Last Updated on May 6, 2023, 10:00 AM | Published: April 30, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — Northeast 23rd’s EastPoint is not only bringing its community together, but also bringing the city back to the East Side.
After a lamentable stretch of years that saw city development largely abandoning the historically Black northeast OKC area in favor of others seen as more desirable to affluent, white patrons and investors, the EastPoint project at NE 23rd and Rhode Island sprang to life from necessity.
With Centennial Health first bringing interest back to the intersection, community development non-profit RestoreOKC stepped in to address the area’s “food desert” with the Market at EastPoint concept providing a grocery option built on local farming and subsidy support.
Once OKC rap scene leader Jabee Williams opened Eastside Pizza House, his very first restaurant concept aimed at offering fresh, high-quality, and creative dishes to the neighborhood, the rest of the city finally started paying attention to the innovative, interconnected community that was growing organically at EastPoint.
With a full host of businesses occupying EastPoint – including a trendy bar, coffee shop, bookstore, gym, and more – even national eyes began turning to check out the development’s policies of genuine local engagement and business owner equity as an example of real community revival.
Now, as the two-year anniversary of The Market at EastPoint nears, and as Williams is preparing to launch his newest restaurant concept alongside Juneteenth festivities, business owners and organizers alike are reflecting on the sometimes difficult path to the present and looking forward to EastPoint’s next steps.
‘A Learning Curve‘
Opening in 2021, still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Market at EastPoint hasn’t just seen its share of hardships, rather it was essentially birthed right into them.
“Whatever adjectives you could use to describe a learning curve, that’s it,” said Marc Jones, former President and CEO of Homeland Stores and now head of Restore Foods with RestoreOKC, the non-profit that manages The Market at EastPoint.
“It’s been exciting and hard and challenging and rewarding and fulfilling,” Jones told me. “We’ve ridden COVID, we’ve ridden supply chain problems, and currently we’re unfortunately having to ride these inflationary pressures while at the same time, the emergency SNAP benefits are being removed.”
To combat this, the Market organizers have worked to shift their focus more toward fresh, healthier offerings primarily picked from their urban farming project Restore Farms, as well as rethinking pricing and accessibility of food, even if it means taking a loss.
“As a non-profit, we have the luxury of not having to make money on everything that we sell,” said Jones. “We’ve got some community partners that have donated money to allow us to lower prices on some of the healthy items and some of the staple items, so that’s made it easier for people to make healthy choices.”
These approaches have helped the Market to maintain their position as perhaps the central anchor of EastPoint, providing vaccination clinics, cooking courses, and more alongside the groceries.
“It’s really what the community asked for,” Jones said. “They didn’t just want another food pantry. They wanted a community hub.”
Community Support
It’s a sentiment easily echoed by Jabee Williams at Eastside Pizza House, who also weathered a tough couple of months in the face of this year’s rising food costs.
“It’s a restaurant, and the restaurant business ain’t easy,” he said. “But from my understanding, and from other restaurant owners I’ve talked to, that little rough patch we had was normal.”
As Eastside Pizza House gets its feet back on the ground now and continues spreading its reach across the city through partnered events and catering, Williams can already see things looking up, mainly because of that driving EastPoint ethos of self-sufficiency.
“The difference with my restaurant is that I’m kind of on my own,” he said. “We didn’t start with much and we didn’t borrow anything, so we didn’t have any debt.”
Without worrying about keeping outside investors happy or paying off loans, Eastside was able to skate through those growing pains by doing what they do best: focusing on the community and offering fresh, creative pizza.
“For the most part, everyone’s just been really supportive,” Williams said. “I think that’s the main reason that Eastside has survived, really, is because the community supports it.”
Looking Forward
As expenses, concerns, and community interest all begin to stabilize, EastPoint operators are looking toward a bright future for the development built not only on expansion, but on an even deeper cohesion and collaboration among the different concepts.
“Some of the fun for us has been to start cooperating more with some of our fellow businesses in EastPoint,” Jones told me. “Our upcoming anniversary event will be kind of a showcase for those relationships. We’ve been working with Intentional Fitness to provide some post-workout foods suggested over there, and as part of the event, we’ll be offering folks the chance to have a family dinner at Kindred Spirits catered by our eatery. It’s just a nice way for us all to support each other, because EastPoint is really developing a destination status.”
But no event marks EastPoint as a destination more than Jabee’s annual Juneteenth celebrations.
The weekend-long festivities have already grown in just a few short years to become one of the biggest and most anticipated festival events in the city, and this year, Williams is hoping to launch a new addition to the EastPoint roster as part of the party.
“It’s a new breakfast concept at EastPoint called Scrambl’d, and the plan’s to be opened by June and ready to start by Juneteenth,” Williams said. “I’m excited about this new spot, because it’s just going to bring more people from outside.”
If the goal of a community-driven and culturally embraced development like this is to stoke interest from all over OKC and to change the way that the city has long viewed the East Side, then it’s undoubtedly working.
“That’s all just part of it,” Williams said. “Everybody just wants to see it succeed.”
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
