Kd's Restaurant / Legacy Grill

[jbrown84]

Thanks, Larry!

[Urbanized]

Ground breaking was today around 4 PM. It was fun. KD attended and spoke a bit. Hal Smith said should take a little less than a year to complete, depending on weather. Hoped-for opening around September. KD half-jokingly said he would be seeing what he could do to hurry them along.

[OKCisOK4me]

Fantastic, hopefully this will be a restaurant that I'll be more than happy to go to down in Bricktown. Still never been to TKILTB&G because I've heard the food is nothing exceptional and the experience is just blah...

[Urbanized]

The food at Toby's is actually a near-carbon-copy of the menu at Red Rock Canyon Grill, with a few minor additions/subtractions. The main menu difference between the two is that the portions are larger (and prices slightly smaller) at Toby's. If you like RRCG, you would like Toby's.

[OKCisOK4me]

I've been to RR maybe twice since it was open. Hopefully the Durant restaurant will have more ambiance... Sounds as if the food will be blah since it's a Hal Smith restaurant.

[grandshoemaster]

It looks like we have a name and some menu items.
Durant expands reach into restaurant business | Business | Oklahoma County News

[mcca7596]

It looks like we have a name and some menu items.
Durant expands reach into restaurant business | Business | Oklahoma County News

A hookah room!? That's pretty sweet...

[Praedura]

A hookah room!? That's pretty sweet...

A hookah? You mean a streetwalkah?

[RadicalModerate]

The food at Toby's is actually a near-carbon-copy of the menu at Red Rock Canyon Grill, with a few minor additions/subtractions. The main menu difference between the two is that the portions are larger (and prices slightly smaller) at Toby's. If you like RRCG, you would like Toby's.

If what you said here is accurate, then apparently there is little to no control over the "Toby Keith" brand.

I attended a little "Family B-Day Get-Together up Nord" at what is apparently the only "Toby Keith" franchise in "The Cities" (Min/StP) and what hit the plate at that location was more like a poorly-managed Fridays/Chiles than Red Rock Canyon Grill on its worst day. Including cooking stuff over charcoal burners, by the lake, in the parking lot right after the fire.

Red Rock Canyon Grille cannot be justifiably dissed.
I trust the same will be true of Durant's.
Unlike the "Harden's" that will inevitably "break ground" across the street. =)

[UnFrSaKn]

Construction begins on KD's restaurant | NewsOK.com

[BoulderSooner]

If what you said here is accurate, then apparently there is little to no control over the "Toby Keith" brand.

I attended a little "Family B-Day Get-Together up Nord" at what is apparently the only "Toby Keith" franchise in "The Cities" (Min/StP) and what hit the plate at that location was more like a poorly-managed Fridays/Chiles than Red Rock Canyon Grill on its worst day. Including cooking stuff over charcoal burners, by the lake, in the parking lot right after the fire.

Red Rock Canyon Grille cannot be justifiably dissed.
I trust the same will be true of Durant's.
Unlike the "Harden's" that will inevitably "break ground" across the street. =)

different ownership and different menus and various toby Kieth's

[BoulderSooner]

kd is a 25% equity partner

[betts]

The menu for KD's restaurant sounds interesting, and is different from anything else in the area. I think. I have been to Toby Keith's just once and can't remember the menu. Whatever was on it, I wasn't really inclined to go again. I've always thought Red Rock's food was very good so I'd be surprised if the menu at Toby Keith's was the same. However, it might have been the atmosphere that turned me off - can't remember.

[Urbanized]

Well, believe it or don't believe it, but I know both places well and for many years have also known the GMs of both places. Essentially, they took recipes from RRCG (the steaks, meatloaf, rotisserie chicken and Caesar salad, for instance are basically identical), added some Toby-inspired flourishes (calf fries, fried bologna, etc.) and introduced them to a new customer. The menu has obviously had additions and subtractions through the years, and I do know that they had to dial up portions and dial down prices to make the typical TK customer happy, but the two places still have substantial menu and flavor similarities.

I understand it might go against the grain of some here who can't abide the thought that their relatively upscale lakefront open-kitchen place might (gasp!) share similarities with the cretin-frequented feed trough they appear to think TKs must be, but it's the truth. Just because food was cooked in a display kitchen doesn't make it taste better.

[jedicurt]

Just because the food was cooked in a display kitchen doesn't make it taste better.

I seem to think this is the problem when a lot of people post talking about restaurants... People think before they go in that they are going to get a great meal, and so regardless of whether it is or not, they come out saying it was. I'm very particular about who i ask for recommendations of restaurants when i travel, just for this reason.

