Fresh Cup
Chef Patrick “Beave” Clark unveiled his new menu for The Red Cup, 3122 N. Classen Blvd., to the public Jan. 2.“As many locals know, I have been working on new menus for the past three years,” Clark said in an Instagram post. “The time is almost here and that is exciting.”
It’s a learning process for the staff, Clark said. He’ll work nonstop through February to train everyone and get the new recipes nailed down.
A few longtime favorites remain, including GMO Free’toe Pie and classic red beans and rice, but much of the menu is new. Clark drew heavily from the Asian District for inspiration for his new bibimbap and bánh mì d?u h?, which both include char siu tofu.
The restaurant will also serve all-day breakfast 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. with breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy and Benny’s Huevos, made with carrot Canadian “bacon” and plant-based hollandaise sauce.
The Red Cup hasn’t gone to an all-vegan menu, but many of the dishes are vegan. Clark created a plant-based chorizo sausage that he pairs with cashew cheese and local Della Terra pasta in the chorizo mac dish.
Visit theredcupokc.com.
Closed House
Owner Patrick Boylan closed J. Bruner’s at The Haunted House Jan. 2.Boylan purchased the restaurant, 7101 Miramar Blvd., at auction in 2015. He told Oklahoma Gazette it held a special place in his heart and he wanted to save it, much as he had the original J. Bruner’s in Osage Beach, Missouri.
“I went to the auction just to see who would end up with it,” he said, but he ended up bidding and winning it.
After a year in business with flagging sales, Boylan brought in executive chef and general manager Cally Johnson, one of the cofounders of Big Truck Tacos, to revamp the menu.
Before it was J. Bruner’s at The Haunted House, it was simply The Haunted House. After the deaths of the owners in 1963 and 1964, the mansion was converted into a restaurant. It remained in business until owner Marian Thibault died in 2015.
Juicy joint
When Eric Massey brought Avery Cannon some of his homemade juice, something clicked.“I said, ‘Why aren’t I drinking this every day?’” Cannon said.
Over the next year, the pair joked about Massey’s juice. Then they stopped joking and opened Wheeze the Juice, 30 NE Second St.
Cannon, co-owner of Empire Slice House, said the new juice and smoothie bar found the perfect home in the OKSea shipping container project next to Anchor Down.
“I think there are a lot of cool local businesses that are pushing south into that area,” he said.
The ’80s and ’90s theme of Wheeze the Juice, named for Pauly Shore’s line from the film Encino Man, is both new and comforting, Cannon said. But the real draw is the juice.
“I travel all over both coasts, and there are juice bars that have been doing this for 30 years,” he said. “It’s crazy that it’s not the norm here.”
Cannon said the shop specializes in healthy, cold-pressed juices with an interesting roster of ingredients and names. Mango Tango includes mango, pineapple and yellow curry.
Visit facebook.com/wheezethejuice.
