OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — When you enter the Block 16 restaurant, you know you’re at a local business.
From the friendly staff to locally-sourced beer, to the lines of people waiting patiently for the award-winning farm to table street food.
And it’s these things that have kept the business going for a decade now. This week, Block 16 is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Owners Paul and Jessica Urban say it’s been an unbelievable journey that they are so thankful for.
“Gratitude, appreciation, just shock," Jessica Urban said of the milestone.
“I got the chills this morning when I came in," Paul Urban added. "I’m just overwhelmed. We can’t even believe this. 10 years ago we were- there were days when we were just pulling change out from under our car seats just to pay the farmer, and now it’s like we have two little girls we’re just so happy.”
Even through a pandemic year, the restaurant was able to stay open and keep all of its staff on, in part due to the continuous support of the community.
The Urbans say over the past 10 years, Omaha has been supporting their business, and now they’re wanting to return the favor.
For the next ten days, the restaurant will be donating $100 to a different nonprofit each day. And throughout the month of November, they’ll be collecting items to donate as well.
“It’s been nine years where we’ve had increasing businesses, and we’re just so thankful for that," Jessica Urban said. "This last year of course has been tough, like everybody else, but we didn’t want that to take away from our thanks to the community, and we wanted to give something.”
The Urbans say they are looking forward to the next 10 years, and are hoping to get back to normal soon.
“Hopefully, we just want this over with," Paul Urban said. "We want everything to go back to normal, and we’ll kind of go from there. We would love to get back to where it was, just having fun every day.”
See the full list of nonprofits Block 16 is supporting here.
