"Where Food Is An Art, and Friendship Is Everlasting"
When I came to OCU (Oklahoma City University) in the fall of 1974, several other Bartians (natives of Bartlesville, OK) of my senior class came with me, and a few older Sooner High Spartans were already there.
One of them
was the great guy Roger Price, whom I’d sat next to in high school Concert
Choir. He had a car -- a big plus! It was a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, similar to the
one just above.
One night Roger took me
to a place that was open 24 hours on weekends -- a big plus for college kids
(even unpopular ones like me).
It looked
something similar to this. This is a print by OKC artist Greg Burns.
Hearkening
back to my first visit there, when we were leaving Roger found up that he’d
locked the keys in the car. We tried
everything imaginable, but Roger ended up breaking the driver’s side wing
window to get back in.
As you will
read in the following articles, the Patio wasn’t very big. Most times you had to wait ten minutes or so
for a table. BUT WORTH IT!
Here is the menu, from
a year or so later:
My favorite
was the Schnitzel! You had a fried
hamburger patty, topped by a sunnyside-up fried egg, plus chili plus grated
cheese & chopped onions. Man o man!
Good! Joyce, she always got the Patio
K-Plate (a girly diet thing I guess).
It was at a
two-person table in the window that Joyce and I were sitting when, as friends,
we decided to try and keep our eyes peeled for a boyfriend and girlfriend for
each other. Look how THAT turned out!
Over the years
we would go to the Patio at least every month or two, and as our family grew,
sometimes our waits got longer because we needed a bigger table.
The Patio
was an OKC institution, we latecomers learned.
Here’s a link to an Oklahoman article from December 12,
1982: http://newsok.com/food-service-lure-diners-to-the-patio/article/2006261
And sadly with time we
didn’t go as often as we liked. And over
the years it changed owners once or twice.
We were so
sad to read of its closing in December 1988!
From time to time as we
drove by, we wondered if it would ever re-open.
In 1994 it did for a while, as the
Patio Café. This is a second Greg Burns
piece, of its new look. The owner, Don
Shook, was always a great guy when we stopped by. And we can attest that his was the BEST POT
ROAST EVER!
It made us sad again to read this
article. When the auction came, I went (with Melissa who was ten) and bought
some stuff.
This was
taken standing next to a street sign (note the big black pole on the left!) in
a traffic island outside and across a lane of traffic, on the day of the
auction. The white van is for the
auctioneer, Dakil Auctions.
I bought a few batches
of kitchen utensils, and -- joy! -- two tables, a square 30-incher and a round
one about 40 inches across. The square
one is here in the Fortress of Markitude, and the bigger round one is beside our
front door!
Another time when we drove by a few
years later, there were cars there, and we stopped in. Now it was called Chica’s grill, and we ate
there twice. When we went back the
second time we took a printout of Greg Burns’ two Patio prints and a printed
copy of the menu. The ladies there were
NOT impressed by my reminiscing. After a
while it moved away.
They had cups like the above. Here’s an article
from December 23, 2003 Oklahoman about when it opened as
Chica’s.
So, nowadays
the Patio area has been bricked-in and is used as a bar. This is reported by one of my kids, who has
been by there recently.
So memories go! Thanks and fare thee well, Patio!
BEWARE ... COMING ... IS..BLOG-O-WEEN!
