Take a step back in time at Celebrity Restaurant in Tulsa. Opened in 1963 as a private club, it remains in the Samara family to this day and continues to serve outstanding food.
This spring I’ve been doing in-person stewardship visits with a number of our club seat holders. It gets me out of the office, and allows me to meet with our donors on their turf. I’ve been doing weekly visits in Tulsa and OKC, and it has been very well received. I’ve also been able to find some great new restaurants, resulting in new posts for the blog. So it’s a win-win. Last week I had several appointments in Tulsa, but none for lunch. I reached out to Bryan, one of our suiteholders. He shares my love of food and wine, has never steered me wrong with food, and provides me with some great wines. About a month ago he sent me a list of restaurant recommendations, and I’ve already started making my way through the list. I have a few favorite suiteholders, and he is very near the top of that list. He recommended Celebrity Restaurant for this trip.
You can and will drive right past Celebrity Restaurant if you don’t know where you’re going. It is right off the highway, but it’s behind another building. And depending on the direction you are driving, you may have to make a u-turn to find it. Celebrity Restaurant opened in 1963 as a private club by Mike Samara. Why, as a private club, you ask? Because Oklahoma has always had pretty archaic liquor laws–the state is still catching up with the rest of the country, and some of the laws are almost laughable. By opening as a private club, members were permitted to bring in their own beverages. When Oklahoma finally passed a law allowing drinks by the glass in 1984, Celebrity Restaurant was issued the very first liquor license. Bryan said that Mike’s kids run the restaurant now, but Mike still makes appearances often. I love owners like that, and I love restaurants that remain in the family without being modernized.
The inside of Celebrity Restaurant is a rich dark red all the way through. The building isn’t huge, and the inside kind of reminds me of a 1940’s bordello. Not that I’ve ever been in one of those in person…I’ve just seen pictures in the movies. There is a large bar area as you enter, the main dining room is at the back, and there is also a private dining room.
Bryan had suggested Celebrity Restaurant because it was close to my previous appointment. But when I got in the car, I realized I had the wrong address, and my appointment was almost 30 minutes away. I broke as many speed records as I could, but Bryan still beat me there and was waiting when I arrived. He was seated in the bar area, at one of the short 2-top tables.
Celebrity Restaurant is open for both lunch on weekdays, and dinner every day except Sunday. The restaurant also closes between lunch and dinner, something that you rarely see anymore.
Bread arrives first.
I’ve never seen toasted bread served as the first course. It was a tad oily from the garlic and seasonings, but still really good. It was room temperature by the time I tasted it, but I’m not sure if that is how it’s served or if it’s because I was late. So I cannot give it a fair judgement. But not to worry, I didn’t let that stop me from having a couple of pieces.
Caesar salad is one of the Celebrity Restaurant specialties. The salad is made tableside during dinner, but at lunch it is brought to the table prepared. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get the official presentation, but oh well.
The salad was delicious. The lettuce was fresh and cold, you can taste that the dressing is homemade, and the parmesan was excellent. I really enjoyed it.
As I mentioned before, Bryan has never steered me wrong with food. We have very similar tastes, though his are a lot more expensive than mine. He can afford it…I can’t. So when he recommended the ribeye sandwich, I was quickly sold. Ribeye is by far my favorite cut of meat, as it has more marbling than other cuts and is therefore more flavorful. Bryan said it was plenty enough to share, so we did that. He likes his steak rare, but I just can’t bring myself to do that. I normally do medium, so we compromised with medium rare. Bryan said the cottage fries were excellent, and one of his favorite things at the restaurant. A man after my own heart! I’m never going to turn down fries.
Wow, everything on the plate was excellent. I was very surprised that I kind of liked the medium rare. Now, don’t get me wrong–I don’t plan to make that a habit at all. But this ribeye was a thinner cut, and very well seasoned. Bryan was right, the cottage fries were fantastic. Even though they were thinly cut, they were crisp outside and fluffy inside. Splitting the meal was definitely a good idea since we got the salad. But I probably could have powered through a whole sandwich, and savored every single bite.
Will I go back to Celebrity Restaurant? No question. I’d really like to see the tableside Caesar salad in action, and Bryan said the lobster is amazing.