Tulsa

Never tried Prairie Fire Pie, but I freaking loved Palace Cafe, delicious food and great service.

Generated article summary:

• New Chick-Fil-A in Brookside: A new Chick-Fil-A restaurant is planned for the site of the former Arby’s at 4143 S. Peoria Ave. in Brookside, a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

• Mixed Response from Neighbors: Some neighbors are in favor of the development over an empty building, while others are concerned about the impact on the traffic, noise, and culture of the area.

• Chick-Fil-A Representatives’ Meeting: Chick-Fil-A representatives held a meeting with the Brookside Neighborhood Association to outline the planned restaurant, which will have a drive-through window and heavy landscaping.

• No Timeline Yet: A timeline of when the new Chick-Fil-A would open has not yet been determined. The property is already zoned commercial and does not require a zoning change. Chick-Fil-A has 16 other restaurants in the wider Tulsa market.

Article summarized by Google Bard:

On Tuesday, December 26th, at around 6:20 PM, a shooting occurred outside the north doors of Woodland Hills Mall in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Two people were involved in an argument that escalated, and one person shot the other before fleeing the scene. The victim is in critical condition.

Tulsa Police are investigating the incident and have not yet apprehended the suspect. They have assured the public that the shooting was an isolated incident and not an active shooter situation. People inside the mall were advised to exit through the southern doors, and the mall was evacuated and cleared by police and security.

Witnesses described the scene as chaotic, with people running for cover and confusion about whether the shooter was still inside the mall. Some stores locked down, and employees helped people find shelter.

The investigation is ongoing, and no further information about the suspect or the motive for the shooting has been released.

When Carla Gibson first landed a server job at Molly’s Landing, she thought it would just be a way to earn a little extra money.

“I already had two other jobs, at a Red Lobster and at a bar,” Gibson recalled. “I was kind of a workaholic back then. But Molly’s Landing was someplace special, and I realized that from the start.

“For one thing, it was a high-end kind of place — I got my first ever $100 tip working at Molly’s,” she said. “Working there was really a nice experience.”

Molly’s Landing, which has been an iconic restaurant along the Oklahoma stretch of Route 66 since it opened almost 40 years ago, was severely damaged Nov. 24 in a fire that officials said claimed the life of an individual. The victim’s name has not yet been released.

Gibson, who owns and operates Gibby C’s South in Your Mouth restaurant in Claremore, announced on her Facebook page that she is willing to hire some of the 22 employees of Molly’s Landing for her own recently opened restaurant.

“I’ve already had four young men who came by yesterday, and I got them jobs,” Gibson said. “We’re already fully staffed, but my crew has been taxed with overtime as we’re still trying to work all the kinks out of our systems, so more help is always welcomed.

“Right now, we’re open Wednesday through Sunday, but once we get the new people trained, we may open an extra day to keep everyone working,” she said.

A crowdfunding campaign has raised about $15,000 so far to benefit the 22 employees of Molly’s Landing, according to the organizers.

Molly’s Landing opened in January 1985, but opening a restaurant was not what brought owner Linda Powell to Oklahoma from Phoenix, Arizona, a year previously. It was a boat.

A 1991 story in the Tulsa Tribune recounted that Powell’s brother told her about a boat he thought she might want to buy.

The vessel, a 119-foot-by-38-foot pushboat called the Molly Smith, had guided barges up and down the Mississippi River for almost 30 years. It was retired in the late 1970s and had been donated to a church in Houston, which was looking to unload the craft after a recent hurricane made owning a boat problematic.

The Tribune story detailed how Powell sold her Arizona property, agreed on a deal for nine acres that would become the site of Molly’s Landing, and closed the deal for the Molly Smith, which — in something of an ironic twist — was transported to the Kerr-McClellan Navigational Channel in Catoosa as part of a barge tow.

“Where other people see 200 tons of floating rust,” the 1991 Tribune story stated, “Linda Powell sees a luxurious restaurant. She hopes to make her vision — a pushboat turned floating restaurant on the United States’ most inland port — a reality within the next two years.”

That dream never materialized, but Molly’s Landing, which started out as a club before being converted into a full-service, high-end restaurant, soon became one of the region’s most popular dining establishments. Powell was later joined by sons Doug Powell and Russ White to help run the restaurants.

While the food was of high quality — premium steaks along with fish and seafood dishes, rarely seen items such as grilled quail — the look of Molly’s Landing projected a sort of rural bohemian ambiance.

