I landed around 10:30pm Thursday Night from Chicago, in their small but lovely little airport, got into my uber in a couple minutes (a tricked out Tesla) and had a deep conversation with teh driver with a great Southern accent for ten minutes on the way to my hotel - an airport Marriott for the first night. In that time, he gave a lot of facts about Oklahoma City - it is the 3rd largest state capital by area, the food is lovely including some recommendations he threw out, and that a significant portion of the town would be gone this weekend becasue it is the Texas v Oklahoma game, the Red River Shootout itself, in Dallas. On that last part, he may be absolutely right because it was a fairly quiet week, but also given how calmly spread out Oklahoma City is, and how everyone drives, it might just be like this.
Let me start by saying that Oklahoma City is not likely to enter the rotation of the four other cities I threw out earlier. I wouldn't say this is a surprise. While those four aren't New York or something, they are generally still seen as regional tourism and life hubs. Oklahoma City is not that. I don't expect to make another trip back out here in the next couple years (pending work travel, I guess) but taht does not mean in any way I regret coming here. Seeing new places and learning their stories is fun, and in the "their stories" part, Oklahoma City has a lot to offer.
I lighter than expected workday on Friday gave me a few more hours than I was expecting to kill sightseeing on Friday, to which I went to two Art museums - teh first the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and the other the Oklahoma Contemporary Collective. The second one is smaller, free and a bit light, but had a nice "whismy and funny" exhibit on the top floor which had some really striking paintings. The main Art Museum, however, is a nice example of what I mean about Oklahoma City. It is a lovely museum, with most rooms having a discernable theme that takes your through hundreds of years of art styles in one go. The contemporary and modern section towards the end has some great stuff. They have a couple Warhols and Renoirs and, of course, a Monet. The real star though is their large semi-permanent collection of Dale Chiluly, the world famous glass-blower artists. It is the biggest collection of his in the world and it is phenomenal. OKC did a good thing, finding one specific area to highlight where it can be world class.
The other main museums in Oklahoma City are also quite excellent as well. There are three main ones that make up the normal tourist hit list, and all have some wonderful aspects. First is the First Americans Museum (ironically, went there last) which is a lovely modern building that houses two floors on the history of the Native Americans. Unlike the Heard Museum which is more of an art museum on the topic, here the bottom floor is mostly about telling the story of the Natives slowly losing their land to the US Government in pretty painstaking detail. The museum isn't all negative - half of the bottom floor is about their culture, particularly contributions to sports and war. The top floor is more traditional museum, stuff with art, clothing, tapestries, etc., All in all, a nice museum to a graet topic.
A better museum to an even better (if more harrowing) topic is teh National Memorial Museum which is the current Memorial Fountain/Park and then Museum taht sits at the site of the Murray Building which was bombed in 1995. I knew loosely the story of it, but to be honest forgot it was in 1995 (for some reason thought it was the late 90s), forgot how quickly McVeigh was caught, forgot just how much damage the bomb immediately caused, and just didn't plain know that there were co-conspirators and what not. The museum is just hauntingly well done. The first room a run through of OKC up until 1995 and then a bit about the Murrah building itself, and then the second room which is a makeshift room of the Department of Water where there was a water-rights hearing going on at 9am. You sit there and they play the tape of the hearing until the two minute mark when there is a loud, loud explosion. That was so bone chillingly well done. The rest of the museum, from talking about teh damage, the historic recovery efforts, the manhunt around McVeigh and then the recovery, was all great. Truly, this museum was reayll well done, and is getting an expansion next year as well.
The final museum was probably my favorite. About a ten minute drive North of teh city sits the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, which is a giant museum on a giant plot that goes deep, wide, broad, and everything in between on life on teh West and the history of the Cowboy. The first few rooms are more art museum in style with incredible paintings, sculptures and what not of the Western scenery - stuff that I just love. There was also a showcase of handicrafts for sale (all like 10,000+) of custom beautiful saddled, bits, spurs and boots. Further back in the museum it becomes more about history and culture of Cowboys, of Natives, of Cowboys in Film and of so much more. They also have these large, beautiful giant sculptures littered about as well that are all so well done. As well done is "Propserity Junction" a fake mock-up of an outpost style town befit with mock schoolhouses, churches, saloons, mercantiles, stables and more - all indoors. Truly, this place was insane, in the best way. I cannot recommend the National Cowboy museum enough, In terms of Museums, OKC stacks up with my Big four from above easily.
Where OKC starts to fall off a bit is the lack of any great outdoor sights. Now, I should be clear it isn't like there are none - there are a couple nice ones. The Myriad Botanical Garden is interesting, especially the "Crystal Bridge" large glass tropical biome, which is just lovely. Also the canal winding through Bricktown is nice to walk around the banks of, and could easily be way more played up and commercialized than it is (this is to OKC's credit), but there is only so much you can do in the large expanse of middle America with its flat land everywhere. Oklahoma City surprisingly (to me, at least) is at a 1,100 foot elevation, but all of it is basically at that elevation. The exterior of OKC is just a bit staid.
