The Olsons Saved Elkhorn's 1897 Corner With Two Restaurants. The First Is Serving Now.

On the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 15, Main Street merchants, an Omaha City Council member and Greater Omaha Chamber staff stood on the sidewalk at 2620 N. Main St. They watched Chuck Olson cut the ribbon on La Vita Nuova, Italian for "the new life," according to Omaha Food Magazine's account of the ceremony. The storefront had housed Bella Vita Ristorante for 16 years and then sat dark for nearly three.

The ribbon cutting covered only half of the project. Olson and his wife, Deb, renovated the building as two fully separate restaurants under one roof. The main floor serves lunch and dinner every day. A fine-dining room upstairs, built around a chef's tasting menu, is still to come. They chose that two-kitchen plan to keep the building standing, and it changes how the corner works for anyone who walks Olde Towne Elkhorn.

A purchase made for the building first

The Olsons own Main Street Cellar, a block south of the restaurant. They bought the vacant building after Bella Vita's owner retired in 2023. Bella Vita had opened in 2007, as KMTV reported in a 2020 profile. Olson told the ribbon-cutting crowd that the purchase was never really about a restaurant:

"Deb and I decided this building from 1897 needs to stay around."

Omaha Food Magazine quoted him adding that "the downtown area is something special, and it needs to be protected."

The building's age helps explain his reasoning. In April 1895 a fire destroyed ten buildings on Elkhorn's Main Street, and this one went up two years later. That makes it one of the oldest commercial buildings left in the historic district. Carlson West Povondra Architects of Omaha guided the historic details, and Ideal Construction of Elkhorn handled the build. Inside, the original 1897 brick and a pressed-tin ceiling frame the main-floor dining room.

Working carefully on a 129-year-old building took time. When KMTV reported the plans in December 2025, the downstairs restaurant was expected in May. It began serving quietly in early October instead, about two weeks before the formal opening.

Open from 11 a.m., seven days a week

Because the main floor serves lunch as well as dinner, the corner now draws people at midday as well as in the evening. The restaurant's own site describes it as "now open for lunch & dinner in Olde Town Elkhorn." Here are the basics as of the October opening, as Omaha Food Magazine listed them:

There is also a patio, where guests gathered after the ribbon cutting. Opening at 11 a.m. every day makes this building one more lunch option on a Main Street strip that Omaha Food Magazine describes as "a short strip of locally owned anchors." That list includes Main Street Cellar, Uptown Java, Main Street Studios and Gallery, and a handful of restaurants.

What the main-floor kitchen is cooking

Chef Ben Maides runs the kitchen. He is best known as chef and co-owner of Au Courant Regional Kitchen in Benson, which opened in 2016. Sara Wallace runs the front of house as general manager.

The menu is Northern Italian in inspiration, and the pizza is its centerpiece. The dough is an organic sourdough built on 00 flour, started with a heritage-grain starter from Niobrara Grain & Milling. It ferments for more than 72 hours and bakes in a wood-fired oven. Prices below are from the opening menu as Omaha Food Magazine reported it in mid-October 2026:

A pizza costs $4 to $8 less than a house pasta, so a pie works for a quick weekday lunch, while the courses farther down the menu suit a longer dinner. A gluten-free crust is available, and every pie comes with crust dippers that include a local Calabrian honey.

The bar is built around the aperitivo hour. The Nuova Spritz uses your choice of house-made citrus liqueurs: limoncello, limettacello, arancello or pompelmocello. A non-alcoholic version uses sparkling wine and a house citrus cordial. The wine list, which hangs on a floating rack above the bar, is curated rather than long. That fits a restaurant owned by the couple behind Main Street Cellar.

Words like "farm greens," "farm herbs" and "farm egg" on the menu are literal. The team farms its own land, led by "Magpie" Magnuson, and buys from small farmers and suppliers across the region.

Upstairs, a second kitchen targeted for mid-November

The second floor is a separate fine-dining room with its own kitchen, built around a chef's tasting menu. At the Oct. 15 opening it was targeted for mid-November. Olson kept the name private and said only that the plans "will be newsworthy," according to Omaha Food Magazine. Liz Kerrigan, senior vice president of member and investor relations at the Greater Omaha Chamber, told the crowd the upstairs room "is going to set the bar."

Mid-November is a target, not a set date, and the downstairs opening already ran about five months past its original May estimate. The restaurant's own website has an email sign-up for events and specials, and its social accounts are the most direct places to watch for an announcement. Omaha Food Magazine notes that the tasting-menu room will be a first for the district.

Putting it on a November calendar

The first fixed date nearby is Saturday, Nov. 14. According to Channel 94.1's event listing, the Elkhorn North Holiday Market runs that day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Elkhorn North High School, 17800 George Miller Pkwy., with more than 100 local vendors advertised. The market also hosts Open Door Mission's Turkey & Fixin's Food Drive. The goal is 100 turkeys and hams plus 1,000 pounds of food for Thanksgiving meals. Shoppers can bring a turkey, a ham, nonperishable food or a monetary donation. The market closes at 3 p.m., and La Vita Nuova's weekend hours run until 10 p.m., so the two fit on the same Saturday.

Main Street's own holiday calendar, including the Holiday Open House and Jingle Jam, is posted by the Olde Towne Elkhorn business association on its events page. Check there for 2026 dates as the season gets closer.

Omaha City Council member Brinker Harding, whose District 6 includes Elkhorn, said at the opening that he had already eaten at La Vita Nuova twice. Omaha Food Magazine quoted him: "Downtown Elkhorn is an important node that is special to Omaha. Not everyone knows about downtown Elkhorn yet." Within a block, the same couple now runs Main Street Cellar and the restaurant in the 1897 building, with a second restaurant in that building due to open later this fall.

Curious how a historic corner like 2620 N. Main St. shapes the blocks around Olde Towne Elkhorn? Contact a Good Life Group agent at The Good Life Group for a local conversation about Elkhorn's Main Street and the streets nearby.