[Urbanized]

Hey, I'm not representing that either place (TK or RR) are covering new culinary ground. They mostly only aspire to be fresh and tasty comfort food in an environment that appeals to their respective clientele. In the case of RRCG that means a really picturesque lakefront location, great sunsets, stylish interior that actually aged pretty well for a place built in the '90s (I understand from a friend who serves as AGM there that the fire has afforded them the opportunity to do some modernizing/updating). In the case of TK, the folks going there are more appreciative of the roadhouse feel with lots of TK memorabilia and the impression that a great live country song might break out on stage at any minute. Neither experience is more valid than the other; environmental taste is completely subjective. There's room for everybody at the table.

What TK's is NOT is the overpriced, crappy food you find in most entertainment/entertainer-themed establishments. It's actually worth eating, if you're in the mood.

If Anthony Bourdain comes to visit me and wants me to show him around the food scene in Oklahoma City, I won't likely take him to either place, but I also wouldn't hesitate for a second to take out-of-town friends or family there and proclaim them Oklahoma favorites. What both places do well is provide (in my experience) fresh-tasting comfort dishes that are a major step above national chain places they probably most directly compete with, like Chili's, Texas Roadhouse, Outback, etc. They also enjoy a high degree of consistency.

Yesterday Hal Smith suggested KD's will probably fall somewhere between those places and (perhaps) Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse, and if that is how it turns out I think it will be a great and appropriate addition to Bricktown as a brand and as a dining choice.

[onthestrip]

What urbanized said about the food is what I thought when I first ate at TK, that it was very similar to RR, just maybe a little less fancy. However it's been a couple years since I've been to TK so not sure if much has changed

[Pete]

December 27th, 2012 - Kelley Chambers okc.biz

Durant's Dish

Co-owned by the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant and the Hal Smith Restaurant Group, KD’s is slated to open by fall

The Hal Smith Restaurant Group and Thunder star Kevin Durant plan to invest $5 million in construction of KD’s, a Lower Bricktown restaurant branded with Durant’s initials. Smith says that, barring unpredictable Oklahoma weather, he expects the restaurant should be completed and open by fall.

Durant plans to be on-site often at the 10,000-square-foot restaurant, which sits along the Bricktown Canal between Toby Keith’s I Love this Bar & Grill and Earl’s Rib Palace. It will be worth Durant’s while to be there because he is not just lending his famous name to the eatery; he will own 25% of the business.
“He doesn’t get a royalty. He’s an owner. He’s an equity player,” Smith says. “If we make money, he makes money.”

What might help with that endeavor will be the presence not only of Durant, but also of his famous friends. Don’t be surprised to see LeBron James or Kobe Bryant dining on some honey-dipped fried chicken, stuffed catfish with crab, slow smoked southern ribs, or chicken and shrimp jambalaya.

“I’ve told all my friends in the NBA whenever they come in town next year or so to come by KD’s,” he says. “They’re all looking forward to it as well.”

Durant can’t run the show since he does have a day job. And Smith has about 60 restaurants in seven states. So they brought in Joe Jungmann, from Paseo Grill and Sauced, to operate the new eatery.

[Praedura]

^^^ That's cool in so many ways. And given how KD is, I'm sure he means it as well.

Of course, it's good business first and foremost. Since he's a co-owner (and not just lending his name, as many have assumed) he has a stake in the success of the restaurant. And the possibility of having a KD encounter will do wonders for the place. I mean, you know so many folks will head down there in the hopes of seeing/meeting the Thunder star up close -- tourists and locals alike. What a draw.

It also shows how serious Kevin is about committing to the OKC area, promoting and boosting its downtown. Of course, he's already been promoting OKC for a long time, but this is on another and more personal level.

Great to hear Kevin say this.

[Praedura]

Oh, and speaking of Kevin Durant promoting OKC...

Big League City Commercial | OKC Central

[soonerguru]

Yay to Joe Jungmann! Good guy and good operator.

[Urbanized]

Agree completely. Joe will be a great asset for Bricktown.

[Plutonic Panda]

Shouldn't the status on this be changed to under-construction?

[catch22]

Shouldn't the status on this be changed to under-construction?

Besides the ground breaking (which is extremely ceremonial and not really when ground is actually broken), dirt has not moved on this site.

[Praedura]

Besides the ground breaking (which is extremely ceremonial and not really when ground is actually broken), dirt has not moved on this site.

That's kind of bizarre. Look, I know that ground breakings are media events, but they are supposed to correspond, more or less, to the beginning of construction. If you have a ground-breaking a month or more before absolutely anything starts... well, it just turns the whole notion of a ground-breaking into meaningless baloney.