Louie's Wine Dive

I will admit, the first time I went with my best friend, a fellow wine drinker, we had great food and good wine, but we were really put off when one of the owners stopped to fawn all over the man at the table sitting next to us (with whom we happened to be having a conversation at the time) and completely ignored us. I mean, we're two women in our 20's which you would assume would be the target demo for a place like this. Not that we wanted to be fawned over, we're not high maintenance, but it was very deliberate, even the guy he was talking to thought ti was awkward. We had a good enough experience to give it a second shot and have had some hits and some misses.
All of the servers I have had are very good, they actually know some things about wine and can make good suggetsions. It just seems like maybe they don't handle being super busy very well, I went on another occasion and sat for a good 20 minutes before someone grabbed our drink order...they were very apologetic and bought the first round, and free wine always puts me in a better mood, so all was forgotten.
The menu has some different selections than what you might find somewhere else. My absolute favorite was the Emily's Harvest Salad. I really appreciate everything gluten free being labeled clearly on the menu, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of things for me.
I would defintiely suggest it for a girl's night or happy hour, they particpate in PinPoint and offer a buy one/get one entree deal so if you wanted to try it you could do so less expensively.

I'm torn with this place, I liked it, but not enough that I would go back any time soon.

After reading other's reviews I completely agree with them, to sum it up:  Average food, FAST order turnout, slow with the drinks, and hard on the wallet.

The 4 Pork Gnocchi was very good, but the reccomended Lobster Poutine was odd, and sitting on the patio the little flies swarmed us.  As they hovered over the poutine, it gave me an ill feeling.... granted I'm not a huge poutine fan, I think I would have enjoyed another appetizer more.

I don't venture out to West O much for dining, and I'm glad I tried this place, but the clientele wasn't exactly my cup of tea either....Plenty of designer bags, expensive cars and 'surprised' faces...*cough* Botox.  Oh and I'm really glad I left my kid at home with a sitter so I could listen to your kids be obnoxious!  You know what?  Maybe I don't like this place as much as I thought....atmosphere is everything!

The long and short of it.  This place will keep being successful, but it's not the greatest.  Like my review of J. Coco, some people think it's amazing, so it will stay popular, but there are way better (cheaper) places to eat and drink wine in Omaha.

Lots of wine, but has a very loud atmosphere and mediocre food for the price.

I loved the concept of this place, and had been looking forward to visiting here, but after one visit I am not sure if I need to go again.  The wine variety was nice, and I do like that you can get a selection of wine on tap and order a carafe instead of a full bottle.  But there is no beers on tap, only bottled, which seemed a little odd for the caliber of bar they seemed to be providing.

Friday dinner rush was in full swing when we got there, and the place was packed.  A table wasn't hard to come by but drinks were another 15-20 minutes.  The fritto misto appetizer had indistinguishable vegetables that mostly tasted of batter, with a decent alioi (more garlic the habenero) and tomato sauce.  Entrees for everyone were OK but not great, tried out the moules frites (decent mussels, somewhat mushy overly flavored fries), chef's daily burger (barbecue, bourbon, bacon and everything covered the taste of the meat), Louie's wedge salad with shrimp (just a wedge, dressing and salad shrimp), porchetta (moist, well done pork, didn't really need the sauce) and the deburgo.  

The service was fine, the food was delivered in a good time period and the water was refilled often, but I felt rushed and like I was being upselled on everything I ordered.  I understand that that upselling is necessary but it felt very clinical how it was done, and I would have appreciated it being presented in a more personable way.

Not a place that is easy to chat with friends, but the patio is quieter if lacking in view, unless you like your views of west Omaha parking lots.