Sam's Southern Eatery and Fighting Back One Business At A Time

Sheila and I had lunch yesterday at Sam's Southern Eatery on 11th street near Harvard.  The building is an old, large KFC that has gone through several owners since KFC abandoned the neighborhood. The building is in remarkably good shape thanks to the solid original design and a major renovation done by the last owners, Wilson's Barbecue.  Sam's is a Shreveport based chain that specializes in New Orleans style food like oyster poor boys, fried shrimp, etc.  The menu choices are an extremely welcome addition to our neighborhood.  New Orleans style food at a reasonable price has been missing for a long, long time. (Link to the menu HERE.)

Sheila had the catfish po boy and I had a Philly chicken sandwich.  Both sandwiches were huge and came
with a generous portion of fries.  Next time, we will probably just share one entree since the servings were so generous. My Philly chicken was amazing. Absolutely fresh ingredients prepared perfectly.  It was a sinful, gooey, thoroughly enjoyable indulgence.  And, I am slightly ashamed of this, but, I couldn't stop eating the lightly seasoned fried. The serving was huge and I knew that I shouldn't eat over half but they were just so good for some reason.  Sheila had tried to order the oyster po boy but they had already sold out of oysters at noon!

Most of the diners were folks like ourselves, neighborhood locals who were coming in to support the new business.  One couple went so far as to tell the manager how much they appreciated the investment in our neighborhood.  They voiced what we all felt and that requires some explanation.

For decades, the Turner Park and White City (named for the old White City Dairy, nothing racial other than using the now forbidden pejorative "white" in the name) were among the last few affordable and respectable "heritage" neighborhoods in Tulsa.  The homes were older but occupant owned and well kept.  Many of the residents were, like my wife, employees of the University of Tulsa.  20 years ago when we invested in the neighborhood, my neighbor across the street was the art director for a major Tulsa corporation, my next door neighbor was the aunt of a nationally known politician and the owner across the back fence was a chemistry professor at TU. The neighborhood was solid, safe and respectable.  That was before TU decided to get into the rental housing business and turned all of the beautiful green space on the formerly spacious old campus into cheap looking student housing and then built an iron fence around the whole mess. So much for TU being the anchor of the neighborhood as it had been in the past.

But then, the city itself literally turned on the neighborhood.  The beginning of the end came when someone got upset about the appearance of some businesses along Admiral Boulevard after somebody decided to route a motorcade of FEMALE GOLFERS down Admiral from the airport to the old Tulsa Country Club for some now long forgotten female golf tournament.  At that time, Admiral Boulevard was the front line of defense against the urban decay and violence of North Tulsa.  In its zeal to impress these visiting lady golfers, the city fathers turned the zoning and compliance Gestapo loose on the small businesses along Admiral. Many had been in business for decades and some were minority owned.  A lot of them simply closed up or moved. Without their presence to support them, even the unquestionably "conforming" businesses began closing. Soon we  lost our very good neighborhood diner and even the not so good but very convenient little neighborhood grocery.

The final blow came when, led by the Kaiser family of the BOK, downtown developers decided to force the homeless out of downtown and away from their sparkling new "iconic" (duct tape roll on its side) performance venue and the former skid row but now newly gentrified entertainment district that their family members and friends had invested heavily in.  Transient housing once handled by the YMCA downtown was transplanted into a facility crammed down the the throats of our modest but formerly stable neighborhood.

Almost immediately, other "homeless" facilities were planned nearby and soon Admiral boulevard became a ghost town.  Our neighborhood began seeing homeless on our residential streets, some even camping out in backyards and unwatched private storage buildings.  A few blocks south, a homeowner shot a transient who walked in through his open backdoor and was preparing himself a sandwich in his kitchen.  The transient was so stoned that he took a .45 slug in the gut and still tried to attack the homeowner.  Bled all over his house and still didn't go down.  He had to be subdued by police after a standoff.  Right now, the neighborhood is being stalked by a serial rapist who is most likely one of these transients.  He has claimed seven victims in the past few weeks.

The front line in the battle against urban decay and violence was once Admiral Boulevard.  It's now Eleventh Street. The long time residents of the neighborhood are furious at both the city and the downtown developers for trying to ruin what was once a fine, stable, affordable neighborhood and making our lives much more difficult in the process.  And so, when someone decides to invest with us, we support them.  I make it a point to support the businesses that invest our neighborhood and would like to encourage the my neighbors to do the same. Thank you for investing with us Sam's Eatery.

Friday Night at Tei Kei's

Tei Kei's has had a hard time finding its niche in the admittedly over-saturated Tulsa dining market but if Friday night was any indicator, it has settled in and found a loyal customer base.

Friday night at 6:00 P.M. the place was nearly full.  There were only one or two empty tables in our section and the nearby meeting room was hosting a large party.  The crowd was quite diverse. There were a couple of attractive twenty something girls in very brief running outfits sitting at a table near the bar. There were a lot of casually dressed thirty something to middle aged couples obviously doing their Friday date night ritual. There were a few families and a smattering of young ladies in dressy dresses and heels who were obviously on their way to something else.

