Tip Top Building (1524 Cuming St)

[Asten]

The opening is June 13th. The Official Ribbon Cutting is the 15th. The Forte Banquet and Conference Center is opening in July. Smoking in InPlay is in the Bar area. Smoking in the Banquet Center is limited to a patio on the east side of the banquet hall...outside. By the way, InPlay is coming along very nicely. If you come by to check it out, feel free to say hello to me. It would be great to meet some of you in person.

Chef: read your post in the other topic too regarding your hiring, etc. I'm very impressed. I may swing by on the weekend of the 18th to check it out while I'm in town!

Someday... the perfect job will show up on careerlink.org, and I'll move home to enjoy all the changes!

--Asten

[Finn]

Someday... the perfect job will show up on careerlink.org, and I'll move home to enjoy all the changes!

Not if I get it first!

[omacoffeeguy]

Hello everyone! Like OmahaChef, I'm also a part of inPlay. I'm the Assistant General Manager and am very excited about our project. We've worked very hard to make inPlay the best entertainment facility in Omaha. I hope everyone comes out to participate in our 14 days of Giving and helps us give something back to the community. Omaha is full of great people with big hearts. I thank you in advance for not only your support with inPlay, but thanks for the contributions made to our top local non-profit organizations. We've moved the date once for this event due to construction issues, and appologize for any inconvenience, however, we're moving full steam ahead and are planning a bigger and better event for the participants in July. Mark your calendars for July 5 - 18 and support such charities as Alzheimers Association, Ralston Public Schools, and Habitat for Humanity, just to name a few. Contact [email protected] for any information. OPENING DATE: JUNE 13

[eomaha]

Welcome coffeeguy... and you won't find anyone more excited about the opening of inPlay than the participants on this forum. Thanks for the inside scoop guys!

[eomaha]

I see the website has been updated. Looking good! http://www.inplayomaha.com

[OmahaChef]

Just a bit of an update on InPlay. Major progress this week! It is exciting to see it all come together. Today I got my blessing to open the kitchen, so we'll be exercising the menu this weekend in preparation for Monday's opening. The space is looking really good! With 100 interactive video games, party rooms, pool tables, black light bowling, the Jim Beam room, a bar that seats 40, a restaurant with a menu that features everything from Mozzarella Sticks to Ribeye Steaks....it is an exciting space. Play basketball, football, baseball, feel like you are on the roller coaster from heck that makes your bones chatter. And make sure you ask for Tom the chef. I'll be sure to say hello! And watch for the Ribbon Cutting in the news on Wednesday! ( Yes, this is yet another shameless plug). But hey, it is the start of the new North Downtown. Here's to 5-10 years of a continuation of an amazing transformation of an area of downtown Omaha.

[jjjjhskr]

Congrats Chef! I'm looking forward to checking it out when in Omaha for the CWS.

[jjjjhskr]

OK ----- It's been open about 5 1/2 hours now. Anyone have any feedback?

I'm a bit impatient today.

[Coyote]

Yes - welcome omacoffeeguy! Are you who I think you are?
Didn't know you were so branched out. Good luck with these ventures.

[cosmoguy]

Has Inplay done any advertisng yet? I drove by and it seems like it's still under construction.

[Omaha Cowboy]

When I drove by Sunday afternoon, looking through the glass, it looks as if they are installing games and still working on the interior of the building..

It didn't look completely ready to open as of yet..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

[Minneapolis Boy]

Regarding advertisement, I did see several commercials on t.v. this past Friday or Saturday.

[papiostud]

I'm gonna check it out tonight with some buds. I'll let yall know..

[OmahaChef]

I know, the exterior of the outside, specifically the new addition for the Forte Banquet and Conference Cener is not finished yet, but...we opened Monday, and the official Ribbon Cutting is Tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. We did a "soft" opening on purpose with a minimum of advertising, but we are open. The games have been in place for weeks, and it has been one of the perks of working here. We get to let off steam by playing!

There are some items that aren't finished yet, like the Jim Beam Room, the concession and redemption area, etc. but 9/10th of the facility is ready. The games are all in place, the restaurant/bar is serving food and drinks, and the feedback so far has been real positive, so I know we are on the right track.

Hint, Hint...people are raving about the burgers, and the original Philly Cheese Steak. The ribs are cooked for hours and hours.

[Omaha Cowboy]

Thanks for the update Chef ..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

[mchine73]

Went down and checked it out today, I must say this will be great once they get the climbing wall in. Pretty much your average games but I already have a favorite. They have a maybe 2/3 size bowling there which is very addictive. Also had lunch, I had the philly cheese steak salad which I must say was quite good (except they didn't have the dressing). I also took a tour of the TipTop building which really impressed me.

[omahastylee459]

I happened to run into aaron (streets) downtown today and we went to check out inPlay and TipTop. I was blown away by the atrium in the center. It definitely will be awesome once the climbing wall is put into place. It is really neat to be able to look up and see that you are underneath the watertower. The games looked OK, but I really liked all the different rooms that were available for private parties such as the "Jim Beam" room. We also checked out the apartments and they are very nice. Very spacious and the floor plans are excellent. I can see the chalkboard doors getting out of control though...lol. The hallways are very nice as well, and everything seems very customized with the "TipTop" logo, if you havent checked it out you really should.

[FatGuy]

I had lunch there today. Neat place, I hope it survives. I hope there is enough traffic around that location to make it work. I hope inplay isn't a few years too early.

I was surprised to get wristbanded to even enter the restaurant. I did not care for that policy. I even told the lady doing the banding that i was not going to drink alcohol during lunch. I took off the wristband later pulling out several arm hairs. Oh well.