A 1991 review in the Tulsa Tribune described the restaurant’s unique decor as “an instant party” located within “a barn-size log cabin with a porch overlooking the Verdigris River. Decorations from floor to ceiling beams make the place seem ready for a weird garage sale: sacks of peanuts, bad paintings, an endocrine gland chart, signs, flags, deer antlers, a sombrero, deer antlers, a duck decoy, an aquarium, milk can, grindstone, a calf’s foot and strings of tiny, festive lights. The menus are painted on canoe paddles.”

The canoe paddle menus later gave way to more conventional formats, but Molly’s reputation as a serious steakhouse remained. In 2006, the restaurant was recognized by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry as a Made in Oklahoma Restaurant of the Year, in recognition of its use of locally produced products, including cheeses, wines, seasonings and the mushrooms used in one of its most popular appetizers.

The restaurant has also been praised for its willingness to contribute to local charitable causes. From 2002 to 2016, the restaurant was the host to the Ultimate Murder Mystery, a bimonthly dinner theater company.

In a 2006 Tulsa World feature on the restaurant, Russ White said one reason for the restaurant’s success was its employees and his family’s commitment to treating those employees well.

“We latched on employees who have been with us for years,” White said. “It really is a big family around here, and that makes it easier when it’s bad or when it’s slow.”

TULSA, Okla. - Several hundred fish died last weekend in the pond at Hunter Park, with the City of Tulsa blaming hot weather and a possible algae bloom.

Those conditions can cause the oxygen in the water to drop, suffocating the fish.

City workers with nets cleaned up the pond Monday, after the fish kill was reported.

A few dead fish remained Tuesday, along the bank.

Parks staff didn't find any other aquatic animals injured or killed, but the City said teams will check the pond for the next few weeks.

The state regularly stocks the pond with sunfish, catfish and bass, as part of a “Fishing at Home” campaign.

Elliot Nelson has to pause for a moment to figure out just how many restaurants he has opened in the past 19 years.

“I think it’s around 15 or 16,” Nelson said, during a conversation in the dining area of Jimmy’s Chophouse, the newest addition to the McNellie’s Group of which Nelson is the founder and CEO.

Named in honor of his father, Jimmy’s Chophouse is something of an homage to flavors and experiences from Tulsa’s culinary past, drawn from Nelson’s memories of visiting steakhouses such as Eddy’s and Jamil’s, the Italian Inn and the Celebrity Club.

The new restaurant is already earning high praise from diners, as well as getting one of the highest ratings of any new restaurant this year from the Tulsa World. But Nelson and the McNellie’s Group are not resting on laurels.

Three new restaurants are in the works and are projected to be open by the summer of 2024.

First up will be City Hall Steak & Cocktail, which is planned for a spring 2024 opening. The restaurant will be at 123 E. Main St. in downtown Jenks, taking over a building that had once served as the town’s city hall.

When the project was announced, the new restaurant was described as having “a blend of modern design and vintage accents that celebrate the building’s unique history. The atmosphere will be ideal for intimate dinners, special occasions, business meetings, gatherings with friends or just a glass of wine at the bar.”

“That one is going to be closer to the traditional steakhouse than Jimmy’s,” Nelson said. “Steaks are certainly a main thing at Jimmy’s, but the menu here has a fairly broad variety of dishes,” Nelson said. “The focus at City Hall will be more on steak.”

City Hall Steak & Cocktail is part of a citizen-led effort to rebrand the city’s historic Main Street as The Ten District, a reference to that particular corner of Main Street being 10 miles from downtown Tulsa, Bixby, Sapulpa and Broken Arrow, and also 10 blocks west of the Arkansas River.

Another project in the works is Maple Ridge Grocery, which will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner in a space near the intersection of 18th Street and Cincinnati Avenue. Nelson said he hopes this restaurant will be open by March of 2024.

“The building used to be a print shop,” Nelson said. “It’s just a block or so away from (Council Oak Elementary) school, and I envision parents dropping off their kids, and then swinging by for a coffee or breakfast. It’s also going to be on my way home from the office, so I can imagine people leaving work and stopping by there.”

The third project is a proposed Italian restaurant that will be part of the Santa Fe Square development at the corner of Second Street and Elgin Avenue downtown, which will likely open in the summer of 2024. Nelson is one of the developers of this multi-use location.