The service was superb.  Melanie our server was bright, cheerful, prompt and efficient.  Even though she was also handling a large party in the nearby meeting room, she managed to be in place at the right times and handle our order perfectly.  The last time we were in, there were annoying service problems.  At one point, Sheila got up and poured herself a glass of water from the serving station. Granted, we were there late and only a skeleton crew was there to close up but there were also only half a dozen people in the restaurant.  But, that problem has apparently been addressed because this crew had the place humming and they were doing it with a smile.

Tei Kei's menu shows a lot of careful thought.  It is Asian Fusion, so what you see are the chef's interpretation of classic Asian dishes and combinations of Asian and other influences.  That is probably more information that most diners need.  The food is good.  I have eaten at Tei Kei's many times and never had a bad meal. There may have been another issue or two but the food was always top notch.

This evening, Sheila had a Schezuan noodle bowl and I had a Kung Pao Chicken rice bowl.  The noodles were done to perfection and quite spicy even to Sheila's jalapeno loving taste buds.  She enjoyed her entree thoroughly but observed that if she ever ordered it again, she would probably ask the chef to leave out a pepper or two.   My entree was tempura chicken bits served with Asian vegetables in a spicy sauce over rice.  You have to remind yourself that you are eating fusion not classic oriental dishes. With that in mind it was wonderful entree. Everything was perfectly cooked, the serving was generous and the spices were almost perfectly balanced for American tastes.  A lot of thought and planning has obviously gone into these recipes.

We finished the meal by sharing a serving of Tei Kei's legendary bread pudding.  Just about every restaurant

that offers bread pudding labels it "legendary" even though the final product often doesn't live up to the description.  Tei Kei's does.  It is simple, rich and perfectly executed.  Do not leave the building without tasting it even if you just order one serving for the table and pass it around.  This is what bread pudding is supposed to be.

Tei Kei's is owned by a prominent local family and managed by Chef Damon Holdeman. Damon came out to the table and visited with us for a few minutes while we ate.  Among other things, we discussed their new menu.  I was particularly pleased to see a couple of gourmet Asian influenced burgers added to the lunch menu.  Tei Kei's has always been a good place for a quiet business lunch.  The lunch menu is quite good and you can even have a drink or two if you want. The addition of the burgers should allow you to bring those difficult parties that always have one person that says they will not eat "Chinese" no matter how good it is and won't believe you when say that the Korean style pork tacos are the best taco you will ever taste.

Tei Kei's offers a casual but slightly sophisticated atmosphere. There is a full service bar.  The menu would be at home in any major city in the world.  There are a number of excellent choices including very good sushi and sashimi.  There should be something there to please just about any palate.  But the bottom line is that the food is good.  As I said before, I've never had a bad dish at Tei Kei's.

Shooting with Mike and Joey

I was very busy for a while and then I was very puny for a while.  I've really been off my game.  I was way overdue for an hour or two at the range so, when Mike Sala asked if I would like to host he and his son Joey at the range where I have a membership, I jumped at it.

Mike Sala is remarkably gifted in several ways.  He is a near genius with things electronic in a practical way.  After a lifetime of maintaining sophisticated medical imaging equipment there's no regular project (like a security system) he can't pull off blindfolded.

 Another of his gifts is shooting.  Mike is a natural.  I am not.  I have to work at it.  Hard.  I have to keep telling myself that I am playing a different game.  That I am drawing and firing at the same time while he is just standing there. That I am counting seconds off in my head trying to make sure that I never exceed three seconds to score two kill shots while Mike is taking his time.  That I am scanning my sides and looking for innocent bystanders around and behind the target while Mike is concentrating on the target alone.  Granted, my head is pretty busy while I am shooting but darn, good ole Mike can just stand there and punch holes in paper in a truly remarkable way that usually shames me.  I could not just stand there and shoot that well.

BUT THEN CAME JOEY.  He was shooting in the next lane.  I glanced over and saw him shooting a little compact S&W and getting the same kind of accuracy I get with a service pistol. But then came the clinker. I asked him if had ever fired a Glock. He said no. I asked if he would like to.  He said sure.  I loaded a mag with ten rounds and handed him the Glock 19 I normally carry.  He calmly took aim and proceeded to put ten rounds into the target's head within a 3 inch circle. I didn't know what to say.  That was about the same level of shooting that my CLEET instructor was capable of and I know Joey can't be shooting as much as the armorer/firearms instructor for one of local police departments.  I guess that, like his dad, Joey is also a natural marksman but one with much younger eyes and reactions.  It's humbling.


There are only two things to do when you have been humbled. Quit or try to do better. After the Salas left, I ate a bite of lunch and went back to range with my Ruger SR 22 which handles enough like a service pistol to make the practice relevant.  I shot another 250 rounds.  I warmed up with a tactical target just concentrating on draw and fire, draw and fire, working on the Zen of it, squeeze when the sight picture settles, will the bullet to the right place, make it all one smooth motion, don't shoot a bystander.

Then I switched to a standard CLEET target and forced myself to go through the moves of the basic qualifying routine, counting the seconds off in my head.  I had five flyers out of a hundred rounds and kept right around 80 percent of my shots in the kill zone one way or another. But by that time, I had been shooting for nearly four hours and had fired around 500 rounds.

I had lost a lot of ground in six weeks since I last shot.  I guess some of us just have to work at some things harder than others.  And, I guess that is my personal price of being licensed to carry a weapon in the line of business.