The Best Dessert Spots for a Sweet Date in Omaha

We'd already had dinner. Should've gone home. Kids were with my folks and the clock was ticking, and instead of being sensible we drove over to the Old Market, parked, and split one enormous sundae at a little table by the window. Two spoons. One bowl. My wife stole the cherry like she always does. Best fifteen dollars we spent all month.

Here's a thing I've come to believe about being married a long time. The dessert date is underrated. You don't need a reservation, you don't need to dress up, and you don't need much money. You just need somewhere sweet to sit for half an hour with the person you married and nothing else to do. And Omaha, thank goodness, is full of those.

So here are the ones we keep going back to, what each one's good for, and where in town you'll find it.

Start with the one everybody names first. Ted & Wally's has been making ultra-premium ice cream the old-fashioned way, rock salt and ice, down in the Old Market since the '80s. The flavors rotate constantly, so half the fun is walking up to the case and seeing what's on that day. Get a cone, then wander the brick streets with it. That's the whole date and it's a good one. There's a second spot out on Maple in Benson too if you're on that side of town.

When you want the ice cream to actually be the star, go to Coneflower Creamery. They make everything in-house, cones and sprinkles included, from local milk and cream, and you can taste the difference. The original is in the Blackstone District, which is a great little date neighborhood on its own, and there's a location over at Millwork Commons too. It gets a line on a summer night, but the line's part of it. Stand close, decide together, split two scoops.

Over in Dundee, eCreamery on Underwood is the move. Twelve flavors that change daily, gelato, dairy-free sorbet if that's your thing, and it's right in the heart of one of the most walkable neighborhoods in the city. Get your cone and then take a slow loop past the shops and old houses. Dundee was made for an after-dessert stroll. We wrote up the whole neighborhood in our Dundee family guide if you want to build a longer evening around it.

Now, if your sweet tooth runs more toward cake than cones. Jones Bros Cupcakes is a local institution, the owner's been on Food Network's Cupcake Wars more than once, and grabbing a couple to split is a fun little detour. It's a good pick when you want to take the treat with you, back to the porch, out to a park bench, wherever you're headed next.

For a proper French-pastry moment, Le Quartier Bakery & Café has been voted the city's best pastries year after year, and one bite of the pain au chocolat tells you why. Get an espresso, split a couple of pastries, and linger. It's the closest thing to a Paris café morning you'll find in Omaha, and it's a lovely, low-key way to start a weekend date before the day gets loud.

Want something charming and a little bit hidden? Sweet Magnolias Bake Shop sits in the historic Joslyn Castle neighborhood and does from-scratch confections, buttery cinnamon rolls, that famous brown sugar cardamom cake. They keep morning hours, so this one's a daytime date. Grab a treat, walk the pretty old streets around the castle, and let the morning go slow for once.

And for pure nostalgia, you can't beat Hollywood Candy back in the Old Market. It's a wonderland, an old-fashioned soda fountain and '50s-style diner, homemade ice cream, a cooler with a hundred and fifty kinds of pop, plus a vintage pinball arcade and movie memorabilia everywhere you look. It's ridiculous in the best way. Go when you want to feel like a couple of teenagers again, order a float, and don't act your age for an hour.

Here's the thing that ties all these together. A dessert date is small on purpose. It's not the big anniversary blowout. It's a Tuesday, a bowl, two spoons, and half an hour that belongs to just the two of you. And I've found that the marriage gets built way more out of those little sweet ordinary stops than out of the fancy nights we plan for months.

So pick one this week. Split it, don't order your own, splitting is half the fun. Sit across from each other, put the phones face-down, and actually talk. Steal the cherry off their sundae. Let them catch you doing it.

God gave you a sweet tooth and He gave you each other, and Omaha's got plenty of good places to enjoy both at the same table. Go find one.

If you want more low-key, low-cost ways to get out the door together, our budget date nights under $30 guide and the full Omaha date night collection are full of them. And if you want the whole rundown on where to get a cone in this town, our best ice cream shops in Omaha and best bakeries in Omaha guides have you covered.

Want the spots in one quick list to work through?

Ted & Wally's — tedandwallys.com

Coneflower Creamery — coneflowercreamery.com

eCreamery — ecreamery.com

Jones Bros Cupcakes — jonesbroscupcakes.square.site

Le Quartier Bakery & Café — lequartierbakingco.com

Sweet Magnolias Bake Shop — sweetmagnoliasbakeshop.com

Hollywood Candy — hollywoodcandy.com