Shameless Plug - Calloway's Country Cafe [Archive]

metro

06-21-2007, 08:00 AM

Please post articles, so we can refer to them in the future, as links die out after a few weeks sometimes:

Owners return Britton cafe to its roots
By Sara Ganus
Business Writer
From the time Ronnie Calloway was 10 years old, he loved going inside his cousin's neighborhood cafe on W Britton Road after school.

"I remember coming in here and just seeing all the old guys sitting here and hearing their stories,” he said. "Even as a kid, I knew they were just embellishing, but it was neat. Everybody knew each other.”

Those memories ended up sticking with Calloway, and from that point on, he dreamed about someday calling the restaurant his own. For almost 30 years, he periodically heard about the restaurant becoming vacant but always decided not to act. He was just not ready.

"I knew eventually I'd get the place,” he said.

But in 2006, after spending most of his life in the food business, he got word that the owner was looking for a tenant and finally knew it was time to make that leap.

In April, Calloway, now 38, with his fiancee Shannon Wharton, opened their first restaurant, Calloway's Country Cafe at 904 W Britton Road — the site of the same restaurant Calloway's cousin owned for almost 15 years.

Open for just three months, Calloway's restaurant, where typical fare includes chicken-fried steak, Frito chili pie and patty melts, is serving locals and so-called "Brittonites” classic comfort food and a renewed sense of community that some say has been missing for some time.

The Britton community, which used to be its own town before it became part of Oklahoma City in the 1950s, usually refers to the strip between the west side of Broadway Extension and just beyond Western Avenue.

Darrell Wall, owner of Wall's Appliances, 908 W Britton Road, has been a tenant next to the restaurant since 1991.

Wall, who can be seen in the cafe eating with his brothers up to five times a week, remembers every restaurant owner who's been next door to his shop since that time, when it's been everything from a grease joint to a Mexican restaurant.

"(Calloway) has revitalized it in the best way,” he said. "The people around here have been here for so many years, and it's mainly because of the cafe ... With it being a Mexican restaurant, most people didn't like to go in there, but now that it's a home-cooking type atmosphere, everyone's starting to filter back in.”

Shortly after Calloway opened, he got Wall and his brothers their own round table in his restaurant, after they made the request. The restaurant seats about 65 customers.

"That's our bull session table,” Wall said jokingly.

Mike Rosser, who owns the building that houses Wall's and the cafe, said one reason he welcomed Calloway to the space was because he was from the area and familiar with the community.

"I was thrilled to death to get him in there because that's what the people in that area are used to,” Rosser said. "There's not another restaurant from Broadway Extension almost to Pennsylvania, so it filled a real gap there that needs to be taken care of as far as having a good location to go eat.”

As someone who grew up in the Britton community, Calloway said he hopes his restaurant will have a "domino effect” on business growth in the area.

"Ultimately, what I'm doing is going to help the business around us,” he said. "It's the small businesses around here that we need.”

Wall said he remembers when Britton's downtown area used to be known as the "Britton beer joints” zone, but he believes some of that has changed in recent years.

"I think the way things are going, it will come back,” Wall said about new business.

Calloway agrees.

"There's a huge grid of untapped business, where a lot of people need to take a second look at it,” he said. "The Britton area is just a nice place of people. They're all family, and everybody knows everybody.”

Calloway said if everything goes as planned, he will open a second restaurant on the east side of Broadway Extension within the next three years.

"This has always been a dream of mine,” he said. "I'm not going to say I gave up on it, but it's not something I sat and thought about every day. When the opportunity came, I knew that this is it. I've got to do it, and it couldn't have come at a better time in my life.”

Calloway's Country Cafe is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday.