Omaha daily bee., 1921-05-29
Closing of.th "Calumet"
Reflections Follow End of One of
Omaha's Famous Eating Places

| Calumet. Its fame may safely be said to have
been worldwide, for the real gobe-trottcrs
toregathered there; not those who Jog abou,
| from place to place in style and comfort, and
write books about their observations and expert
ences but the real Travellers those who roam
from choice as well as from necessity; the crafts
man, i'll whose blood stirred the wandcrlust; the
sporting man, whose home is wherever he hangs
up his hat; those mysterious adventures, who
live but do not tell everybody their methods
| these. whose wandering feet had touched the
| soil OF every land washed by the seven seas to
| whom the ways of the frozen north and the
| tropical islands of the southern ocean were as
| familiar as the old signs that hung back of the
| counter, ate at the Calumet, and enjoyed it.
Nor were they the only ones, for among the
| thousands who daily frequented the place were
| men and women locally well situated, who went
there because of the food and the Service, plain,
substantial and satisfying. All these regret that
the Calumet has gone.
! Ed Maurers restaurant was one of the earli-
| est OF Omaha eating places to gain more than a
local reputation. A generation ago it was as
| famous as Charpiots or John Elitch's at Denver.
| 10 the last day it was opened that reputation
was maintained Hornbcrgers and Higgins res
taurants were known thirty-odd years ago to
many outside of Omaha as we'll as to those who
lived here while the Board of Trade drew a
class OF its own, men OF discriminating TASTE
who were not above sitting on a stool while
they discussed lobster or crabs, or something
OF that sort. But in those days it was one jump
from Hopewell's New York Chop House" to
the so-called high-cass places. Omaha had
nothing worth naming in the way OF middle
class restaurant, where good food might be had
under inviting surroundings and at moderate
price. Johnny" Halpin solved this problem by
opening the Zone Minute" on Farnam street,
WI. where =, the Henshaw stands. This was in 1889,
and the success OF that venture is we'll attested
by those who can remember finding the door
locked at noon, because the place was filled with
all who could possibly be served. When the
time came for the demolition of the building it
occupied. Halpin closed the door of the One
farm in Iowa, where he has long since ceased to
worry over who feeds the multitudes in the city,
1t was out of the One Minute the Calumet
was born. One OF the functions of the One Min
ute was to provide lunch for the printers who
were ere, employed in getting out the morning issue
OF The Bee. Every night at lunch time serv-
tor appeared in The Bee composing room with
great of coffee and other cans of comes
tibles, and spread a board, around which the
hungry printers gathered and feasted Coffee,
doughnuts, pie and sandwiches were the staples,
although beans and similar dainties now and then
varied the menu. Along about the time Grover
Cleveland was elected for the second term, Hal
pin switched the carriers who brought to The
Bee office the nightly fodder, and Tolf Hansen
appeared on the scene. He was quiet, unas-
suming chap, who looked very carefully after
the business and in time came to have the warm
friendship Of everybody in or around the Office.
In the late fall of '93 he broached the project of
opening place of his owp. and was Immediately
assured the patronage Sf the printers. One
snappy cold night in the following February the
night gang, headed by Foreman Joe Gales Bond,
marched in body from The Bee office down
to the place on Douglas street. where Tolf Han
sen and Otto Meilke, also of the One Minute
itorces, had just opened the Calumet Coffee
House. Hansen's friendship for the printers was
then cemented and never ended. 1t was one OF
his unbroken rules that man who could show
card as union printer could have credit at
any time for what he wanted to eat. Hansen
told me once that he had trusted hundreds of the
guild, and had not lost penny any OF them
The Calumet was success from the minute
it opened its doors. Hansen and Meilke had
sound notions OF how to conduct such place.
and they soon had a clientele bigger than they
could care for. Additional space was secured
and the dining room enlarged About the be-
ginning OF the century Meilke Withdrew, but
Hansen continued the place, and all the time the
restaurant was gaining new friends. An unfor-
tunate venture in a specially attractive cafe on
Sixteenth street involved Hansen and his tragic
death followed. Sidney Swanson and Joe Col
WELL who had grown up with him, continued the
Calumet, the prosperity of which never waned.
Not very many people in Omaha came to
know Tof Hansen WE'LL He was unusually re- |
firing and reticent. While he knew thousands
OF men and women who patronized his restau- |
rant, only here and there did he have an init
mate. His tastes artistic and his home,
one of the earliest built in Ben1is park, was al
wonder tor its arrangement and equipment. It !
was my pleasure to dine there several times with
two or three others who had been admitted into |
Toll Hansens private life, and to enjoy not only |
the rarest of hospitality, but such geniaity of
communication as gave to the occasions unfor- |
gettable zest. The host was devoted to music |
and handled the violin his favorite instrument |
the feminine touch to the evenings so spent that
made them most delightful. 1t was the know- |
edge of this side of the man that made his end
ing so sorrowful to his close friends.
When he set out on his Sixteenth street ven
ture, it was his desire OF do something big for
Omaha. He did by giving this city the most
perfectly appointed and arranged cafe between /
New York and San Francisco. 1t was not bulk
but beauty he sought, with perfection in service
and cuisine; and he had arranged wine cellar
that would delight the connoisseurs, as his 1arder
did the epicures. 1t was real joy to go there
with who knew how--Coonel Charles
Grotte, for example-and eat what was brought |
forth after he had conversed in German for !
time with of the Swiss" walters who had ,
been imported for the service might life" was
just beginning to blossom in Omaha, and Han
sons place was its center. The "8 o'clock" law
put a damper the enterprise, and the end
soon followed Tolf Hansen did not survive the
blow.
And now the Calumet has gone to Join the .
Hansen" Ed Maurer's Jimmie McTagues, /
Charley Lewis, the "One Minute" Hornbergers, |
loo ood fI,e of fTr,I Tbo,