The Zoo Bar of Lincoln Nebraska
One of the landmark sites in Lincoln Nebraska is the famed Zoo Bar on 136 North 14th Street. This blues music bar and nightclub found in downtown Lincoln Nebraska has been around since 1973. Formerly owned by Larry Boehmer, a University of Nebraska Master of Fine Arts graduate, the Zoo Bar was styled to mimic the famed blues bars that lined the streets of Chicago during its heydey.
The Zoo Bar has attracted a lot of musical talents from all over the United States into the Midwest. Renowned musicians like Bo Diddley, Chris Duarte, Robert Cray, and Otis Rush have all performed at the Zoo and a lot of great talents still perform there today. The establishment has put the small town of Lincoln on the map. The Zoo Bar has achieved national acclaim, becoming an unlikely yet legendary
musical institution.
The Zoo Bar has had the reputation of being the platform for known Midwest blues talents to strut their skills and for new talents to be discovered and appreciated. It has been that way since around the inception of the bar and has continued well into the 80s and 90s, even up to the present. What a lot of people do not know is how the bar began its journey to becoming what is arguably one of the most famous music bars in Lincoln Nebraska if not the Midwest.
Larry Boehmer started out as a regular customer at the Zoo Bar while still studying at the University of Nebraska. He soon started working for the bar as a bartender, and eventually ended up managing the establishment. At that time he had been contemplating on continuing his art in New York, but he decided to make his home Lincoln Nebraska. In 2001 the Zoo Bar was passed on to his son Jeff , but the traditions that earmarked its place as one of the establishments that defined blues, reggae, and rock and roll are still carried on today.
Music fans, musicians, and the eventual backpackers all troop to the Zoo Bar to see who is playing every night. If you fancy a visit to Nebraska, then downtown Lincoln might just be the place for you.