Oklahoma City Chain Restaurants

[Dubya61]

Rather than (continue to) thread-jack the Flint thread, I wanted to start this question here.
What chain restaurants do we have that started locally?

We've talked about this several times now but it's quite apparent the talent pool in local restaurants is stretched very thin.

Not surprising given the huge amount of new restaurants and bars and food trucks that have opened in just the last couple of years, with plenty more on the way.

Plus, the booming economy means it's much easier to find jobs outside the food service industry.

It's got to be a big challenge to find quality chefs, prep cooks, managers, wait staff, bar tenders and and even dishwashers and bus boys.

Right, the labor crunch isn't a universal excuse, just saying it's not surprising that there seems to be an increase in service problems at area restaurants in general. It's not like Devon could chuck Williams and easily plug in a new group to manage their wide-ranging operations.

And we've got a bunch more places that will open this year: The George, Broadway 10 Chophouse, Fassler Hall / Dust Bowl, Daebak K, Guyutes, The Drake, Pump Bar, Flashback, Pizzeria Gusto, Power House, Slaughter's Hall, TopGolf, Main Event, Tommy's Italian-American Grill, and tons more.

Pete, how does OKC compare to our peer cities (define that as you wish)? Are we over-populated with restaurants that actually cook (I'm asking you to ignore Olive Gardens, etc.)? Under-served? Just right but only recently? How about if you limit our peer cities to those in fly-over country? Obviously, I'm not asking you (anybody) to do a science/stats doctoral thesis project. Just asking for impressions. I've never lived in any peer cities. My only experience is with OKC. I'm basically OK with our restaurant population and mostly almost OK with the service provided, but then again, I consider myself a philistine, mostly incapable of appreciating finer nuances and upper crust. Even bad food can be reminiscent of good food and succeed on a comfort-food basis.

I don't know the numbers but until recently OKC had a very high percentage of chain restaurants and now we're seeing a big shift to locally owned places.

That's great, IMO. Do you think we'll start to see a reduction in national chains? is there a natural ebb and flow that will cause national chains to reduce or at least not increase?

I don't think there will be a reduction in chains as many are still coming to OKC, I just think their market share will decrease over time by the local operations.

First, I don't consider a chain to be a bad thing, necessarily
I know that Sonic started in Shawnee in ... the 50s?
I think you can consider Vans Pig Stand a chain, Swadley's, too.
What about the Hal Smith group. Would you consider their restaurants to be chains?
What about Good Egg's many restaurants?
What about the guys behind Big Truck, Mutts, Back Door? Is that a chain?
Can you say that Garage and S&B are chains, now?
Do you think that these (questionable) chains should go beyond OKC?
Are there other chains that started in OKC?

[Dubya61]

I think I should have mentioned: Bricktown Brewery / Henry Hudsons.

[gopokes88]

It seems like there's 4 different levels of chains.

International- McDonalds, BK, KFC
Nationwide- Cheesecake Factory, Texas Roadhouse or anything you'll see along the side of a DFW freeway.
State- McNellies, Braums, Jimmy Egg
Local- S&B, Garage, Interurban

I usually eat at state and local level as far as "chain" if you define chain as more then 1.

[Jeepnokc]

Think about the past local "chains" that were really great but just couldn't make a go at more than one location or have shut down completely. Harry Bears, Cocina de Mino, Tacoville (tried 2nd location in DelCity). Leos (Had location in norman and also downtown), Pearls (had location on 240 and also Norman), Acropolis Andys (MWC/DElCity), Pepperoni Grill (tried location in Edmond)

Did Garfields start in OKC?

[Jim Kyle]

I believe that it did. To help fill out the list of local chains that didn't survive, we have to add ValGene's many theme places such as Harry Bear's, Shorty Small's, and a bunch of others, not to mention ValGene's itself in Penn Swuare Mall. Also Neptune's Submarine Sandwiches (one location still survives but at one time they had almost a dozen around the metro area). Beverley's was a local chain but franchised its signature dish nationwide. Dolores might be considered a national chain since they had a location in Los Angeles that I believe still operates, in addition to the one here. Until a couple of years ago, Coit's was a local chain. And the list is far from complete...

[gjl]

We used to eat at the Harry Bears by the United Founders Tower all the time before it closed. They always seemed to be busy. Loved the fried peaches. And Shorty Smalls is still around. They just moved further south on Meridian and have locations in Branson and Little Rock. I miss the roast beef subs at Neptunes on 16th and Rockwell too.

I think Garfields was started by Oklahoma City local Vince Orza.

[ljbab728]

Think about the past local "chains" that were really great but just couldn't make a go at more than one location or have shut down completely. Harry Bears, Cocina de Mino, Tacoville (tried 2nd location in DelCity). Leos (Had location in norman and also downtown), Pearls (had location on 240 and also Norman), Acropolis Andys (MWC/DElCity), Pepperoni Grill (tried location in Edmond)

Did Garfields start in OKC?

I wouldn't include Pearls in that one location argument.

Home | Pearl's Restaurant Group

[Jeepnokc]

I wouldn't include Pearls in that one location argument.

Home | Pearl's Restaurant Group

I thought of that but decided to look at the main concept. They have the main Pearls concept and they tried to expand that and ended up closing those locations. I eat at Pearl's Fish Camp more than I do any of his locations and it isn't anything like Pearl's The group has several different concepts much like Harry Bears was part of the Val Genes Group that had numerous concepts also but still included them. My definition of chain is more than one location of the same concept. Hal Smith is a restaurant group but Charlestons is a chain.

Interesting was that Shorty's was not originally a VG restaurant. Paul Kreth brought it into the group when he and Pete Holloway bought VGs. Pete discovered Pepperoni Grill based on a place he saw out of state and it was his baby. Pepperoni Grill was sold to Eateries and was going to be expanded as a tandem mall concept with Garfields. Pete I believed went to Eateries at this point but I had left VG myself so not positive. There were a few Harry Bears floating around that were franchises but not sure if any of them are still opened.

Garfields did start in OKC in 1984 and went public.