Century Center

[ljbab728]

But there aren't any Mexican options downtown.

[soonerguru]

But there aren't any Mexican options downtown.

And there still won't be if HSRG opens this restaurant (wink).

[Teo9969]

It will be difficult for legit "ethnic" food to come to downtown if leases are super expensive. But real question: When will street vending come to downtown? Need to be able to walk down the street and grab a kebab or some tacos. And street musicians…definitely need some street musicians.

[Plutonic Panda]

Don't forget the mimes

[Of Sound Mind]

Also, I'm hearing Hal Smith may put a Mexican food concept in the remaining space on the north side of the ground floor.

Not Ted's -- something a bit new.

Yes, please!

[Of Sound Mind]

It will be difficult for legit "ethnic" food to come to downtown if leases are super expensive. But real question: When will street vending come to downtown? Need to be able to walk down the street and grab a kebab or some tacos. And street musicians…definitely need some street musicians.

I would love to see street vending become more commonplace downtown. Occasionally there are street musicians, particularly when the weather is nice.

But the mimes can certainly stay away, PluPan.

[Mr. Cotter]

We have a decent rotation of food trucks downtown, and I think that's kind of the "new" street vending. Earlier this week, Papa Dio's had a cart on 6th street, but because we don't have the infrastructure to support street carts, their van was in the parking space next to the cart. A food truck would have been more efficient. For an interesting read on a NYC hot dog cart, check out: Dog Days | Narratively | Human stories, boldly told. . Also, if you're not reading narrative.ly, you should be.

Regarding HSRG's plans for Century Center, I'm a little disappointed, but only because it will likely undo all the workouts I have planned for the new Y location. I work in Chase, and I'm really looking forward to walking across the street after work, in the middle of a slower afternoon, instead of driving to the Midtown location on my way home.

[bombermwc]

For all of you that gripe about the patio thing, if patios are so awesome in Oklahoma, why is it all of the patio areas on any ground/upper desk restaurant on the canal are mostly empty? And for that matter, places like The Mantle (off the canal) don't exactly have people lining up at the door to sit outside, and theirs is more protected than most. At least Bourbon Street has cover, there's not direct sun, there's landscaping, some coolness off the water...it's really the best patio on the canal. It also happens to be at the end where you dont have to really worry about walk-throughs. Hanging out for a short period for a cup of coffee in a little "cafe" type patio is very different from sitting for an hour for your meal. I'm not persuading the argument in favor or against patios, but i'm just saying that it's not something that a lot of people in OKC seem to go for. San Antonio's canal was constructed VERY differently, but they had the benefit of being on the actual river. It makes a BIIIIIIG difference in how the whole thing works. Not to mention that they weren't trying to squeeze it in the space of a 2 land street (well 2 plus parking). There's only so much room to do something here, including the Century. For the upscale steakhouse crowd, i think that valet service is going to be much more valuable than patio space. Besides the fact that they will make money off of it. And with patio, you do have the chance of your stuff being stolen, damaged by our weather, or whatever.

I do find it funny in Oklahoma how the liquor thing makes it so litigious. In New Orleans (granted its an extreme) you can get a plastic "To-Go" cup for your liquor at almost any restaurant in the quarter. In fact i have a few of them myself.

I was downtown during lunchtime this week and ate across from Century. I have to say, i really thought they would be further along than this. The demolition work seems to be taking a long time for the amount of work there is. Demo work is also the fast part on a project, so if they're moving this slow now, i hope they dont move even slower on the actual construction. It almost feels like it would have been faster to knock the thing down and start over!

[Urbanized]

That's simply not true. The patios on the canal are PACKED on evenings and especially weekends and event nights. A few of them are also busy at lunch times during weekdays, including Bourbon Street, Chelino's (street level canal patio), Zio's, and KD's on weekends. There are also far more active patios on the canal than some people choose to believe. I detailed this in another thread, but here are the patios on the canal, all of which get respectable business:

• Biting Sow/Mojo's
• Zio's
• Chelino's
• Bourbon Street
• Yucatan Taco Stand
• Captain Norm's Dockside Bar
• Pinot's Palette
• Put a Cork in it Winery
• Knuck's (railing)
• Starbuck's
• Texadelphia (not fronting canal, but building does)
• Bolero
• In The Raw
• Red Pin
• Sonic (plaza above)
• Fuzzy's
• Earl's Rib Palace
• KD's Southern Cuisine

Additionally, House of Bedlam has a pretty good sized patio/outdoor plan. If you think these patios are "empty" I suggest you come down tonight or Saturday night and see for yourself how wrong that impression is. In scorching weather of course they are empty during the heat of the day, but come fall they will be busy at lunch once again. I would also challenge you to check out the upstairs patio at Nonna's, and the patio at Skinny Slim's.

