For most of its life, the building at 645 5th Street only filled up for other people's big days. Wedding receptions. Quinceañeras. The occasional retirement party rented out for an afternoon. It sat quiet the rest of the week, a 156-year-old event hall doing what event halls do: waiting.
That's not what's happening there now. Walk past the Historic Beermann Plaza on any given evening this fall and you'll find a theater company running a show, a music academy teaching lessons, and a candy shop selling out its case. A wood-fired pizza kitchen was in build-out inside the same complex as of last fall, and a Sacramento brewery was setting up a production line in another section around the same time. The building that used to empty out after the reception is turning into the kind of place people show up to on a random Tuesday.
A Rental Hall Became a Small Business District
The building carries two names locals use interchangeably: the Beermann Building and the Odd Fellows Building, a nod to the fraternal order that likely built it. It's now home to Curtain Call Theater Company, which stages a 200-plus seat indoor season alongside site-specific shows in courtyards and rooftops around town. The theater's holiday production, a tribute to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra called A Not So Silent Night, has been voted Best Lincoln Event in consecutive years, and the Lincoln News Messenger has named the company Best Live Theater.
That's the part of the building that already had a following. The newer addition is Rockstar Pizza & Wood-Fired Kitchen, which was under construction inside the same event center as of last fall. According to the team's own updates at the time, the kitchen would bake its dough and focaccia daily and grow its own herbs onsite in a greenhouse. No opening date had been confirmed yet, but the framing was telling:
"This will be your new favorite spot in downtown Lincoln, right inside The Event Center at Historic Beermann Plaza."
That's a bet on foot traffic a rental hall never needed to make.
The Same Family Keeps Adding Rooms
What makes this more than a single restaurant opening is who's behind it. Rockstar Pizza is a partnership between Steven Pagano's family, who already run Rockstar Music Academy, Rockstar Music Shoppe, and Stevie's Sweets out of the same address, and Phil Woodman of Hops & Hogs Country Smokehouse. That's five businesses under one family's roof in one 156-year-old building, added one at a time rather than franchised in all at once.
A few steps away, a Sacramento brewery was converting another section of the complex into a production site around the same time, a detail worth separating from the pizza kitchen news. A production facility doesn't put stools at a bar or a line out the door. It's a supply chain decision, not a night-out destination. But it's still a second unrelated business choosing this specific building in the same stretch of months, which says something about how the address reads to outside operators.
The pattern downtown isn't chains discovering Lincoln. It's people who already have a stake here adding a second or third thing to what they're running.
The Independent Wave Isn't Confined to One Block
Beermann Plaza is the clearest example, but it's not the only one. A few blocks and a few minutes away, the same story is playing out with different names attached:
- Soli's, a beer, wine, and eats concept downtown, opened in 2024 after owner Pricilla Clinton spent 15 years working toward it.
- Crumb Dessert Co., known locally as Crumb Pies, grew out of a friendly apple pie contest between friends before landing a storefront and bakeshop in Lincoln.
- Sotherton Tea Room, an English-style tearoom serving tea, sandwiches, and baked goods, is in the works for a downtown cafe space.
- Trax Taproom & Kitchen is taking over the Lincoln Gardens space as its previous owners step back from day-to-day operations.
None of these are national brands testing a new market. They're small operators, some first-timers and some already established, choosing to open or expand in Lincoln specifically. That's a different kind of growth than a shopping center adding a drive-through, and it shows up differently in daily life too: these are places with an owner's name attached to the story, not a corporate press release.
Downtown's older anchors are still doing fine alongside the newcomers. Old Town Pizza has held "Best of the Best" for 14 straight years, and Buon Appetito is still serving the same family-run Italian menu it's known for. The new openings aren't replacing what worked. They're filling in the gaps around it.
What Actually Changes This Month
If you live in Lincoln, the calendar gives you a reason to see this for yourself sooner than later. The Downtown Lincoln Association's Fall Kick Off Festival lands at Beermann Plaza on Tuesday, September 15th, tying in Lincoln High School and Twelve Bridges High School sports programs alongside food trucks and family games, including something called the Hoop Hauler Challenge. It's a small, local event, the kind that only works because there's already a plaza full of businesses to spill out into.
That's one date on a calendar that's fuller than it used to be:
- Back to School Bash, held in July at Beermann Plaza with games, inflatables, and school supply donations
- Trick or Treat, which last year drew more than 25 participating downtown businesses
- Santa in the Plaza, a holiday event with photo booths and hot chocolate
- Rods & Relics Car Show, now in its 20th year
- Dia de los Muertos Festival, held in Beermann Plaza with altars, dancers, and live music
None of these events are new inventions. What's changed is what surrounds them. A festival at a plaza with one theater and a candy shop is a nice afternoon. A festival at a plaza with a theater, a pizza kitchen, a music academy, and a brewery a few doors down is a reason to stay for dinner after.
That's the actual shift here, and it's easy to miss if you only track restaurant openings one at a time. Downtown Lincoln isn't just adding businesses. It's consolidating them around a handful of addresses that used to sit empty most of the week, turning occasional-use buildings into everyday ones. If you've lived here a while, this is probably the first fall where a Tuesday night downtown gives you more than one reason to go.
If you're weighing what a home in Lincoln is actually worth, not just what's happening a few blocks from it, that's a conversation grounded in current data rather than guesswork. Taylor Zapata has been tracking this market long enough to know which changes hold up and which don't. Let's Connect when you're ready to talk specifics.
