featured at the new Gretna outlet and factory stores known as
Nebraska Crossing.
Perhaps Cutchall’s aptitude for business is innate, but the way his
eyes sparkled as he mentioned what some of his early sales ventures,
and what great products they involved pointed to the fact that he
has passion for what he does. Whether it is the connection between
cell phone interfaces and their users or his early food ventures,
passion and creativity and connections mix like a fried egg on a
burger. Well, for me it is like a fried egg on a burger, for Cutchall
it is business basics and innovation. A mix of what we know works
and expanding it to where it should go. As he put it, “We’re driven
to expand into new concepts; when one niche of the market is full,
we develop a new one.”
“We’re driven to expand into
new concepts; when one niche
of the market is full, we develop
a new one.”
Like Big Cheese, for example.
The moment I mentioned Big Cheese, Cutchall sprang from his
chair and darted around his office (which is bright, comfortable
and looks like something out of Architectural Digest Japan.) He
returned from his foray with layouts, menus, and renderings, and
couldn’t stop smiling while I feasted my eyes on some really exciting
stuff. Big Cheese, a new restaurant concept, is coming soon to
Nebraska Crossing, a brand-spanking new mega-slick outlet and
factory store with awesome names from Coach, Michael Kohrs and
Kate Spade to Nike, Under Armour and Columbia. Think: same
site as the old outlet stores on I80 just outside of Gretna, (website
at http://www.nexoutlets.com/ ) but don’t think: dilapidated strip
mall that used to be there. The old buildings were dozed, the site
completely leveled, and a new gorgeous center built in its place.
(Forget hauling your kids and husband to KC or Iowa for the
weekend just to shop, you can nip over during lunch, on a weekend
or evening, even on the way to the Husker games.)
Big Cheese is a dual concept restaurant which will share space
with Cutchall’s gourmet burger shop, Burger Star, and will have
plenty of big screen TV’s, comfortable but beautiful dining areas
(the place looks very contemporary and chic) and a list of 12 to 14
craft and local small batch beers. His chef, John Dye, is working on
some delicious combos for a grilled cheese and burger-centric menu
with soups and salads. I saw something called a Hangover Burger
with a fried egg that I would order any time, any day of the week,
with or without a hangover. And even though I haven’t had one
of those in a long time (a hangover, not a burger) in my opinion,
where you have burgers, you need beer, and where you have cheese,
you must have wine. Big Cheese wine list is going to be something
very special that will allow diners to enjoy quality wines by the
glass, through the use of the WineEmotion systems used by many
wine-tasting shops and vineyards, which preserve each bottle to the
last glass and make serving easier and faster.
What really attracted Cutchall to Big Cheese and its placement
was the kind of synergies that were happening there. “I’ve always,
even while I managed franchises, tried to have some of my own
brands and concepts,” says Cutchall. And this new restaurant
venture is a dual concept restaurant with a very modern feel, a
comfortable environment, and some very cool conveniences hardwired into the design. So Cutchall was naturally drawn to the fact
that NE Crossing embodies new concepts in retail. For example:
A real app will send out notices and specials to shoppers and help
them keep track of goings on in real time. (I mean real apps as
A rendering of Cutchall’s dual concept restaurant at the Nebraska Crossing
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