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.
Saturday 25 May
OKG Newsletter
Food and Drink Features
Fancy a slice?
Local pizzerias whip up more than just special sauce.
Food and Drink Features
Christina Nihira
Most everyone loves pizza. In fact, it is the only food special enough to get its very own section in most phone books.
Break the chains
Think you can’t kick the habit of national chain restaurants? Think again.
Food and Drink Features
Jenny Coon Peterson
"Hey, guys, my name’s Steve! I’ll be taking care of you folks today! Can I interest you in one of our awesome Triple-Dipper Spice Explosion Macho-Nachos, or maybe you ladies would like a Cherry Berry Hollywood Boulevard blended margarita?"
Napa for Papa
Napa Valley still produces some of the best wines in the world, and Father’s Day is a good reason to rediscover old favorites.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
“Don’t ever buy me anything I need as a present.” That bit of wisdom is actually from my wife. It’s a maxim I now live by when birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmases come round. It’s entirely apropos for Father’s Day.
Neighborhood haunts
Not ready to take a dive? Some joints offer more than a scruffy exterior.
Food and Drink Features
Luke Atkinson
Whether a bar can be classified as a “dive” is somewhat open to interpretation.
International focus
Eric Berumen, the sommelier at The Vineyard at Kamp’s 1910 Cafe, has put together a by-the-glass list drawing on the best of the Old and New World.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
Eric Berumen left Oklahoma City 14 years ago. For much of that time, the Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School graduate worked as a sommelier in Austin, Texas, where he consulted with various restaurants.
Slide into Home
Home Run Sliders pitches out sliders, sides and a ketchup bar to end all ketchup bars.
Food and Drink Features
Jenny Coon Peterson
Just a few doors down from the University of Central Oklahoma Jazz Lab and across from a green space in Edmond, Home Run Sliders is a new concept from the Deep Fork Group that is hoping to hit it out of the park with its gourmet twist on American classics. (There ends the baseball puns. Promise.)
Wine words
Terry Theise has spent much of his life singing the praises of Riesling in a language we can all appreciate.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
Terry Theise makes wine nerds gush. Jane Black, writing for The Washington Post, introduced him thus: “If you like wine and don’t mind name-dropping, here’s the name to know: Terry Theise.”
Vino adventure
Sure, you could be content sipping that glass of wine. But why stop there?
Food and Drink Features
Jenny Coon Peterson
Wine can be so much more than a simple drink. Across the metro and around the state, businesses and wineries are letting Oklahomans make wine-drinking an adventure, not just a meal accompaniment.
Food flock
Comfort food with a twist takes flight at Blackbird Gastropub in Norman.
Food and Drink Features
Carol Cole-Frowe
You won’t find four-and-20 blackbirds baked in any pies at the newly opened Blackbird Gastropub, 575 S. University in Norman, but you will find an updated take on classic dishes.
Smooth move
Keep cool with one of summer’s favorite treats: the smoothie.
Food and Drink Features
Christina Nihira
Summertime: It is nearly upon us. That means scorching temperatures and the pursuit of all things cool. A beach or mountain escape may not be readily available, but there is a quick solution with minor travel and minimal damage to your wallet. The simple fix: smoothies.
How’s it hangin’?
Hanger steak, the beef from the bottom of the belly, is the butcher’s best-kept secret. Quit laughing.
Food and Drink Features
Carol Smaglinski
Chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain wrote about eating his first real French steak in The New York Times. The “kidney-ish” flavor of the pan-seared onglet struck him as not overly tough, and not overly tender, with more character than the average filet, sirloin or rib-eye.
French summer
The new French rosés have arrived just in time to help you cool off for summer.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
The Tavel region of France makes one kind of wine: rosé. The winemakers there have been making it for more than a millennia, and their expertise shows in every bottle.
Taking it to the streets
The metro offers a variety of street food for hungry, mobile eaters or those looking for an adventurous experience.
Food and Drink Features
Doug Hill
Whether you’re looking for a quick snack between appointments or an eating adventure, the area street food scene has several attractive choices. And it’s growing every year.
Okie evangelist
Andrew Snyder is working to drag Oklahoma’s wine industry into respectability.
Food and Drink Features
Greg Horton
Every pioneer gets a nickname, but so many of the good ones are clichés: godfather, guru, founding father — even pioneer.
Château cash flow
Burgeoning local wineries target Oklahoma palates and score big with sweet and semisweet wines.
Food and Drink Features
Charles Martin
Wine shops and vineyards might be sprouting up all across the state, but Oklahoma remains a tricky place to make a living in the industry, as evidenced by the recent loss of Grape Ranch.
