BEST OF OKC: Restaurants
The best restaurants in the metro, circa 2011!
BEST OF OKC: Food & Drink
This year's best in food and drink!
Break the chains
Think you can’t kick the habit of national chain restaurants? Think again.
Top of the city
Dine in the sky this coming October!
How cheesy
Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches are on the menu at The Mule, the Plaza District’s newest haunt.
Seasonal spirits
Ciders, eggnogs and mulled wines are on the menu around the metro.
Where’s the beef?
Local, grass-fed beef makes for a healthy meat option
Adult ice cream
Ice cream cocktails sound brilliant, but it takes skill to keep a delicacy from turning into a sludge of cream and alcohol.
Cork and canvas
A new business combines classic paintings, art instruction and wine to create an evening of culture, learning and fun.
Twin Peaks offers diners a different kind of Black Friday
As in, black lingerie.
Monday 20 May
OKG Newsletter
Food and Drink Features
Not just a grocery store
Solve problems over supper at Midway, Norman’s neighborhood gathering spot.
Food and Drink Features
Carol Cole-Frowe
When is a grocery store not a grocery store? When it’s part Mayberry diner, political center of Norman, classic-car gearhead clubhouse, mecca for emerging musicians, as well as a fine place to get a hearty bowl of homemade chili or soup and a wholesome sandwich.
Use your noggin’
Eggnog is a delicious start to the decadent holidays. Here are some new twists to the cool-weather classic.
Food and Drink Features
Charles Martin
Nothing captures the rich decadence of the holiday season quite as perfectly as eggnog. Dense, satisfying and wickedly fattening, even bad eggnog is still darn good. This seasonal drink has reappeared on store shelves, coolers and on some menus of adventurous bars and coffee shops across the metro.
Wines that shine
Share your fall with new wines in the OKC metro.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
Stella Modern Italian Cuisine, 1201 N. Walker, has featured a mixture of American and Italian wines since Lori Tyler opened the restaurant last year. The two areas reflect Tyler’s preference for great California wines and the wonderful food-friendliness of Italian wines.
The Meat House opens for business
Music and more accompany grand opening in Edmond.
Food and Drink Features
Carol Smaglinski
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, The Meat House, at 2239 W. Danforth at Santa Fe in Edmond, is holding its grand-opening celebration with sample tastings.
Surviving Day of the Dead
Milagros hosts annual Mexican feast.
Food and Drink Features
Carol Smaglinski
The annual feast of Dia de los Muertos, celebrated throughout Mexico on Nov. 1-2, is held to honor departed loved ones and family members.
Brews for the bird
Hometown hops abound for every part of your Thanksgiving festivities.
Food and Drink Features
Matt Carney
All my extended family lives out of state, so we usually meet at my grandparents’ house in Missouri for the holidays. So close to Kansas City, Mo., Boulevard brews are aplenty, as are St. Louis’s Schlafly (they have a September- October-only pumpkin ale that literally tastes like you’re drinking a spiced pumpkin pie still glowing from the oven), but this year I’ll bring a handful of my favorite Okie beers to share with the cousins, aunts and uncles.
Refresher course
Local artists use wine labels to create unique interpretations to benefit the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
Refreshing The Palette
The Metro Wine Bar
4-6 p.m. Sunday
6418 N. Western
metrowinebar.com
840-9463
$25
Put a cork in it
Why did a legislative task force studying strong beer and wine sales dry up?
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
Members of the joint task force on the sale of wine and beer in grocery stores voted to disband on Oct. 20 after only two meetings. Jeff Reasor, CEO of Reasor’s Foods and a member of the task force, said there were signs from the beginning that the group would not reach a consensus.
Highbrow holiday
Try these handpicked wines and cheeses for your holiday happenings.
Food and Drink Features
Jenn Scott
Holidays are on the horizon, and a crowd-pleaser is always cheese. Pair that with the right wine, and your guests will dub you “master of the holiday hors d’oeuvre and all things persnickety.”
Making local work
From dirt to Veggie Van to plate, this urban movement will make other states green with envy.
Food and Drink Features
Jenn Scott
The once-prevalent practice of growing and consuming one’s own food has been supplanted by chemicals, drive-throughs and consumerism. The now-foreign concept of dirt-to-plate dining has been replaced by Happy Meals and out-of-country produce.
Okie roots to California vines
Oklahoma natives have quietly built Hidden Ridge to be one of the best brands in Sonoma Valley.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
Lynn Hofacket was raised on a wheat farm and cattle ranch in southwestern Oklahoma. He eventually moved to Oklahoma City to work in real estate more than 20 years ago. While in the metro, he met Casidy Ward, an Enid native. The two married shortly after.
Smag 7: Matters of taste
Food and Drink Features
Carol Smaglinski
Metro restaurants are a curious mixture of old and new. Their mission is to carefully weigh just what its customers want in taste, appearance and originality. Now get out and enjoy what they’ve concocted!
Shopping spree
Who knew grocery shopping could be so fun? But how will the new options affect your budget?
Food and Drink Features
Jenn Scott
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (and if you are, I’m here to help), then you’ve caught wind of two new grocery chains offering a wider array of items geared toward healthier living.
Blood alcohol
Mixing spine-tingling creations for your Halloween party is easy if you look beyond the liquor store for some seasonal novelties.
Food and Drink Features
Charles Martin
Candy makers are stepping up their game for Halloween with all sorts of creepy confections, from chocolate eyeballs to blood-bag lollipops, so amateur and professional bartenders need to rise to the challenge.
HOPE Center holding food drive
Vintner’s Cellar coordinating donation collection.
Food and Drink Features
Carol Smaglinski
HOPE Center of Edmond, which has been around since 1984, needs canned goods or nonperishable food items for its pantry.
