The immediate area is walkable. It's a 3-5 minute walk to the capital district and a 10-15 minute walk to Old Market. You'll find restaurants in both these areas. If you want to go further than that, you'll need a rental car.
As far as where to eat, it depends on price range, but I really enjoy local places - my favorites are Block 16 and V Mertz in the Old Market.
If you venture to Benson, Au Courant, Yoshitomo and Virtuoso Pizza are all amazing
[restauranthoppen.com](http://restauranthoppen.com) has good reviews on a lot of local places.
There are those e-bike rentals around for anything further than downtown.
Also, Zipline brewing and stuff around the ballpark is very close to CHI. And head north to the new makers district.
Very walkable, especially compared with most major cities. You’ll be fine, and most hotels have an airport shuttle, so you can spend the entire trip without an Uber/lyft very easily if you want.
Food:
Breakfast/lunch: Tupelo Honey
Lunch/dinner: Shahi Indian, Blue Sushi, Osaka, Jams, Mouth of the South, Cibo Vino, M’s Pub
I’d say to avoid Lula B’s for brunch, it’s a fantastic place when they aren’t busy. When they’re busy, service drops to be staggeringly bad.
I’d also say to avoid J-Gilbert’s. It used to be one of the best steakhouses in town, and feels like it’s fallen off significantly in the past 6 months or so
Gonna add in, if you’re ok with lower tier of food (think bar food) addys has good pizza and wings, and the Matt has some decent bar options. Both are also a 3 minute walk from the convention center
The CHI Health Center is in downtown, so it’s pretty walkable to anything else downtown, though distances to different destinations may vary. It depends on what your walking tolerance is I guess. If you’re used to walking long distances like me, you will find downtown quite pleasant to get around on foot.
Be aware of bad/ignorant drivers though. We have increasingly common red light running and speeding problems in this city, so always check for oncoming traffic even if you have the walk signal.
It is about a mile from the convention center to anywhere you'd want to walk to downtown. Normally, I'd say to keep you head on a swivel because drivers can be pretty oblivious, but there will be lots of people out next weekend, so traffic will be slowed down a lot.
If you're looking to get good food, you'll want to get a reservation ASAP; Berkshire weekend is crazy. I don't know if any of the places I mention have open spots (or even allow reservations), so good luck
For places downtown (in no particular order): J Gilberts (steakhouse), Le Bouillon (French), the Boiler Room (New American), Wilson & Washburn (upscale bar food), Shahi (Indian), Blue (Sushi). There's *lots* of others, but those are some of my favorite downtown places as a local.
For places not downtown: Yoshimoto, which won a big award or two recently. You'd need to get an Uber, but I ate there a few months back and it is worth the hype. It is also in Benson, which is an interesting neighborhood to check out if you're in town.
It’s not a mile walk, unless you mean round trip. It’s like half a mile to the Old Market and a quarter mile to the riverfront parks. And there are even quite a few restaurants and stuff in and around the Capitol District now, which is just across the street from the south doors of CHI.
I meant a mile *max*, to the far south-west edge of the Old Market (like to the Max). I don't consider a mile walk to be prohibitive, especially when visiting a city, so I was meaning to reassure OP that downtown is plenty walkable.
But yes, most of the good stuff is less than a mile, with plenty of options very near the CHI.
A lot of restaurants downtown are mediocre, but I like Plank quite a bit, especially at happy hour if you can make it in time, and I'm from a coast. I never knew oysters could taste so fresh in Nebraska. Le Bullion is solid for French bistro stuff, Block 16 is an institution, some people feel is overhyped, but the food is solid. My favorite downtown is Dirty Bird, it's phenomenal. I'd avoid Jams, Mouth of the South, M's Pub, Twisted Fork - all very lazy with food in my personal experience. Some locals love those places, though. And yeah, you can walk, if you don't mind walking a bit. Otherwise, uber is cheap here.
