The building is the headline: a genuine historic opera house in Fairfield, population under 400, converted into a brewpub. Drop ceilings removed, fourteen-foot ceilings restored, the old opera-house bones showing through — you don’t find many taprooms like this anywhere, let alone in south-central Nebraska.
Lynn bought the building in the early 2000s, opened the restaurant in 2006, and added the brewery in 2014. The house beers — like the Ox Bow Brown Ale — share the menu with the food that built the reputation: slow-roasted prime rib and Thursday chicken-fried-steak specials that draw from surrounding counties. Doors open at 5pm, Tuesday through Saturday; reservations are smart on prime-rib nights.
This is destination dining disguised as a small-town pub. Worth the drive from anywhere within an hour.