Although a few of the concepts the McNellie’s Group has opened over the years have closed (the Mexican restaurant El Guapo, which had locations downtown and in south Tulsa, for example), the majority of the company’s restaurants are still open.

That includes Nelson’s first endeavor, McNellie’s Pub, which opened in 2004 and has since expanded to three locations in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

The original location, at 409 E. First St., is now part of a bustling landscape of restaurants, clubs and other businesses. But that was not the case when Nelson first opened his version of an Irish pub.

“I remember there was a welding shop on one side and a machine shop on the other,” he said, laughing. “It was pretty rough going the first couple of years. I think the thing that really saved us was that we were one of the first places to capitalize on the craft beer trend. It was something that got people to come downtown to an area that, at that time, wasn’t all that inviting.”

One of the McNellie’s Group restaurants plays off the less-than-savory reputation of that neighborhood: Red Light Chicken, which opened last year in the spot that formerly held El Guapo, is named for the fact that one of the city’s most notorious brothels once occupied the building next door (a painting of Pauline Lambert, owner of the May Rooms, adorns one of the walls in the restaurant).

It has been a busy couple of years for the McNellie’s Group. Besides Jimmy’s Chophouse and Red Light Chicken, the company has opened a stand-alone location of its popular Mother Road Market restaurant, Howdy Burger, on 11th Street; Mr. Kim’s, a uniquely personal reinterpretation of the traditional Korean steakhouse; and Bar Serra, an upscale bar and cafe that is the first new restaurant concept to open in Utica Square in nearly a decade.

When asked if opening some 20 restaurants in 20 years, among other projects, is enough, Nelson gave a quiet laugh.

“Well, there are still voids in the Tulsa dining landscape that we can fill,” he said. “But at this, we have so many employees who have been with us for a long time, and who have real ownership in the company. All our restaurants are wholly owned subsidiaries, and this allows us to offer more chances for ownership for them.

“Our employees work so hard, and put so much into the successes we’ve had, and we want to provide as best we can the opportunity for them to retire comfortably,” Nelson said. “We’re just trying to be the best employer we can.”

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Oklahoma Comic Convention will be held on Aug. 5-6 at the Cox Business Convention Center in Tulsa.

The event will feature will feature guests from movies, television, anime, comic books, and cosplay. Guests who have confirmed attendance include Lea Thompson from "Back To The Future", Matty Cardarople from "Stranger Things", and professional wrestler Rob Van Dam. More guests will be announced closer to the event.

Guests will attend both days and be available for autographs and pictures for an additional fee.

The Oklahoma Comic Con will also have costume contests, Q&As with guests, fan panels, workshops, video game tournaments, tabletop game tournaments, an old school arcade, and more.

Vendors and artists from across the country will be selling everything from t-shirts and comic books to swords and art.

TULSA, Okla. - A new store in Tulsa's Woodland Hills Mall aims to take adults back to their childhood and bring out creativity in kids.

The LEGO store will have a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 14 to celebrate its grand opening.

Store manager Tulasi Kimbrough said it is not your typical shopping experience. "We are all about play," she said. "Play with our associates and all of our guests, too, that come in."

Kimbrough said the old saying, 'look but don't touch' does not apply at the LEGO store. "It is not like all of our sets behind and in the cases cannot be touched," she added. "We want them to embrace the product, touch and feel it, and play with the product too."

Kimbrough said no builder is too young or too old to embrace their creativity.

"We have the demo table that they will be able to create little sea creatures and add to the set which is super fun because you can say you built something for the LEGO store. We have our Duplo area which is for our younger kids. Those LEGO bricks are larger, so they are safer for the younger children. Also, the larger sets that are featured, we are able to pull those out and everybody can play with those as well," she said.

The new LEGO store is only the second in Oklahoma and is on the lower level of Woodland Hills Mall. "We are ready for the opening," Kimbrough continued saying, "We are excited to see everybody, we are just super happy to be able to bring this to the community, and to bring bricks to the hands of children and create the future builders of tomorrow."

The second LEGO store location in the state is inside Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City.

Flag of Tulsa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Tulsa

TULSA, Okla. — Curbside greenwaste collection efforts will start Friday, July 14, for Tulsa residents with leftover debris from the Father's Day storm.

Collection will start in the areas in town most heavily affected and will conclude in the lowest-impacted areas.

City contractors will work through the different zones over the next several weeks to collect curbside greenwaste in people’s yards that has not already been picked up or taken to the temporary mulch site.

A zone map and additional information can be found HERE.

