn then obviously called Dan Watts, and then his group, Pat Radican. And then they did the prep, Bryce Coulton helped out with the prep and did a tremendous job with everything. So that has been our group from the beginning. Flagship donated, 801 Chophouse donated, we have donations from Pen Federal Credit Union, so really we’ve had them from all over. People have walked up handing us cash thanking us today, so the collective group is all of us and the people willing to not stand by when we all need help.

Josh - It’s really great to see everyone come together, looking into the future, is this something you hope will continue in the future? To become more tight-knit?

Absolutely, I think if anything, what this shows is that all of us really aren’t a competition to each other, we are the fabric of the food community. We need each other's ideas, we need each other's challenges, we need each others to help to create what the next step is and now this is a hurdle for certain, but I bet those phone calls for Dandelion season, whenever we are able to set back up, are answered with smiling faces and you know, chefs that we know even better than we thought we knew them before because really I think what times of troubles show us is who you can count on and who you can depend on, and really that’s what we want to stand for and that’s who we want to be. So we are thankful for the people that have been here from the beginning and donated everything that they can and are willing to give of themselves.