that he has a hard time eating them now) or the pizza and lahvosh
that customers can’t get enough of.
But the people who work in the restaurants, including Mekiny
and Vivace operating manager Becca Thompson, are scolded if they
work too much. “We demand a lot of creativity from our team, and
they can’t do that if their lives are one-dimensional and focused on
just work,” Samuelson told me. He himself seems happy meeting
with chefs, or discussing marketing and sales, negotiating with
suppliers, chatting with customers, hanging out with his young
twins, or doing community service for projects like “Share Our
Strength” (a program to fight hunger.)
Then I spoke with business partner, Ann Mellen, who is the
bookkeeper of the operation, (and whom Chef Mekiny described
as “a perfect picture of grace.”) She told me she loved working the
floor and bussing tables when M’s is busy. That’s when it became
clear to me that the story of M’s Pub and Vivace was a story of
integration and balance.
tomatoes turned out not to be. The cheeses were critical and their
suppliers even more so. The crust was tricky. Obviously, this was not
some kiddie-birthday-party, dumbed-down pie; pizza aficionados
in Italy slave for decades to win the coveted title of Vera Pizzaiolo
Napolitano. Still, who would have guessed that for pizza, the
actual taste overruled the tradition? Ron was, he admitted, slightly
obsessed. They tested so many of them that Becca at Vivace told me
in confidence that she got “really tired of eating pizza.” But having
sampled the fruit of their labors, I can tell you that this serious
gourmet pizza was delicious to some very foodie moms I know,
and was still eaten readily by five out of five children (not all mine,
various ages) who snarfed up every scrap and loved it. The customer
may not always be right, but at M’s and Vivace, they have the final
vote.
Shrimp scampi baked dish at M’s Pub
Ron Samuelson
“We demand a lot of
creativity from our team,
and they can’t do that
if their lives are onedimensional and focused on
just work.”
fsmomaha.com
That “customer driven” theme is also how Chef Bobby learned
the hard way that some items on the M’s menu were sacrosanct.
The dubious-sounding Carrot Dog (a vegetarian entrée) was one
he tried some new-chef changes on by removing. “I got hate mail,”
he told me, laughing. “And not just from Omaha, but from people
all over Nebraska. I was like, come on, it’s a carrot on a bun!” Oh,
Balance seems to be what both menus strive for. There are choices
on both menus that kids can eat: hot dogs, lahvosh, pizza (but very,
very good pizza in the Neapolitan tradition) half-portions of pasta,
but there are also seafood and steak entrées that would be at home
in any fine New York bistro. Regular at M’s and local artist, Larry
Sosso, says he loves that M’s is a place where you can wear a suit or
jeans and still feel comfortable. “We like to mix the dinner menu
with the bar menu,” he says, “and maybe have a lahvosh, a dessert,
and a glass of wine after the symphony or a show.”
This sort of versatility was echoed when I spoke to Ron
(Samuelson insisted I call him Ron, and he’s transparent but
businesslike enough for me not to mind doing it) about how M’s
menu evolved from its or