OKLAHOMA CITY — Not since the heydey of COVID-19 has the Oklahoma City restaurant scene been so volatile. The last few months saw some big-name closures, but the action really ramped up as the city approaches the holiday season.
Over the last week, diners saw the end of Ned’s Starlight Lounge, Sunset Patio Bar, and Oak & Ore, along with news from longtime fine dining mainstay Ludivine that it would be closing at the end of the year.
Ludivine
A message posted December 2 on the restaurant’s Instagram page read: “We would like to thank Oklahoma City, all of our farmers, all of our guests and all of our staff, for the opportunity to work with you and serve you these last 13 years.”
The message includes that Ludivine’s catering and private event dinners will continue after the restaurant’s last service, which is scheduled for New Year’s Eve.
Owner Russ Johnson’s other concepts, R&J Lounge and Sun Cattle Co., are doing well and will “absolutely” remain open, he said.
Osteria
Ludivine co-founder Jonathon Stranger’s Italian concept Osteria is also closing at year’s end but with a promise to reopen in the Britton District under a new name: Osteria Italian-American Diner.
“We will be taking with us a bit of what we built at the NHP [Nichols Hills Plaza] location and adding my own twist. It’s a relatively simple concept, yet Oklahoma City doesn’t have anything like it,” Stranger posted online. The Osteria location at the Will Rogers World Airport will remain unchanged.
Birdies Fried Fried Chicken
Another acclaimed local chef is also making a change to his original concept as Birdies Fried Fried Chicken in Edmond will be closing in order to reopen as Birdies by Chef Kevin Lee.
“We weren’t hitting the volume we needed at the price point we were at,” said Lee, who started the Korean fried chicken business after stints as executive chef at Vast and The Jones Assembly.
But for Birdies, the change is at the intersection of finances and Lee’s own reckoning with his role in the restaurant and community. After his stint as executive chef at The Jones Assembly, Lee said he felt burned out and questioned if he really wanted to be a chef.
“We weren’t hitting the volume we needed at the price point we were at.”
Chef Kevin Lee
“I didn’t really want to be a chef anymore. I wanted to be on the business side,” he said.
But after a Food Network TV show taping that had him working alongside other talented chefs, he found his passion reignited, so rather than closing the restaurant, he’s rebranding it and giving himself permission to cook the food he loves the way he wants to cook it.
Birdies Fried Fried Chicken will close on December 23, making way for the changeover to the new concept.
Ned’s Starlight Lounge
Ned Shadid Jr., who owned and operated Ned’s Starlite Lounge with his father, Ned Shadid Sr., said the restaurant’s closure was unfortunate but necessary.
“We were not getting enough people in the door or doing the volume we needed,” said Shadid. “I attribute a lot of that to the fact we’ve got too many places and not enough population in the city. As you’re seeing, places are dropping like flies, unfortunately.”
Shadid said he and his family are lucky that their catering business continues booming, but he knows his former employees are not all so fortunate.
“The hardest part of all of this is going to your employees. These people, to an extent, they depended on us,” he said.
Still, he’s not going anywhere, and whether his next concept is a few months or a few years away, Shadid said this is far from a goodbye.
“A lot of people who this happens to, if they’re lifers, it’s going to happen eventually,” he said. “But you just keep plugging at it. If I were to say, ‘I’m going to get my income in some other industry,’ I’d be fired in 24 hours.”
Could closures = revitalization for those remaining?
While the restaurant turmoil has many diners feeling antsy, the closure of these restaurants could help revitalize other surviving concepts. Oklahoma City has suffered from a drought of kitchen staff in recent years, with even the acclaimed Vast struggling to lure in servers and line cooks.
One example is the recent move of chef Zach Hutton from Scratch Kitchen & Cocktails in the Paseo Arts District to GHST Restaurant & Bar closer to downtown Oklahoma City.
Gannon Mendez, who turned the Saucee Sicilian from one of Oklahoma City’s hottest food trucks into a brick-and-mortar restaurant last year, said it’s up to customers to decide if keeping their favorite local eateries open is more important than the convenience of chain and fast food restaurants.
“Small businesses have to get more creative on getting people in there and reminding them we’re here,” he said. “Everything is so instant online that, even more than two or four years ago, you have to find a way to break through the noise we’ve trained our brains to hear.”
Change the way you market yourself or you’ll get lost in the shuffle, he said.
This tumult follows a summer of closures with 1492 and Louie’s Midtown closing. More recently, Twisted Spike Brewing, Yuzo Sushi Tapas, and Moni’s Pasta & Pizza also closed with varying reasons given.
Long-time food enjoyer Greg Elwell writes about food, restaurants, and trends. He has his own blog "I Ate Oklahoma" and has written for The Oklahoman, The Oklahoma Gazette, and others.
