Just outside of Omaha, Glacial Till Cider House offers an artisanal food menu and a wide selection of ciders, including seasonal options!
By: Alisha Trenalone
On a recent trip to Omaha, Nebraska, a friend and I were looking for something that would make a nice girls' afternoon out.
Lunch and hard cider tastings sounded perfect. So we headed for the city of Ashland, the home of Glacial Till Cider House, about 30 miles southwest of Omaha.
Why is it called Glacial Till? It's named for a type of jumbled, rocky sediment left from glaciers moving across the land, and it can be very fertile.
If you're looking for a local food and drink experience when you visit Nebraska, here's what to expect from a visit to Glacial Till!
Cider House or Vineyard?
Glacial Till has two locations: a cider house/restaurant and a vineyard.
The vineyard is closer to the city of Lincoln and hosts summer events and an event venue.
For a year-round experience, you'll want to head to the cider house and restaurant in Ashland. It's open every day for lunch and dinner hours.
Located in a cute, historic part of town, the restaurant is easy to find, with street parking available.
Ordering Food and Drink
When you enter the restaurant, a small gift shop immediately to the left offers canned cider, bottles of wine, and merch for sale.
We were told to order our food at the bar, and then directed to a numbered table in the dining area.
The menu was fairly small and select. Everything sounded amazing.
My friend chose the carne asada tacos, and I picked the corn chowder with crab on toast.
We both loved the flavors! The corn chowder was smoky, slightly sweet, and delicious.
We each decided to pick out a flight of four samples: strawberry rhubarb, apple cider donut, grapefruit, and hibiscus ginger on one order, and passion pineapple, pumpkin pie, and two wines (Long Day Rose and Bourbon Barrel Aged) on the other.
The bartender said that the grapefruit cider was somewhat polarizing among customers, so he offered us a small taste of it first. If you like the tartness of grapefruit itself, this semi-dry cider is very similar!
You can check out the current lineup of ciders on Glacial Till's website.
With our cider/wine flights in hand, we made our way over to the dining area to start sampling.
Up till now, my hard cider experience has mostly been with big producers like New York's Angry Orchard, so I was looking forward to seeing what the Midwest had to offer.
The ciders come in a full range of dry to sweet. The seasonal (semi-sweet) flavors of pumpkin pie and apple cider donut turned out to be our favorites, with their pleasant hint of fall spices.
It was a weekday afternoon, so although there were other customers coming and going, the restaurant wasn't overly busy. We felt welcome to relax and take our time with the ciders and the food.
Event Rooms at Glacial Till Cider House
There's a lot more than first meets the eye in the cider house. Besides the bar area and the dining room, there's a lounge room with comfy sofas and chairs, an upstairs bar and event room, and a patio.
I enjoyed the laid-back, homey feel of the cider house. It was an outstanding part of my Nebraska trip. If you're in the Omaha or Lincoln area, give it a try!
Want to also try a brewery while you're in Nebraska? Try Upstream, a brewpub located in downtown Omaha.
About Alisha Trenalone
I’m Alisha and I live in eastern Kentucky. Discovering good food is one of my joys in life, but you will also find me doing lots of reading and dreaming of travel. Having worked at a local newspaper for several years, I’m avidly interested in the written word and the art of sharing stories. Now I help Sarah out in various ways here at Champagne Tastes!
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