River Mill Coffee Co - Neligh                                            2025 

 

River Mill Coffee Co. in Neligh is located in a refurbished cabin style building.  

It's beautifully decorated inside and has a bit of surprise built in.  It is actually two buildings that were separate businesses that happened to sit close together and aligned just about perfectly.  The center piece was built between them and now its one building!

Here's an inside view.  Through the doorway behind Nevaeh and Rylen, is the east building and this part where they are standing is the connecting addition.  The location is great, right on highway US 275 just past NE 14.  With people like these two friendly girls, a nice selection of drinks and food, there's no way this business won't be here as long as the owners want.  They offer a wide variety of coffee drinks, non coffee drinks like Italian soda and teas, breakfast & bakery items and ice cream.  They even make their own syrups to go into the drinks.  As an example they have a Smores Frappe topped with a toasted marshmallow.  Also they offer Straw-Banacha with Banana Cold Foam (this is made with Matcha powder too).  There are so many different things to try we weren't sure what to order but don't worry, we each found something to drink and to eat.  

It's really homey and comfortably decorated.  Several beautiful wooden live edge counters.  

In fact, they do get repeat customers from a distance away.  This woman, if I remember right (questionable), is from Burwell.  She said she always stops here when she's in Neligh.  

Those of you who know me, also know I like maps.  This is different than any other U.S. map I've ever seen.  Go in and try one of their unique drinks or normal drinks like black tea (my favorite), or bakery or ice cream.  Because we drive this road at least once a year, I can guarantee we'll be back.

Legends Comics & Coffee - Benson                                2025 

 

Legends Comics has been in business for quite a while.  However, the current location is relatively recent.  They are the recipient of a prestigious award in this business:  the 2014 Will Eisner Spirit Of Comics Retailing Award.  

There were a lot of customers in here.  They don't only have comics, there are also games.  In fact, they have a back room you can reserve for groups to engage in games or other activities.  I asked if I could go back here to see what this group was up to.  They are playing a role playing game similar to Dungeons & Dragons but I forgot what it was called.  Should have written it down.  Getting old is not conducive to memory retention!  They asked if I wanted to play or watch.  I thanked them but unfortunately we had to get to a wedding reception.  (Plus Cindy would have been pretty unhappy with me)  I used to play these kind of games for hours.  Thanks for the offer, guys!!!

 

 

Naturally, they have a good selection of beverages and snacks so your browsing or gaming can go on for as long as you want.

 Of course, Cindy had to check out the vampire comics.  After a bit of searching, she was able to find the famous "Dracula" comics.  We don't know when Dracula comics were first published.  These had a copyright of 1991.

It's All About Bees - Ralston                                                2025 

This is a very interesting store regarding honey.  I know there is a lot of products which include honey in the manufacturing but this one is way over the top.  If they don't have it here, it may not be available anywhere.

 

 

They also have other products in the store, such as other consumables, clothes, and plants.  Shop around for a while.  It will take a few minutes because this is a pretty large store featuring honey and bee themed merchandise.  Raw and Liquid Honey, Jellies, Jams, Mustards, BBQ Sauce, Teas and Beeswax candles.  They also have natural body care products made from premium grade honey and so many more items that we can't begin to name them all.  

 

We were in awe when we went into their store.  This is a honey lovers dream store.  We tasted a sample of hot Hibiscus Tea with honey and it was very good.  Check out their website and read about their history.  

https://www.itsallaboutbees.com/  

JoJo's Gelato & Grill - Aurora                                            2025 

  

Here another place we've never been.  Can't explain why except to say as we drive through Aurora, we just didn't know what all they served.  Not just gelato.  

There is a pretty good sized menu with both hot and frozen foods.  The gelato is really good.   One of my favorite characteristics is more flavorful.  I had a small dish of strawberry and it was fantastic!  One surprise on the menu is prime rib on Friday nights.

Another surprise was the robot.  I know it said in the Passport book that there was a robot but I didn't expect a REAL robot.  It comes rolling out with your order on board, weaves around the tables, stops at your table and talks to you as you take your food and when it leaves, returning to it's station waiting for the next order.

We talked to Jim, the owner, about his restaurant and Giada (the robot).  He said he had a tough time getting help after the pandemic like so many others and decided to try a robot to take over some of the help shortage. This is one of the most unique things you'll ever find anywhere, not just Nebraska.

 

JoJo's is great looking and really appeals as an Italian restaurant.  After all, Gelato is Italian ice cream.