After a year of business closures due to pandemic struggles, Bellevue has become a home to several new businesses over the summer. Green Bean Coffee offers quick caffeine at a drive thru. Chocolat Abeille provides a study area and tea with fresh honey, as well as an assortment of fine chocolate. In addition, Cornhusker Nutrition provides meal supplements for hungry students and adults alike.

Green Bean Coffee – 3512 Samson Way

Interview with John Sivvers

When did you open your business?

9 August, 2021 

Why did you choose Bellevue to open shop? Why did you start it?

We’ve been trying to get in Bellevue since I first opened the cafe in Millard in 2014. We got our start in Iraq and Afghanistan serving the troops, so were really well known in the military community. It made a lot of sense to open up closer to Offutt. Seven years ago there wasn’t a lot spaces or availability, so we ended up opening in West Omaha, and then this space opened and we jumped on it. 

What is your most popular item? 

While it’s obvious we’re a coffee shop, I’m going to lean towards our food. Our big breakfast food is our grand croissant. We’re also popular for our tartines; we’re one of the only places in Omaha that sells them. 

What would you recommend to someone who has never been here? 

A tartine, for food. If you like chai, our chai is different from any of our competitors. Military folks, its one of the first things they ask for when they discover were here. “Do you have the same chai you had in Iraq or Afghanistan?” Our chai is really different, and really, really good.

Chocolat Abeille – 555 Cornhusker Rd Suite 210

Interview with Tina Tweedy

When did you open your business?

We actually opened in December of 2017 in the Old Market. We were there for about three and a half years, and we just outgrew that space. 

Why did you start it?

I’ve worked in restaurants for about 27 years and been a pastry chef for half of that time. I was ready to do something small and focused, which sounds a little funny, since we expanded so much, but more just working on one specific item like chocolate. I really like chocolate as an artistic medium. You can mold it, sculpt it, paint it, and also just capture a lot of flavor in one tiny little bit, and that’s really what I wanted to do. I decided to add in the honey as a unique feature, something to kind of set us apart from other chocolatiers. I basically took two things that I love and put them together: chocolate and bees. Chocolat Abeille means chocolate honey bee in French.

Why did you choose Bellevue to open shop?

Last year, with COVID, we did close for a couple months, but my chocolatier here and I kept working, and we started selling online, which we had never done before because my space was too small for that. That really took off and we started shipping. When we reopened, I knew that I needed a larger production area if I was going to keep up with that, so we decided to move to Bellevue because I do live here and I love this community as well. I like being able to have the bees on the property. 

What is your most popular item?

It’s definitely our chocolate that features the honey. We do sell a nine piece and an 18 piece box where you get to customize the box, and I would say our nine piece boxes everyday are the most top the top selling item. We do have 21 signature flavors and people like to be able to have an assortment of those. So, within that, there are five flavors that feature the honey and those are usually the most popular.

What would you recommend to someone who has never been here? 

I would definitely try at least a piece of chocolate. If you want to get a little bit of the chocolate and the honey, I would try something like our dark chocolate honey piece. It has chocolate ganache as well as liquid honey inside. We often have chocolate covered honeycomb and that’s kind of a unique item to us, so if we have that I always recommend people try it just because many people have never even had real honeycomb. If they have, they might not have had it dipped in chocolate

Cornhusker Nutrition – 2012 Cornhusker Rd Suite 300

Interview with Tisa Hemple

When did you open your business?

August 20th, 2021

Why did you start it?

We’ve always wanted to open a business together. We found out about a business in Council Bluffs that offers meal replacement shakes that are low carb, low calorie, low fat, low sugar for a healthy option for meals, and they also have teas that are sugar free. That is something that is important to us.

Why did you choose Bellevue to open shop?

We really like the community that Bellevue has to offer. We just love the people here, and there isn’t anything like this. We wanted to bring it to you guys.

What is your most popular item?

I think it is probably a shake and I want to say brownie batter is our most popular.

What would you recommend to someone who has never been here? 

I would recommend that someone chooses the shake from our many options that is right up their alley. We have peanut butter shakes, chocolate, banana, fruit, vanilla. You can have a shake that has something a little fun,  and that’s not as healthy. Maybe you want a little Oreo in there, or you can go really clean and have the lowest sugar content possible. Then you could have the tea and you get the best of both worlds.