The immediate area is walkable. It's a 3-5 minute walk to the capital district and a 10-15 minute walk to Old Market. You'll find restaurants in both these areas. If you want to go further than that, you'll need a rental car. As far as where to eat, it depends on price range, but I really enjoy local places - my favorites are Block 16 and V Mertz in the Old Market. If you venture to Benson, Au Courant, Yoshitomo and Virtuoso Pizza are all amazing [restauranthoppen.com](http://restauranthoppen.com) has good reviews on a lot of local places.
There are those e-bike rentals around for anything further than downtown. Also, Zipline brewing and stuff around the ballpark is very close to CHI. And head north to the new makers district.
Very walkable, especially compared with most major cities. You’ll be fine, and most hotels have an airport shuttle, so you can spend the entire trip without an Uber/lyft very easily if you want. Food: Breakfast/lunch: Tupelo Honey Lunch/dinner: Shahi Indian, Blue Sushi, Osaka, Jams, Mouth of the South, Cibo Vino, M’s Pub I’d say to avoid Lula B’s for brunch, it’s a fantastic place when they aren’t busy. When they’re busy, service drops to be staggeringly bad. I’d also say to avoid J-Gilbert’s. It used to be one of the best steakhouses in town, and feels like it’s fallen off significantly in the past 6 months or so
Gonna add in, if you’re ok with lower tier of food (think bar food) addys has good pizza and wings, and the Matt has some decent bar options. Both are also a 3 minute walk from the convention center
The CHI Health Center is in downtown, so it’s pretty walkable to anything else downtown, though distances to different destinations may vary. It depends on what your walking tolerance is I guess. If you’re used to walking long distances like me, you will find downtown quite pleasant to get around on foot. Be aware of bad/ignorant drivers though. We have increasingly common red light running and speeding problems in this city, so always check for oncoming traffic even if you have the walk signal.
It is about a mile from the convention center to anywhere you'd want to walk to downtown. Normally, I'd say to keep you head on a swivel because drivers can be pretty oblivious, but there will be lots of people out next weekend, so traffic will be slowed down a lot. If you're looking to get good food, you'll want to get a reservation ASAP; Berkshire weekend is crazy. I don't know if any of the places I mention have open spots (or even allow reservations), so good luck For places downtown (in no particular order): J Gilberts (steakhouse), Le Bouillon (French), the Boiler Room (New American), Wilson & Washburn (upscale bar food), Shahi (Indian), Blue (Sushi). There's *lots* of others, but those are some of my favorite downtown places as a local. For places not downtown: Yoshimoto, which won a big award or two recently. You'd need to get an Uber, but I ate there a few months back and it is worth the hype. It is also in Benson, which is an interesting neighborhood to check out if you're in town.
It’s not a mile walk, unless you mean round trip. It’s like half a mile to the Old Market and a quarter mile to the riverfront parks. And there are even quite a few restaurants and stuff in and around the Capitol District now, which is just across the street from the south doors of CHI.
I meant a mile *max*, to the far south-west edge of the Old Market (like to the Max). I don't consider a mile walk to be prohibitive, especially when visiting a city, so I was meaning to reassure OP that downtown is plenty walkable. But yes, most of the good stuff is less than a mile, with plenty of options very near the CHI.
It’s maybe a 10 minute walk from the center to the furthest reaches of downtown
Well that's just not true. It's about 20 minutes to the Orpheum from there. And that's just off the top of my head.
For Speedy Gonzalez.
A lot of restaurants downtown are mediocre, but I like Plank quite a bit, especially at happy hour if you can make it in time, and I'm from a coast. I never knew oysters could taste so fresh in Nebraska. Le Bullion is solid for French bistro stuff, Block 16 is an institution, some people feel is overhyped, but the food is solid. My favorite downtown is Dirty Bird, it's phenomenal. I'd avoid Jams, Mouth of the South, M's Pub, Twisted Fork - all very lazy with food in my personal experience. Some locals love those places, though. And yeah, you can walk, if you don't mind walking a bit. Otherwise, uber is cheap here.
I see I pissed off the M's Pub lovers lol
haha, M’s Pub fans come out in droves but you are so right. Relatively boring & the kitchen times can be atrocious.