When collections begins, contractors will be making a sweep through each zone, then they'll so one final sweep through when the initial collection ends.

Residents are asked to prepare all greenwaste by getting it to the curb so that it can be picked up.

Residents in neighborhoods where greenwaste may have been picked up by the city, ODOT or OTA will still be on the schedule for curbside greenwaste collection.

To prepare for the citywide greenwaste pickup, the city created a list of information for interested residents:

Stack (do not tie) greenwaste in lengths no longer than 5 feet long at the curb Make sure greenwaste is not placed in the street, around mailboxes, buildings, or on the tops of utility lids or boxes Make sure cars are not parked in front of greenwaste, or it may interfere with pickup operations
Make sure greenwaste is not bagged, as only yard waste should be bagged
Make sure greenwaste is free from storm debris, or it will not be picked up Important Definitions:

Greenwaste – Cut up trees and tree limbs from the storm. Yard Waste – Grass clipping and leaves. Tulsa residents are allowed to set out 15 clear bags every week next to their trash bin. These clear bags should not be placed in greenwaste piles or in gray trash carts.
Storm Debris – Shingles, construction and demolition debris etc. – Storm debris is not picked up in the City’s trash system, nor will it be picked up in the greenwaste pickup. Residents with storm debris will need to either work with their insurance company, hire someone to pick it up and haul it away, or haul it to the landfill.
Household Items & Bulky Waste - Patio Furniture, Couches, etc. – Household items that won’t fit in a trash cart but are not greenwaste or construction debris are considered bulky waste. Please note, only household items be accepted in the City’s Bulky Waste Pickup. Please leave storm debris out of that pickup. Once exception is fence panels, which if they are part of your bulky waste pickup request, they need to be cut into 4-foot lengths and bundled at the curb. Greenwaste is not considered bulky waste and should be kept out of bulky waste pickup piles, and any bulky waste pickup items should not be included in greenwaste piles.
Scheduling for bulky waste pickups has resumed. Citizens can schedule a pickup at www.cityoftulsa.org/bulkywaste.
Temporary Mulch Site For residents who do not want to wait for curbside pickup but still want a free disposal option, they can bring greenwaste to the temporary mulch site at E. Latimer St. & N. 89th E. Ave., from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. daily. Tulsa residents, as well as Tulsa County, Broken Arrow, Bixby, and Jenks residents can utilize the site when they bring a photo copy of their ID or a recent utility bill.

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — If you're craving a cheesy jalapeno bacon burger, the McDonald's on Gilcrease Museum Road can take care of that with no problem, just don't ask them if you can pay your water bill.

"They said that their phone's been ringing off the hook. It's been hundreds of calls," said a concerned resident who wants to remain anonymous but wants everyone to be on the ball when it comes to trying to pay their water bill over the phone when you call the City of Tulsa.

"I put my credit card in and then it comes back that the input was bad and then it says it's transferring back to customer service but instead it transfers me to McDonald's on Gilcrease," she said.

At first, she thought she had made a mistake, so she tried two more times before realizing that the problem was on the city's side, and when she called the city...

"They weren't going to tell anybody about it. I said, 'If you know this is happening why are you sending people over and over again to put their payment information in?' and they said, 'Well, they didn't want to get everybody worked up,'" she said.

Worked up as in the ransomware attack from the summer of 2021.

"Are you worried that somebody out there that's not from the city has your credit card info?" NewsChannel 8's Burt Mummolo asked.

"It seems definitive that somebody out there that's not the city has my credit card info because I don't know why else they would hack the payment system," she said.

Meanwhile, in the drive-thru at McDonald's...

"Can I get a large fry, a large Diet Coke, and can I pay my water bill here?"

Employees declined to speak on camera but told us it's been happening a lot, which is what our concerned resident says she was told as well.

"I said, 'Has this been happening a lot?' She goes, 'Oh, I've had to answer the phone all day long,' she goes, 'it hasn't stopped ringing,'" she said.

Mummolo asked, "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the city's transparency on this?"

"Zero," she said.

The city of Tulsa has released the following statement:

"At about 5 p.m. today, a City of Tulsa customer care agent notified management of a complaint from a customer advising they were transferred to a McDonald’s on Gilcrease Museum Road after making their utility payment. The report was marked as a priority concern and elevated to the City team and vendor. The payment the customer made was properly received and credited to their account. The misdirect seems to occur once the caller has completed their transaction within the secure payment system and opts to be transferred back to the City of Tulsa. Rather than hearing a customer care agent after that secure process, they’re somehow getting routed to McDonald’s. The glitch is a misdirect and no customer information is compromised. While we are working with our vendor to identify and correct the misdirect, that customer and any others who may be receiving the same misdirect can rest assured there is no breach of data."