The food is quite good - starting with my lunches that were at three different BBQ places, the best of which was Edgecraft, a wonderful BBQ spot serviing great crusted brisket, but also random other asides, from czech sausages to tri-tip to so much more. Their sides are also great, includ9inga really inventive, gourmet-i-fied version of cole slaw. The other standout was King's Custom Smoke Meats, which had probably better sides (a really great Mac & Cheese) but maybe not quite as good brisket - bigger portions though. From speaking to a few locals, I was told that OKC is surprisingly less of a BBQ town than you would think given its location and how often Oklahoma BBQ is played up - apparently that is more of a Tulsa thing; speaking of which, Tulsa trip in 2027?
My dinners were all excellent. Two were local tasting menu spots - one a bit more avant garde in Nonesuch, and the other a bit more formal and played up in Grey Sweater, though oddly the meals themselves were fairly similar (in a good way). Both also had quite interesting setups, housed in what from the outside look like fairly empty urban buildings, shrouded behind black curtains and tinted windows - both places welcome you into this room of magic. Both had most diners setup on a long rectangular bar front with space in teh middle to watch the cooks and barmen operate (Grey Sweater also had normal tables). Both were 10-course meals that were all lovely. Not especially "Oklahoma" in terms of produce or whatever (like no big steaks) but both quite good.
Grey Sweater was probably the better of the two (also the more expensive, but not by much). Their duck pre-main was one of the best duck dishes I've ever had. Their pavlova dessert was so interesting in terms of the fruits they added in. The pork belly main had one of the best pork head sauces I've ever had. Overall, Grey Sweater was awesome. Nonesuch was nearly as good - their own pork main with galangal and cilantro was one of the better pork loin dishes I;ve had (they really cooked it well in teh sous vide). They also had some amazing fish dishes, and a wonderful dessert. On the whole, both of these two showcase that great food is available anywhere. I should note, I'm not some trailblazing discoverer here, as Grey Sweater is a James Beard winning place, and after going I can see why.
The nightlife and adult beverages scene in Oklahoma City is quite nice, if few standouts. The craft beer scene is plentiful - IPA and summer ale heavy, given that this was, as a few locals told me, the first week that it dropped below 90 in quite some time. For this reason, there were few stouts, other than at Prarie OKC (probably my favorite brewery I went to) which had three, all 13% or more. The other stops were all large, a nice collection of indoor and outdoor space, and all as friendly and inviting as you would expect. It is clear that craft beer is not religion here the way it is in say Minneapolis or Denver, but it still is really strong.
The cocktail scene is great, even if my first spot I tried going to - Good For a Few - was too busy. Weird, since it clsoes at midnight, but anyway, it's reviews were slightly worse than both of teh places I did go to. First was Lunar Lounge, which is very nice but also the weirdest combination of things - a speakeasy type door where you have to press a hidden button to get the door to break from teh wall, but then inside it is a semi-arcade, futuristic type spot, that also happens to have craft cocktails. The drinks were sharp, if a bit too fruity (the two I tried), but the whole experience was just interesting.
The real star, however, was Palo Santo - wihch was not a surprise. All my reddit based research on best cocktail bars in OKC kept repeating taht name time and time again, and it is a fantastic place, They had a menu of about 15 cocktails - some seasonal, some standards (aong with an extensive bar menu otherwise) and crafted the hell out of them. Many were Japanese inspired - like a Tokyo Old Fashioned or a Japanese Peppercorn laced martini, but then you had some great ones like a "Basquerac" which is a Basque fortified wine style Sazerac. On the whole, Palo Santo was great and is making my cocktail list whenever I next update it.
The one place OKC was lacking was EDM - or at teh very least a dependable spot. There is an Instagram EDM.OKC that tracks and showcases the various bar and lounge shows that happen all the time, but it seemed a bit too clubby or mellow, with no real in between (at least this weekend). There is one strange spot - an after-hours club (12am - 6am, no alcohol) called Flux, which was as described. It very much is teh place many come to after the rest of the city shuts at 2am - far busier when I left each day around 3 then when I got there. The music the first day was great, teh second a bit too mainstream, but overall a nice spot, but would've rather had a more traditional setup.
In the end, OKC probably exceeded expectations, even if it did not rise to its other flyover state favorite spots and enter into my work weekend rotation. It's still a town worth visiting, especially for someone wanting to check off all the states. There is absolutely 2-3 days worth of things to do to make it worthwhile, including as mentioned some of the better focused museums I have been to. My memories of the city will be of its cloudless blue skies, the brilliance of the National Cowboy Museum, the solemn brilliance of the Memorial, and of drinks at Palo Santo. There are definitely worse ways to spend a weekend.
