Elias Attouleh thinks of everything.
Peek in the kitchen of a pizza or Chinese food delivery operation and you’ll see a mad dash by cooks to fix orders as soon as they’re received.
It’s a different scene inside Oklahoma Steak & Grill Delivery, 76 E. 33rd St., in Edmond, where owner and cook Attouleh checks the GPS on his drivers’ cars before tossing a well-seasoned rib-eye under the broiler.
“We track the drivers to make sure they get back at the same time the next order is ready,” he said. “The driver has to be in a 10-minute range before we start cooking.”
Pizza can hold, he said. Chinese food can hold. Steak, cooked to order, cannot hold.
A deft hand in the kitchen, Attouleh also studied the packaging he uses to send out orders. Steaks come out of the broiler slightly undercooked because he knows they’ll continue cooking during delivery. That’s how a customer can order a medium-rare steak and it shows up at the door perfectly cooked.
French fries come in boxes with holes punched out so that steam escapes. Toast is wrapped tight in foil to keep it crisp. They are little steps, but Attouleh said they make a big difference.
With a crew of six drivers, deliveries can usually be completed in 30 minutes, though in a rush, they’ll push delivery time to an hour. They stop taking orders if it gets any busier.
His wife, Heba “Happy” Attouleh, works the counter for takeout orders and adds inspiration to the menu.
The Happy Burger ($9.99, including fries), also known as the Okie Burger, is a half-pound burger cooked with BBQ sauce, sautéed onions and mushrooms topped with Swiss cheese and bacon.
Though steak is in the title, Attouleh said, the restaurant moves a lot of burgers, gyros and baked potatoes. The draw is in value and the ability to get something a little different delivered to eat in the comfort of your own home.
Patrons have come to expect specials on different days — like dessert and steak Thursdays — and it’s clear they’re satisfied, Attouleh said.
“Some customers order twice a day,” he said. “Some we see every week.”
It’s a concept they think has legs. Elias is originally from Jordan. Happy is from Egypt. In their travels across the U.S., it has become apparent that delivery is popular. But most delivery restaurants cook the same old stuff. Steak, chicken, soups and fried cheesecake are much less common. Ideally, the Attoulehs hope to see their idea spread from Edmond to the rest of the country.
But they know they owe a lot of their early success to their team. A delivery service is only as good as its drivers. Enter Austin Aishman — the first employee they hired and the one who has been with them ever since — even though he lives in Stillwater.
As they sit down to a meal together in between the 2 p.m. end of lunch service and the 4 p.m. beginning of dinner, it’s easy to see that this upstart restaurant concept has forged a bond among them.
“We have a good crew. They’re family at this point,” Attouleh said. That seems fitting, given the number of family meals Oklahoma Steak & Grill Delivery is distributing to their little corner of Edmond every day.
Print Headline: Steak out, Pizza and chinese food delivery are everywhere. One Edmond restaurant wants to put steak delivery on the map.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2015.