- Guitars and Cadillacs is reopening in Central Omaha.
- The previous Omaha location closed 21 years ago.
- The new location will be in Miracle Hills Park, with construction starting in February 2025.
- The Kansas City location reopened in 2022 and has been a popular destination.
- The reopening announcement has garnered significant excitement online.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Country music lovers better dust off your boots and get your dance moves ready! Guitars and Cadillacs is reopening in Omaha. KMTV spoke to co-owner Mitch Kerns about the construction timeline and former patrons about the memories made in this fan favorite bar.
The first Guitars and Cadillacs was opened in 1988 in Kansas City, not long after they opened a second location in Omaha.
Music lovers flocked to the spot but to the dismay of many country dancers, they closed their doors in April 2003.
"I met him and some other people in the club. So I went to watch and I was just blown away. I just thought it looked like a whole lot of fun and I wanted to learn how to do it," said former patron Deb Rasmussen.
Their K.C. location reopened in 2022, Kerns says it was a big hit and travel destination for many of our neighbors.
"We've had about 1200 people from Omaha, come down to Kansas City to visit Guitars and Cadillacs, which is also just more great market information for deciding to go back there," said Kerns.
Big name county stars have performed at the bar including Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and Shania Twain. The names and fun have helped the bar develop a loyal following.
"It's like a family. It's, it's, you know, in today's world, the big social thing is it didn't exist 20 years ago," said Kerns.
And though it hasn't been an active country dance club in Omaha for 20 years, it has an active fan page. The pages reopening announcement gained over a thousand shares and hundred of comments in 24 hours.
Rob Tiedgen is a country dance instructor and part of the Country Kickers. He used to teach classes at the bar and is happy to get back in the swing of things and make more memories.
"The country kickers, they enjoyed guitars and Cadillacs and we varied in ages at that time. Now we're a little long in the tooth but we we enjoy the country dance still," said Tiedgen.
The new location won't be far from where the old one once stood, Kerns says it's going to be in the heart of Miracle Hills Park at 114th and Dodge. The developers "Perkins Properties" told me they hope the area becomes an entertainment haven.
"We've got a pretty good program where we do live music,, using local, regional in Nashville and Texas bands on Fridays and Saturday nights and then dance lessons on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Friday evenings," said Kerns.
Construction starts in February with a grand reopening set for April/May of 2025.