TULSA, Okla. - McDonald's is getting ready to release a new sweet treat in just a couple of days, and they are made in Tulsa.

The Bama companies are preparing to offer one of the first chocolate pie products sold by the fast-food chain.

The new pies will be available at all Tulsa area McDonald's starting on Friday, July 14.

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — One of the fastest-growing, authentic Italian pizza brands, Marco's Pizza, will be opening a new location in Tulsa on Monday.

The new location will be located at the corner of 8013 South Sheridan Road at East 81st Street.

Marco's Pizza's largest franchisee Hoogland Restaurant Group is said to spearhead the opening.

“We are thrilled to bring a new location to the city of Tulsa. Residents here already know and love us and we are so excited to grant them more opportunities to enjoy our authentically crafted Italian cuisine with their friends and families," said Regional Director of Operations Ray Whitmore.

The pizza restaurant will offer pickup convenience for customers with services such as carryout, delivery, and app and online ordering.

Marco's Pizza stated the brand prides itself on crafting every pizza using the freshest, highest-quality ingredients, including a "secret" original pizza sauce recipe from its founder Pasquale "Pat" Giammarco.

The brand is also the first national pizza delivery brand to offer 'Specialty Pizza Bowls'. The pizza bowls are a crustless pizza option made to meet consumers' dietary preferences.

More information about Marco's Pizza can be found online, on the mobile app, or by calling 918-289-2387.

TULSA, Okla. - Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum approved a contract that will help low income customers pay their utility bills.

The contract with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services will allow the city to accept Low-Income Housing Water Assistance Program subsidies for the water and sewer portiond of utility bills for eligible customers.

Open enrollment for the program has begun, and applications are available here.

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — A man suspected of stealing catalytic converters for months was arrested this week after the owner says he caught him on camera.

If your catalytic converter is stolen, it’s going to cause a number of run-ability issues. Your car will be loud, you will see a bunch of lights on your dashboard, and your pockets will be lighter.

The Tulsa Police Department has been trying to catch a suspect for almost seven months who has been stealing catalytic converters from a specific shop. That shop is Paramount Capital Motors.

They have had several different incidents at the same shop from the same suspect. That suspect, Robby Harvey, was arrested on July 3rd with four different catalytic converters.

“Was able to make contact with the female inside who said she was driving the boyfriend who walked away from the vehicle towards that yard. Little further investigation they got into the yard there able to find a bunch of burglary tools that they were using to get catalytic converters, said Tulsa Police Officer Danny Bean.

"Some help came and we were able to find our suspect hiding under a car where they made the arrest. No incident. Kind of gave up. Made the arrest and find out that this is our suspect that we have been looking for in this particular area," said Bean.

This has become a huge problem worldwide. After TPD’s arrest in 2021, that turned into a major investigation that spanned multiple states. The total amount stolen in catalytic converters was over $500 million.

How can you stop catalytic converter thieves?

“Etch to protect and it was to help combat specifically catalytic converter thefts", said Bean.

The program engraves or etches your VIN number on the catalytic converter so that it becomes indestructible and nobody will take it from the thief with your car’s information it.

Jiffy Lube, who also partners with crime stoppers and TPD, has a free plan available all over town.

“We’re happy to say that this is no appointment necessary service. Free to come in. Service does not take us long. Matter of minutes, most vehicles five to ten minutes. It’s a free service. All 17 area locations are participating in this service. We call it our etch to protect. A gentleman is going to go underneath the vehicle where the catalytic converter is located. And he is going to inscribe that on the catalytic converter ang again with that high temp paint", Jiffy Lube Tulsa area supervisor, Allan Mason.

918 Coffee, 2446 E. 11th St., permanently closed June 30. In a Facebook post, owner Morad El-Raheb announced he was retiring and the coffeehouse he and his wife, Annie, opened in 2013 would be closing.

“Ten years ago, we set out to invest in an area that we had a personal connection with, and to provide jobs for our fellow Tulsans,” the post reads. “We are delighted to see the growth in the area. We’ve had a great run, but now it is time to retire and say goodbye to all the friends we have met on this journey. It’s been our pleasure to serve you.”