As for the food, I ordered the soup and half sandwitch combo. The waitress said the philly was not included as an option, dissapointing. So, I went with the club. It was nothing special, but I really don't expect much from a club. I should have ordered this philly everyone is talking about.

[MTO]

I went there last night with my fiancé. We really enjoyed our selves. I actually thought the games where fun and had a great time playing them, especially the throwing ones like basketball/football.. I didn't know they had food though so i was excited to learn that and had a burger and fries. The food wasn't that great, the burger was salty and the fries need seasoning. The nicest part was being able to run around an arcade without a million kids pissing me off. Oh and playing those games after getting drunk was flipping awesome! I cant wait to free fall off the wall after getting drunk. The staff didn't know what they where doing and couldn't answer many of my questions but I'm sure in time that will all get fixed. Shockingly there wasn't many people there at all, but that made it nice not having to wait for something. I met some guy there who was involved in the management (I cant remember his name) and some hot chick who also was part of the management they where really nice, hammered but nice. He said he was moving in upstairs lucky guy.

[DTO Luv]

So it's not a kids place?

[MTO]

So it's not a kids place?

Curfew
All guests under the age of 18 must exit the building at 11:00p.m. Monday – Wednesday and midnight Thursday through Saturday, regardless of parental supervision. Additional, after 8p.m., no one under the age of 21 is permitted in our sports bar inZone.

[DTO Luv]

I like it better already.

[OmahaChef]

The curfew posted here is from the Peoria site. I'm not sure what our policy is, so I'll have to check that out. Concerning the half sandwich with the soup, I will have to think about that one. In reality, I guess I could do just about anything in a half portion. It would be a bit of work, but...hmmm...I need to ponder that one. And I apologize about the burger and fries. I'll talk to my night cooks about that one. Hopefully you'll comne back and try it again. It is our first week, and we had only one day for training and testing, so we are still refining a number of items as we go. Oh yeah, concerning another thread, we now have the sweet vidalia onion dressing!

[Coyote]

I'll have to check this out soon.
OmahaChef - what are your favorite items on the menu?
What would you recommend that would show off the restaurant's food service? I always appreciate waitresses who know what is good - who really know and have good taste - and will usually follow their advice - but now with the chef online
BTW - ever read Kitchen Confidential? One of my favorite books/authors

[MTO]

That curfew info posted was from

http://www.inplayomaha.com/about/

[OmahaChef]

By the way, Coyote, we left the servers eat free for a week so they could try out anything they wanted to on the menu. So, you can trust their recomendations also.

[eomaha]

We all are looking forward not only to experiencing inPlay when it is fully up to speed... but what it means in terms of anchoring future development in the North Downtown district.

[OmahaChef]

Jeff, see my new post in North Downtown under Development for what InPlay is doing next in North Downtown. There are things I learned this week I can't discuss, but the future looks bright for .....dare I say it...North Downtown.

[Brad]

Omaha Chef, how has the College World Series helped/hurt your business this weekend, and how has your business been compared to other stores in your company.

[OmahaChef]

That's a good question, Brad. We did a "soft" opening, without a major advertising campaign, so we had a chance to get our feet wet. Each day has seen sales increase, so that's a good sign. Friday at lunch, we were pretty busy from 12:00 to 1:00, which actually surprised me. Friday evening there was a grand opening for Tip-Top on the roof of the building with wine and beer and a live jazz band. The invited guests all came down to eat at InPlay, and it was rather hectic for several hours. At one point there was a half hour wait for tables. But Saturday it was rather slow, at least during the day it was. I left about 7:30, so I'm not sure about last night. Friday was a bit of an abnormal spike due to the 300 Tip-Top partiers all coming down to eat, so I guess I need a few more days to see. Since we just opened, we have no same-store sales record to compare it to. And actually, I've been so focused on our place, I forgot to ask how we compare to Peoria! I'll check into that.

As a side note, we have had 4 party functions to cater this week, and I have four for this coming week too. Another positive sign.

[DTO Luv]

I went with pkiphd and some other people last Friday and it was pretty cool. The lofts apts were bad as heck. We were thinking about chipping in for one on the south side. Also there was a party on the roof we went to. There's another little loft up there that's two stories across from the water tower. I'll have the pics I took of it up later.

[Adam]

I checked it out on Saturday, as well. They're running a pretty sweet deal with $5 all you can play for a hour, plus $1.50 pints! Not a bad deal at all!

I'll probably head back down there again next weekend.

[OmahaChef]

During the opening, we are running a special. $5.00 for an hour's worth of games, or $20 for all-day play. During CWS, the bar is running Happy Hour all day long.

[Finn]

Tax credits open door for project

[jjjjhskr]

Thanks Chef and the manager (sorry, I forgot your name but will remember the next time I see you guys). We had a great time at lunch and I came back with family - the games were great and we ended up closing the place down. I was pretty much hooked on the horse racing even though my horse was a bit of a loser! I'll stop by on my next visit to Omaha! Best of luck and we're all looking forward to more In Play development!

[OmahaChef]

Thanks, jjjjhskr! It was great meeting all of you in person. Yes, Rod (the restaurant manager) is a big fan of the site too. It was Rod who introduced me to eomaha.com!

[creasecrasher]

i really hope that both inplay and dave and busters will be huge, but I don't know if Omaha can support both of these resturants. Maybe since they aren't located to close to each other they will both be huge.

[DTO Luv]

I would hope that both places fare well but InPlay will have my business.

[OmahaChef]

Thanks DTO! We all appreciate your support. I believe Omaha is big enough to support both Dave and Buster's as well as InPlay.

[Brad]

Chef
How do you like the Olympic Trials at the Qwest???