Seriously though - despite the fact that it today has the largest number of outdoor seats as a district and probably qualifies as the most high-volume outdoor venue, Bricktown and the canal have historically not been great examples of good outdoor. For years it was horribly underutilized. The canal itself famously languished for years because property owners were content to wait for tenants to take large floorplates or whole buildings, which never happened. Other districts didn't wait once they got going, and if you think outdoor doesn't work well in OKC I would guess that you have never been to any of the following places in the central city on a nice (or even not-so-nice) evening:

• Red Prime
• Peleton
• Iguana
• S&B 9th Street
• Flint
• Packard's
• Garage Midtown
• Louie's Midtown
• GoGo Sushi
• Urban Johnnie
• WXYZ at Aloft
• Deep Deuce Grill
• O Bar
• Cafe do Brasil
• Cuppie's and Joe
• Speakeasy
• Sushi Neko
• Lobby Bar
• West
• RePUBlic
• Mule
• Empire Slice House
• Saints
• Sauced
• The Other Room (Paseo)
• Picasso's
• Red Rock Canyon Grill

Those are just the ones I can think of quickly off of the top of my head. Go check out a few of those this weekend and I challenge you to come back here Monday and say OKC can't be (and isn't already) a great place for outdoor.

[David]

No kidding. I happened to wander up and down the canal on Wednesday night around 9-ish and there were plenty of people out on the patios.

[Urbanized]

By the way, a few of the places currently under construction (Pump Bar, Guyutes, Bleu Garten, Fassler Hall) are going to put much of that already-impressive list to shame for great outdoor space. A couple of them have built their entire business plan around outdoor dining/drinking.

[AP]

I will never understand why people insist OKC doesn't/can't do patios. Every opportunity to be on a patio I'm there.

[Bullbear]

Thank you Urbanized.. as I was reading bombers post I was thinking. .::: WHEN WAS LAST TIME YOU WERE IN BRICKTOWN OR MIDTOWN::::: patios are packed most of the time .. this summer being mild it has really been busier even in times when most summers you couldn't dine outside. I am not sure how anyone could say OKC isn't using patios and doesn't want more.

[PhiAlpha]

That's simply not true. The patios on the canal are PACKED on evenings and especially weekends and event nights. A few of them are also busy at lunch times during weekdays, including Bourbon Street, Chelino's (street level canal patio), Zio's, and KD's on weekends. There are also far more active patios on the canal than some people choose to believe. I detailed this in another thread, but here are the patios on the canal, all of which get respectable business:

• Biting Sow/Mojo's
• Zio's
• Chelino's
• Bourbon Street
• Captain Norm's Dockside Bar
• Pinot's Palette
• Put a Cork in it Winery
• Knuck's (railing)
• Starbuck's
• Texadelphia (not fronting canal, but building does)
• Bolero
• In The Raw
• Red Pin
• Sonic (plaza above)
• Fuzzy's
• Earl's Rib Palace
• KD's Southern Cuisine

Additionally, House of Bedlam has a pretty good sized patio/outdoor plan. If you think these patios are "empty" I suggest you come down tonight or Saturday night and see for yourself how wrong that impression is. In scorching weather of course they are empty during the heat of the day, but come fall they will be busy at lunch once again. I would also challenge you to check out the upstairs patio at Nonna's, and the patio at Skinny Slim's.

Seriously though - despite the fact that it today has the largest number of outdoor seats as a district and probably qualifies as the most high-volume outdoor venue, Bricktown and the canal have historically not been great examples of good outdoor. For years it was horribly underutilized. The canal itself famously languished for years because property owners were content to wait for tenants to take large floorplates or whole buildings, which never happened. Other districts didn't wait once they got going, and if you think outdoor doesn't work well in OKC I would guess that you have never been to any of the following places in the central city on a nice (or even not-so-nice) evening:

• Red Prime
• Peleton
• Iguana
• S&B 9th Street
• Flint
• Packard's
• Garage Midtown
• Louie's Midtown
• GoGo Sushi
• Urban Johnnie
• WXYZ at Aloft
• Deep Deuce Grill
• O Bar
• Cafe do Brasil
• Cuppie's and Joe
• Speakeasy
• Sushi Neko
• Lobby Bar
• West
• RePUBlic
• Mule
• Empire Slice House
• Saints
• Sauced
• The Other Room (Paseo)
• Picasso's
• Red Rock Canyon Grill

Those are just the ones I can think of quickly off of the top of my head. Go check out a few of those this weekend and I challenge you to come back here Monday and say OKC can't be (and isn't already) a great place for outdoor.

