Rock & Brews

[TheirTheir]

Didn't Gene Simmons himself christen this place?

[jerrywall]

Didn't Gene Simmons himself christen this place?

Yeah, they did a private opening for military/vets if I recall, where Gene was there for the opening. I remember him trying to teach Mitch on Fox some tongue tricks on the morning show (sounds dirtier than it is, although not by much).

[gopokes88]

Too many other good places to eat in OKC that are not "chain" type places. Moving here from Indiana 6 years ago I really noticed that. More mom and pop places here than in Northern Indiana. More restaurants that are just local chain type also.

Plus the burger competition in this town is no joke. We had a thread a while back and it was something like 20 different local places that serve awesome burgers

[SSEiYah]

The rent up here must still be too high, Obriens didn't last long, neither did Rock & Brews. This seems to be a common trend with a lot of memorial restaurants/bars. Lots of road traffic does not mean lots of customers. I believe the Baker Street location next door is still abandoned.

[Rover]

The mostly drinking places don’t seem to last.

[Bill Robertson]

Wasn't that called Bikini's or something?

Bikinis was the next building to the west.

[Johnb911]

Bikini's -> Inferno's Pizza -> Alyssha's Southern Kitchen -> Saltgrass -> ???

A friend of mine growing up, this is his family's company that owns all these (and other) restaurants. Need to reach out to him to see what's up

[shawnw]

I blame LipSmackers. People thought it was a Kiss reference and it was all over for Rock and Brews....

[BLJR]

Sorry to see another bite the dust. What is the magical formula to be on Memorial Rd in that area??? Some thrive and some die. I don't recall them doing much marketing, advertising, etc....

[jerrywall]

Dont violate liquor laws, dont allow folks to get drunk and fight off duty cops, offer something unique, advertise, and a bit of luck?

[OKC4me]

Why on earth did they open at this location? My wife and I really liked it, but the second we saw where it was, we said it wasn't going to last. I wish they had opened in Bricktown or somewhere else.

[Uptowner]

Bricktown makes sense. I actually enjoy going to a hokey, overly themed place when I’m in the area. One of my good friends owns a brownstone and we walk across the tracks often to take in the scene. I actually had an awesome time at the dueling piano bar awhile back. Although I took a big group to Zio’s on a Sunday night recently, after not being there for over a decade, I thought it would be cute and fun. It was a complete disaster and half the folks couldn’t eat their food it was so awful. Worst of all it took so long to put the order out we couldn’t find anywhere else in the area to get a bite to eat after 10pm on a Sunday.

[Uptowner]

Oh, and what seems to last on memorial are national chains. Your red lobster, Friday’s, olive gardens, and PF Chang’s.

[gopokes88]

I think the stretch between penn and may is just a death sentence. May and memorial is always backed up, mall traffic, not easy to get too. Everything to the west and east seems to do just fine.

[Pete]

I think BJ's does very well but they are also right on the entrance to the mall.

[Rover]

I think the stretch between penn and may is just a death sentence. May and memorial is always backed up, mall traffic, not easy to get too. Everything to the west and east seems to do just fine.

Penn to May has lots of long term restaurants....way more that make it than don’t. Probably a higher success rate than national avg. for restaurants. Smash Burger, Ghengis Grille, Swadleys, BJs, TGI Friday’s, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Schlotzskis, Blaze, Mama Rita’s, Firehouse Subs, Five Guys, First Watch, Texas Roadhouse, Tom and Chee, Yummy Mummy, Jersey Mike’s, IHOP, Saltgrass. Chefs di Domini, Longhorn. That doesn’t count things around and in the mall and on Peen just north of Memorial, or May north of Memorial. It is a HUGE number of restaurants in the immediate area. Evertime on shuts down, it seems somebody always comes on the board and wants to proclaim the sky is falling. Fact is, the places that fail deserve to fail on their own merits. The one mile or so radius from QSM May be the most competitive restaurant market in OKC.

[PaddyShack]

Does this have anything to do with how the successful places have access from other streets than Memorial? Bjs opens to the road around the mall, everything along Penn has multiple entry points, Places along May don't have it nearly as bad as Penn. Or do these all connect to the road behind Barnes and Noble and I just haven't noticed? Also, is there not a hotel behind these places? How is that hotel doing?

[Johnb911]

^^^ You can get to those locations (Rock N Brews, Saltgrass, etc) from May, but it isn't very intuitive, and certainly isn't well marked. No signage on May for any of those restaurants. You'd think you were going to Barnes and Noble and that's it. You also would have a hard time getting there if you were travelling southbound on May. It's possible, but just barely.

[Pete]

A demolition permit has been issued for this building.

The property was purchased 3 years ago by a local investor but no building permits have been filed.

[Bill Robertson]

A demolition permit has been issued for this building.

The property was purchased 3 years ago by a local investor but no building permits have been filed.

I thought demolition might be the eventual outcome for that building. I liked the place but it was a pretty odd layout for a restaurant or anything else.

[Pete]

This building is now complete scraped.

[shawnw]

What a short lifecycle for this project, less than 10 years from construction to demolition...

[BoulderSooner]

What a short lifecycle for this project, less than 10 years from construction to demolition...

this building was +/- 20 years old

[shawnw]

I forgot it was a refurb and not a new build. But still...

[Jeepnokc]

Before the life cycle of this thread is over....they are opening up a Rock and Brews Casino up near the state line on I35

https://www.rockandbrewscasinobraman.com/restaurant