The restaurant – a loungey, booze-centric place with a moderately expensive menu – prepared for the worst. A family with an infant and two toddlers came in and took “open seating” in the center of the lounge, a spot…
The 405’s prime destinations for beef
Rachel Cope’s 84 Hospitality will launch its newest concept in early April. Neon, a coffee shop-plus, occupies the space that was formerly home to Easy E Slice Shop, the to-go operation for Empire Slice House. When Empire moved to…
What happens when a bar adds food, and the food is so good you want to start calling the place a restaurant? Without question, Palo Santo at 1203 NW 2 in the Farmer’s Market District is the best new…
Oklahoma now leads the nation in dispensaries per capita, with more than 9,000 licensed marijuana businesses, according to Politico. A survey published by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority in May 2020 reported nearly 300,000 licensed medicinal marijuana users partake…
Mention the name Jim Blanchard to anyone who worked for and with him, and the response is always a variation of “the best man in the Hal Smith family of restaurants.” Blanchard, an area partner for Charleston’s and the…
Vanessa House Beer Company is launching its new line of “slushy” beers this week under the Slush Fund name. The first two – Cherry Cobbler and Raspberry Truffle – will be available at the brewery on tap and in…
One of the questions that dominated social media for a month or so in 2020 – unbelievably – was which fast-food chain that uses factory-farm-raised chickens, flavorless buns and questionable condiments had the “best” chicken sandwich. In a year…
Anyone in the wine business who is paying attention knows there is a disconnect between what people in the industry drink and what the people they sell to drink. While 2020 was the year of Grenache, PetNats, Carignan, and…
A person who loves dogs is not a doggie; a person who loves books is not a bookie; and a person who loves food is not a foodie. Now that that’s out of the way, we can look…
2020 is in the past. 2021 is here. No matter the current state of things, I think we can all agree that toasting to a new year is wholeheartedly needed. While you may be tempted to just pop…
Thomas Upshaw’s job is to pair cocktails with the extraordinary food at Grey Sweater. For a bartender, this is either the greatest or scariest (or both) job ever. Chef Andrew Black’s tasting menu concept in Deep Deuce continues to…
A new year hopefully means new, good things happening in the hospitality industry. Since no one is in a tempting fate mood, we’ll leave it at that; however, we’re starting the year with good news for downtown with the…
Pete Holloway has been in the restaurant business for 44 years. In 2020, the original Cafe 501 in Edmond turned 25. The Classen Curve location turned 10. “I’ve been up for parole twice, and they said, ‘No,’” Holloway says with…
It’s January, a time to re-examine those promises we make every year to try to eat better. Rather than attempting to figure out what the newest “superfood” is – a marketing, not nutrition, term – we decided to ask…
In the pantheon of Christmas candies, the candy cane stands above the rest for the honor of symbolizing the season – that elongated breath mint that does double duty as an ornament or window decoration. At the risk of…
There are three ways people usually discover The Chicken Shack: Someone tells them about it; they drive past it; they ask, “Where can I find gizzards?” Located along Route 66 in Luther, Eddy Gochenour’s fried chicken and beer…
Three new restaurants opened in the final quarter of 2020, a bold move in a year with plenty of negative restaurant news. Yo! Pablo, a taqueria from Jeff Rogers Concepts (Pink Parrot, Pig & Butcher, etc.) occupies the…
After 230 years of Thanksgivings, you would assume we’d all be turkey-cooking champs. Turns out, though, that every year, we scramble about for the best recipes or methods. Perhaps it’s because turkey is – flavorwise – a huge chicken,…
While summer yielded many crops from the sudden explosion of home and backyard gardens, fall is also a time for the harvest. Late plantings in the summer can lead to some beautiful greens and vegetables. Combining fresh pickings on…
Pinot at a Thanksgiving dinner is such a commonly suggested pairing that it’s fair to wonder how it became so common. “Pinot and poultry, not just turkey, work beautifully together,” says Amie Hendrickson, an Oklahoma City certified sommelier…
Trisha O’Donoghue of Quincy Bake Shop moved to Chicago when she was 25 in what she calls the “best biggest move of my life.” The Oklahoma City native had been working as a server and bartender at Red Rock…
One of the easiest ways to settle the old Pop-Tart vs. Toaster Strudel feud from childhood is to make stops at Stitch Cafe and The Market at Commonplace, where you’ll find grown-up versions of both. Daniela Cooper of…
For at least the past four years, observers have been predicting the bursting of Oklahoma City’s restaurant expansion bubble. In 2018 and 2019, we saw more than 30 local restaurants per year added to the options, and we wrung…
