Herbe Sainte is a New Orleans-inspired bar and kitchen on Farnam Street in Midtown, and it does brunch better than almost anywhere else in Omaha.
I stumbled onto this place a couple years ago after a friend insisted I try their biscuits. She undersold it. The space feels deliberately dim even at noon — dark wood, pressed tin ceiling, a long bar stocked with an absurd amount of absinthe and amaro. It’s the kind of room that makes you want to linger, and on a Saturday morning when you have nowhere to be, that’s exactly what you should do.
The menu leans hard into Louisiana Gulf Coast cooking. If you go once, get the shrimp and grits. The grits are stone-ground and cheesy without being gluey, and the shrimp come in a tomato-andouille gravy that has genuine heat to it — not the performative kind that fades immediately, but a slow burn that builds. It runs around $17 and is large enough that I’ve never once finished the whole plate in one sitting.
The biscuits my friend mentioned are served with a honey butter and Creole mustard situation that I now think about more often than is reasonable. Order them as a side even if you’re getting something else. The eggs Sardou — poached eggs over artichoke hearts and creamed spinach with hollandaise — are worth the $14 if you want something that feels a little more composed.
On the drink side, the Sazerac is the obvious call and they make a correct one: rye, Peychaud’s, a Herbsaint rinse, none of the overly sweet interpretations that show up elsewhere. If you’d rather ease in, the café au lait is strong and good. Brunch cocktails run $10–$13, which is fair given the quality of the pours.
The crowd on weekends is mixed in a genuinely Omaha way — neighborhood regulars at the bar, couples on late dates, a table of people who clearly just came from a kid’s soccer game and immediately needed a drink. The staff tends to be relaxed and competent, not performatively attentive. Nobody’s going to check on you every three minutes, which, depending on your mood, is either a feature or a flaw.
Waits can get real on Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon, and they don’t take reservations for brunch. I usually aim for right at 9 a.m. when they open, or I push past 12:30 when the first wave has cleared out. Parking on Farnam is metered and easy enough on weekends.
Herbe Sainte also does dinner and late-night well — their cocktail program is genuinely serious — but brunch is where I keep returning. It’s the rare spot in Omaha that has a strong sense of what it is and doesn’t try to be everything. For a city that sometimes struggles with commitment to a theme, that clarity counts for a lot.
Find them at 3502 Farnam Street. Brunch runs Saturday and Sunday. Budget roughly $25–$35 per person with a drink and tip.
