Oklahoma

Kitchen 324 bakery cafe nails breakfast

Posted on by Pat and David
If Kitchen 324 were in Paris, it would be a patisserie. Sweet-shop bakeries in the City of Lights often offer some of the best deals on breakfast, lunch, and even supper at a counter. (Quiche and salad can cost less than a drink at an outdoor cafe.) Kitchen 324, of course, is emphatically American. What else could you call the fried green tomato Benedict shown above? (Well, you could call it Southern, we suppose.) The snazzy room in the classic 1923 limestone and brick Braniff building in downtown OKC has the bright white and stainless look that practically screams “clean!” (Yes, it was the headquarters of Braniff Airways, the airline that once linked the Midwest and Southwest to Latin America.) Its central location makes it...Read More

Oklahoma onion burger an institution

Posted on by Pat and David
During the Dust Bowl years that made many Okies into migrants (see John Steinbeck), Oklahoma grill cooks began serving onion burgers. El Reno, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City, claims to be the birthplace. According to legend, cook Ross Davis invented the onion burger at the Hamburger Inn on Rte. 66 in downtown El Reno. He piled half a shredded onion on top of a nickel meat patty and smashed them together with a spatula. Presto! The onions transformed the wafer-thin patty into a substantial meal. Three diners in El Reno—Sid’s Diner, Johnnies Grill, and Robert’s Grill—specialize in the dish. The town also holds a Burger Day Festival in May. The dust storms are gone, but a taste for onion burgers remains. In fact,...Read More

Cattlemen’s Steakhouse upholds Western ways

Posted on by Pat and David
Every time a server places a grilled steak before a hungry diner at Cattlemen's Steakhouse, the refrain is the same. “I'll have you cut right into that,” the server says, “and make sure that we cooked it right.” It's hardly a surprise that beef gets special treatment at Cattlemen's. It's Oklahoma City's oldest continuously operated restaurant. Originally called Cattlemen's Cafe, it opened in 1910 right in the midst of Stockyards City to serve the ranchers, cowboys, and cattle haulers involved in sending beef to the markets back East. Located slightly west of downtown, today's Stockyards District remains the home of one of the biggest livestock markets in the West. Shops specializing in jeans, boots, 10-gallon hats, and belts with big buckles line the streets. In...Read More

Film Row gives a new twist on OKC fun

Posted on by Pat and David
Hollywood met the High Plains in Oklahoma City as early as 1907. By the 1960s, literally hundreds of film exchanges operated in OKC as distribution points for almost every film studio in the U.S. Films fanned out to 37 cities from Film Row, until changes in movie technology changed the means of distribution. The heart of the current Film Row (www.filmrowokc.com) is the corner of Sheridan and Lee Avenues. Many old buildings remain, complete with ghost paintings of their studio names. The neighborhood has begun to emerge as a center for arts, entertainment, and dining. A concert venue/dance club is rising behind the 21c Museum Hotel. Meanwhile, there's plenty to entice, ranging from the main gallery of Individual Artists of Oklahoma (www.iaogallery.org) to the quirky...Read More

Imagining fresh starts in Oklahoma City

Posted on by Pat and David
The southern plains horizons of Oklahoma City seem to stretch to infinity in every direction. So do the streets, which line up in orderly grids. When a storm gathers, tumbling balls of black clouds pile up to the top of the sky and you cross your fingers that they don't drop a funnel to the ground. When the sun shines, the whole landscape gets so hot that it looks like it's about to sizzle. The heroic scale of the land and sky in this quintessential American frontier city of 610,000 allows it to sprawl 30 miles across in places. With all that elbow room, its distinct neighborhoods have matured like siblings in a big family—undeniably related but each with its own quirks. You get a...Read More