Completely agree (though you left off Yucatan Taco stand who has a cool patio above bourbon street). The restaurants that open up to their patios or at least have made some effort to create a defined, comfortable patio space seem to have a lot more success with them than someone like Chelinos or Zio's who just threw some patio tables out there and called it a day. I would like to see both Chelinos and Zio's do a little more with there spaces. Chelinos has two stories to work with but seems to pay very little attention to both, especially the canal level. If they were to add a cabana bar on either level, maybe a TV or two (not trying to be a classy patio here, it's Chelinos) or a small live music stage, I think that would go a long way toward bringing life to that part of the canal (and there patio). Zio's doesn't have as much space to work with but could easily do something more along the lines of what Yucatan has done (and maybe they have, I haven't paid much attention lately). Same goes for Red Pin's patio.

However the idea that no one uses the patios is ridiculous. They are consistently in use all over town. At any rate, my age group generally seems to prefer patio dining so they will grow in popularity as more people continue to move downtown. Even when too hot, Misting systems and fans can be added to make the heat more than tolerable, especially at night. I think mahogany is missing a big opportunity here and seems to be the wrong for that corner... Hope they adapt to this location better eventually.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Urbanized]

Doh. Don't tell Yucatan that I missed them on the list. They are friends, and their patio is among the best on the canal.

[PhiAlpha]

Doh. Don't tell Yucatan that I missed them on the list. They are friends, and their patio is among the best on the canal.

Your secret is safe with me


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[shawnw]

Plus they are open/serve food later than most (1am instead of midnight), it's yummy, and it never seems to be TOO crowded yet keeps plenty busy.

[Rover]

Don't forget the mimes

And Peruvian Pan Flute bands like you have all over Europe.

[hoya]

I will never understand why people insist OKC doesn't/can't do patios. Every opportunity to be on a patio I'm there.

I think some people don't like them, and so they assume everybody doesn't like them.

[Laramie]

No kidding. I happened to wander up and down the canal on Wednesday night around 9-ish and there were plenty of people out on the patios.

Patios are the current trend with a number of restaurants. Broadway downtown (Automobile Alley) & NW 23rd Street west of Robinson to Classen has a number of patios in use. It's exciting to see the restaurant scene development in OKC.

"Oklahoma City looks oh-so pretty... ...as I get my kicks on Route 66." --Nat King Cole.

[Plutonic Panda]

For all of you that gripe about the patio thing, if patios are so awesome in Oklahoma, why is it all of the patio areas on any ground/upper desk restaurant on the canal are mostly empty? And for that matter, places like The Mantle (off the canal) don't exactly have people lining up at the door to sit outside, and theirs is more protected than most. At least Bourbon Street has cover, there's not direct sun, there's landscaping, some coolness off the water...it's really the best patio on the canal. It also happens to be at the end where you dont have to really worry about walk-throughs. Hanging out for a short period for a cup of coffee in a little "cafe" type patio is very different from sitting for an hour for your meal. I'm not persuading the argument in favor or against patios, but i'm just saying that it's not something that a lot of people in OKC seem to go for. San Antonio's canal was constructed VERY differently, but they had the benefit of being on the actual river. It makes a BIIIIIIG difference in how the whole thing works. Not to mention that they weren't trying to squeeze it in the space of a 2 land street (well 2 plus parking). There's only so much room to do something here, including the Century. For the upscale steakhouse crowd, i think that valet service is going to be much more valuable than patio space. Besides the fact that they will make money off of it. And with patio, you do have the chance of your stuff being stolen, damaged by our weather, or whatever.

I do find it funny in Oklahoma how the liquor thing makes it so litigious. In New Orleans (granted its an extreme) you can get a plastic "To-Go" cup for your liquor at almost any restaurant in the quarter. In fact i have a few of them myself.

I was downtown during lunchtime this week and ate across from Century. I have to say, i really thought they would be further along than this. The demolition work seems to be taking a long time for the amount of work there is. Demo work is also the fast part on a project, so if they're moving this slow now, i hope they dont move even slower on the actual construction. It almost feels like it would have been faster to knock the thing down and start over!

for real!? Nearly every time I eat in Bricktown, there is an extra wait time to sit outside

[bombermwc]

Maybe i have bad timing then. I'm usually there during lunch rather than dinner. And i'm usually there during the week as opposed to the weekend.

[Urbanized]

Yeah, lunch - especially in the hot summertime - is a bad time to catch patio activity in Bricktown (or most places I know, with the exception of The Mont in Norman).

[Plutonic Panda]

Maybe i have bad timing then. I'm usually there during lunch rather than dinner. And i'm usually there during the week as opposed to the weekend.

well depends of you like patios or not

For me, you have good timing lol

[Urbanized]

I think I saw PluPan's favorite patio on Twitter the other day (courtesy @okcsuburbanite):