UR Cooks

[OKCJapan]

I remember some 20 years ago going to UR Cooks up on the Northwest Expressway. What a great steakhouse that was. I got married shortly after it went out of business. I've told my wife a few times, because of her love for steaks that I wished it was still around because she would have loved the experience.

[SoonerDave]

I remember UR Cooks, and I think the primary reason it went south was people caught on to the idea they were paying full price for the privilege of going to a restaurant and cooking their own dinner, when they could just buy their own steaks and cook them at home for less money

[Pete]

Peppertree Gets U.R. Cooks Eatery
Modified: October 7, 1989 at 12:00 am • Published: October 7, 1989
U.R. Cooks, a steakhouse under the Ranken Inc. banner, will enter the Oklahoma City market in late November at 6388 Harden Drive in Peppertree Square Shopping Center.

A tenant finish on 7,250 square feet of floor space is under way.

Pat Barnes of Price, Edwards, Henderson & Co. co-brokered the lease with Steve Butler, owner-broker of the center's parent firm, CH/JSB Oil Co. Norman Crohn, president of Ranken and Austin-based U.R. Cooks, said the restaurant will offer customers a chance to cook their own beef, chicken or shrimp.

The restaurant has three gas grills, each 8 feet long and 30 inches wide.

The U.R. Cooks chain is four years old. It has three stores, in Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

Crohn also is president of another Ranken subsidiary, Chelsea Street Pubs & Grills. The Chelsea group is now 16 years old and has grown to 24 restaurants, spread from New Mexico to Florida.

About 95 percent of the U.R. Cooks customers like to prepare their own steaks, Crohn said.

The restaurant also has salad bars, baked potatoes, toppings and garlic toast.

Chelsea Construction Co. has the restaurant construction contract.

Project cost is about $250,000.

The decor is dominated by red, gray and black. Tablecloths are gray, with red napkins. Carpets are red and ceilings are black.

Customers are invited to bring their signs and hang them on the restaurant walls.

The restaurant also will have a club.

[Joe Kimball]

The restaurant also will have a club.

Is this merely to say a bar, but spoken of in the then-five-year-expired manner of referring to times before "liquor-by-the-drink" and the need for membership cards?

[Pete]

Is this merely to say a bar, but spoken of in the then-five-year-expired manner of referring to times before "liquor-by-the-drink" and the need for membership cards?

Yes, I believe so.

[SoonerDave]

Is this merely to say a bar, but spoken of in the then-five-year-expired manner of referring to times before "liquor-by-the-drink" and the need for membership cards?

Kinda doubt that, because I remember going to UR Cooks and that was long after OK County was "wet." I could be wrong, as I don't drink and can't suggest I paid that close attention, but I believe OK County voted in LBTD a few years prior to that while I was in college - and I graduated OU in 1986.

[Joe Kimball]

Kinda doubt that, because I remember going to UR Cooks and that was long after OK County was "wet." I could be wrong, as I don't drink and can't suggest I paid that close attention, but I believe OK County voted in LBTD a few years prior to that while I was in college - and I graduated OU in 1986.

Yes, that's why I tentatively referred to the expression as five-years-expired.

[Joe Kimball]

Also, I love the invitation to bring one's signs, spoken of in such familiar and assuming parlance, to hang up. I don't know if this was before the dedication of warehouses for Friday's-esque bric-a-brac.

[MadMonk]

I remember UR Cooks, and I think the primary reason it went south was people caught on to the idea they were paying full price for the privilege of going to a restaurant and cooking their own dinner, when they could just buy their own steaks and cook them at home for less money

Bingo. It was a novelty which quickly faded.