Keep It Local
That card you keep meaning to use is back again for its sixth year.
Keep It Local OK’s 2016 cards are now in stores and available online, said co-founder Bryce Bandy.
With nearly 300 businesses participating in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the utility has gone up, as has the price.
“Yeah, we went from $10 to $15 this year to help offset overhead and app development,” Bandy said. “You know, we thought it’s been five years, so you’re getting a lot more benefit out of it than you did the first year.”
He estimates about 26,000 cards were sold for 2015, and he hopes to see continued increases for the 2016 card, which features art by Tulsa’s Aaron Whisner (pictured).
Amazonia closes
A bad location doomed Venezuelan restaurant Amazonia, said owner Einar Perdomo, who shut the doors last month.
But fans of arepas, empanadas, pabellón and cachapas need not fear, as Perdomo plans to reopen his business in the new year on Norman’s Campus Corner.
In addition to Venezuelan food, the eatery will offer a few Mexican favorites as well: tacos, quesadillas and others. And, getting back to his roots of authentic Venezuelan cuisine, he’ll switch from fried arepas (a sandwich made with fresh, thick tortilla cakes) to grilled.
Sandwich “Celebrity”
In a move designed to utterly destroy any meaning the word once held, Slaughter’s Hall chose Oklahoma Gazette writer Greg Elwell to design December’s “celebrity” sandwich.
The Winter Warmer, an open-faced sandwich that starts on two slices of potato bread — topped with braised Wagyu beef and sautéed mushrooms and onions and finished with horseradish sauce and a portion of fried mashed potatoes — is big enough to choke a dragon, and possibly even Elwell.
At $11, the sandwich is available through December, and $1 of each sale benefits Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, where more than 50 lead scientists work on finding treatments for heart disease, cancer, lupus and genetic disorders.
Imagineered by Elwell, the sandwich is truly the creation of head chef Jonathan Groth, who took over at Slaughter’s Hall in September.
“I went with a braised beef instead of rare roast beef,” Groth said. “It is from Wagyu shanks and freaking unbelievably delicious.”
