If you follow me on instagram, you know I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Tulsa, Oklahoma this past weekend. Myself, Emily, Alex Delany, and former Tulsa resident Luke Leifeste traveled out to the “Buckle of the Bible Belt” to explore and see just what it had to offer.
Our group chat “Tulsvegas” was abuzz since the trip was planned. Normally when I travel I like to go for a run in the late morning and start my day in the early afternoon. This had us doing tours and museums at 10AM sharp. I knew this would be different so I put my big boy pants on and readied myself for a weekend of doing things a little differently.
There is one commercial flight from LaGuardia to Tulsa. Due to Covid and other complications, this service had only just continued a few months ago. We had a few beers at the airport bar and climbed into our economy plus seats to TUL. The flight was smooth. We touched down and were greeted by a cool driving rain that they only have in cowboy movies. We made it.
After walking through an airport much larger than expected, we piled into a black Ford SUV with a thin blue line sticker on it headed for our hotel. The woman driving was kind and suggested we go to Whataburger and the Velvet Taco late at night. When pressed what her order was she said “whatever they have”. I could tell this was not a teetotaling town. That this was gonna be a good time with some fun (and funny) locals. We got to our hotel. Downed some tiki drinks at Saturn Room, drank a martini at Valkyrie, and went to bed with a full day ahead.
I woke up and went for a run as usual. I ran through the wide streets stumbling upon the local baseball stadium. The Driller’s Stadium was built so it was sunken into the ground creating an even field of vision to see into it from across the street. It made it incredibly inviting. The air was cold and fresh. It was quiet, which was nice. There was no traffic or people screaming and yelling, something I rarely get in NYC. After a short shower and a change into my Tulsa best we hit the Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan museums. We learned about how bad the Dust Bowl was and that Bob Dylan was a huge weirdo. From there we walked through the arts district. Eating empanadas from Que Gusto and exploring book stores (like Magic City Books!) and shops until our next museum.
The only reason I knew about Tulsa was because of the HBO series “Watchmen”, which talks about the town’s history. Several of the main characters are linked or involved in the Tulsa Race Massacre. The next museum, Greenwood Rising, covered this in detail and showed just how horrible this tragedy was and the lengths the government tried to never acknowledge it. I urge you if you do come down you make the time to see it.
From there Luke introduced us to Grant. Grant was going to be our official tour guide for the rest of the day. Grant took us to a few local Tulsa businesses that showcased the new independent spirit of the town. We took off to go to main street and Grant showed us pretty much every single impressive building they had. Tulsa rose to prominence during a great time in American architecture and we spent an hour going in and out of beautiful buildings learning just how time intensive and impressive the work was. We were shown where the oil big wigs worked and even the tunnels they used to commute so they did not have to walk outside. The highlight here was a secret room with an honor system bar that was fit for a dude in a suit and a cowboy hat. Having neither, we just looked around.
From here we went to SSD Print Co our “Tulsvegas” inspired shirts. The printer was in a DIY space on the outskirts of the town, newly renamed WAMPA. The owner of the shop owned what Grant said was “the best bar in town”; that bar is the Mercury Lounge. They loved our dumb idea and jumped all over it. We got to talking about his bar and he said we had to make it out there tonight. There was no arm twisting there. From here the sun was close to setting and the day was running long. Our last stop was “The Gathering Place”. It is an incredible park with everything someone could need there to have fun. From playgrounds twelve year old me would have spent days on to free kayaking and canoeing for the less chaotic kids, I was jealous of the kiddos of Tulsa.
The tours had ended for the day and the gang was ready to get the evening started. We zoomed around some of the nicest houses I have seen to an old school Irish pub called Kilkenny. We were greeted here with 3oz shots of Tullamore Dew and an ice cold Guinness. We got some snacks including a cheesy potato mess that was much needed and reviewed the day. After the shot’s and Guinness went down we headed back to the hotel for a much needed change and decompress.
Once fully decompressed we set out to hit Valkyrie again. This is a mixology bar fresh from the early 2010’s. In lieu of a cocktail list we were told to use adjectives. This sort of thing felt like I was in a bad Parks and Recreation episode but the drinks were wonderful and the staff was friendly. I feel like most of the bars we went to were exceptionally dark which I enjoy. I don’t know why New York feels so bright but take note let’s drink in the dark.
We left Valkyrie for the restaurant everyone mentioned we go to, Lowood. Lowood is a farm to table/wood-fired/pasta restaurant with a fantastic wine list and an open kitchen. We were greeted with Martinis and began the onslaught of fun, food, and wine, the peak of which was this insane local Oklahoma porterhouse. When I say this is the best steak I have had I am not kidding, the richness and sear was brilliant. Dinner was spent greeting some locals who we met during our first day and talking about just how cool all this stuff we saw was. The dinner was capped off with an exceptional coconut-washed averna they made in house. It was incredible and the perfect way to end a meal.
From here we bopped around to different bars drinking beers and doing shots of whiskey at local haunts. We did stop by the Mercury room as mentioned where frozen vegas bombs (redbull vodkas) were being passed around at a dizzying pace. I kept drinking Busch but the group was having quite the time. The night out had a vibe like all those iconic south-of-the-Mason-Dixon full of cheap beers and good times. The peak of the evening was of course getting in an uber where I sang Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long '' while heading to our next drinking location.
The next morning was not great! We rolled out of bed and were saved by the fantastic spot Blue Moon Cafe with bloodies and pony bottles of highlife. We had some life affirming biscuits and gravy as well as a fantastic turkey club. Luke had been coming to the Blue Moon since he was a kid and they treated us like family. From there we shopped around at some local Tulsa spots. Thought about buying cowboy hats and followed this up with a trip to the low lit pool bar Sharky’s for a few rounds of beers and college football. After laying low and recapping the evening for a few hours we took the car to Coney I-lander for a hot dog and a beautiful Frito pie. Alex was mistaken for Jack Harlow much to the disappointment of a 16 year old server.
From The I-lander we hit a few breweries being American Solera, Marshall Brewing, and Heirloom Rustic Ales. American Solera is the toast of the town and for good reason. We enjoyed everything that they had but shockingly the IPA’s were the best thing I was able to drink there. Marshall is a bit of a cult classic. There is a brewery like this in every city where locals actually go to drink their beer. They make brewers beer (low alcohol, easy drinking) and we had a few lagers and enjoyed catching up with the old guard.
We then rolled to Heirloom Rustic Ales where we were met with more beer than we could drink and more BBQ we could eat from the great people at Killer Wail. The beers were fantastic but the fact that all this BBQ came from a truck is absolutely wild. Some of my favorite BBQ I have had in years. The pozole and the brisket were can’t miss and the dude running it was a sweetheart. We talked shop for a while and it was incredible to hear that he does this just one day a week and makes such fantastic BBQ.
After this we regrouped as always. I sat and watched college football at Caz’s and a few people took a nap. We then headed to local tex mex spot Chimis where fajitas were had and queso was devoured. This place was hilarious too with margs the size of your head and was full of birthday parties and great/cheap food to boot. We were feeling lucky so we hit the Osage casino. Turned a few hundred into a few more hundred and left before midnight.
On the flight back enjoying a bloody mary I couldn’t help but think about how fantastic the trip was and what people get wrong about these little towns. It was a fantastic line/traffic/waiting free trip. Even though Tulsa is fairly large it felt so small when we saw these characters constantly over our few days there. I can’t recommend going there enough and enjoying what this small city has to offer. Tulsa forever.
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