Simple Things Done Well - Homestead Restaurant, Cushing, OK

Sometimes you need to get away if only for a couple of hours.  Sometimes you need to step back to another place in space and time if only for a while.  I did yesterday.

Sheila and I left the house around 11:30.  On the way, we listened to recordings of 1960's radio programs.  We heard an episode of "A Date With Chris," the sexy little girl voiced DJ darling of the airways on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in the mid-60's and then a recording of Pat Sajak's "Dawn Buster" program broadcast from Viet Nam in the later 60's.

We got to Cushing around 1:00 PM.  The church rush was just passing at the Homestead Restaurant located at 1001 E Main St.  They advertise "down home cooking from scratch" and deliver on their claim.  The Homestead, like Jincy's in Qualls, is one of those places where the traditional Okie/Southern cooking heritage is being kept alive and passed on to future generations.

Sheila and I both had the Sunday Special.  Three huge pieces of very good fried chicken, a dinner salad, two sides, iced tea and bread pudding.  You will not go away hungry. 

If you break down each individual dish, while they are all very good, you can get just as good without driving for an hour.  But, the whole of the meal is better than the sum of its parts.  The chicken should be ranked among the top ten in Oklahoma.  The mashed potatoes and pinto beans are outstanding, the kind your mom used to feed you for supper.  The rolls were good.  Not great like Jincy's or Shilo's but very good.  The bread pudding was a tad dry but very pleasant nevertheless, a good finish to the meal.  Only the tea was disappointing.  Instant.  But, it was also included with the meal so I can't complain too much.

But again, it is the totality of the experience at Homestead that makes it worth the drive for us.  You are going to get a darned good meal.  That meal is going to be served by adults with real smiles on their faces and real concern that you enjoy it.  I really appreciate a good waitress who knows what she is doing and does it. 

Small town waitresses are often the best in the world.  That is their job.  In small town USA they are not looked down on for it.  They are not snarky and they don't have an attitude.  They don't over serve you slavishly trying to drive up their tip but at the same time your water glass is never dry.  I have come to truly despise twenty somethings in chain restaurants who are all working on becoming a "manager" or earning a degree and never learn how to just wait a table.  Sometimes, I want to get in their face and say, "Sweetie, I could care less about your future career in whatever, you haven't got waiting table down yet and your tip is getting smaller every time you open your mouth."
 
The crowd at the Homestead will be small town Okies talking about farming, the oil patch, football, grandkids and local events.  There is something remarkably comforting about the sound of the Okie drawl talking about the unchanging events of life at the table next to you.  Sunday afternoon you will see a mixture of older couples having dinner after church and generations of families pulling together tables to share a meal.  It is reassuring to see that somewhere in the world life is going on normally.  There is also something remarkably comforting about knowing that it is highly unlikely that somebody in the room is going to stand up and start shooting over events in St. Louis, Dallas or New York City. 

Taken as a whole, the meal at Homestead is worth the drive to Cushing.  The food is good, the service is good, the crowd is good, even the drive is pleasant. There simply are no downsides.