Oklahoma City, In the Press

[BDP]

Mayor Holt is promoting this article (if we want to call it that) declaring OKC the 87th best food city in the world. It at least sounds semi-quantitative.

https://www.tasteatlas.com/best-food...NuytR7w9z7BTeU

I'm not sure I can buy being ahead of Miami or Boston in the US, but it is pretty crazy how much the food scene here has changed in 10-20 years. Just the increase in options alone during that time is kind of mind blowing when you think about it. Pretty much everything downtown, midtown, plaza, paseo, uptown, etc. wasn't even restaurant space at all 20 years ago and a lot of that is dominated by local groups and concepts. That's literally hundreds of places in OKC where there was absolutely nothing for decades.

[Laramie]

One spot behind Key West, FL (86) and ahead of Boston (91) and Miami (93) on the World Stage, We'll take that
any day of the week.

[progressiveboy]

Have you been to Atlanta? Very vibrant food scene! Many great restaurants in this city!!

[Mountaingoat]

One thing to note is the ratings are not for "the - best - food" in the world but the cities where you can find good food that isn't snobby and pretentious.

[HOT ROD]

yes, local food. I do agree OKC scores very highly on this and definitely beats my city (Seattle). We always enjoy visits "home" with all of the available options, and nearly all of it so good! (like a mini Chicago in a lot of ways).

[Thomas Vu]

yes, local food. I do agree OKC scores very highly on this and definitely beats my city (Seattle). We always enjoy visits "home" with all of the available options, and nearly all of it so good! (like a mini Chicago in a lot of ways).

I've only spent a handful of weekends there, but I do enjoy the food in seattle more.

[Urbanized]

I will say this about one of the cities listed: while Miami has some great food - which I've definitely enjoyed a few times myself - it's not inconceivable to me that OKC is better, overall. My former boss (and sometimes business partner) was from Ft Lauderdale, but came to OKC on business regularly over the course of 20 years. The many was never afraid of a big restaurant check, and always prioritized great meals.

He was also very well-traveled, nationally and internationally. And he ALWAYS remarked about how he'd put OKC's food scene up against about any place in the U.S., with the obvious exception of a very few places like NYC and NOLA. He always told me he thought we had a better food scene than did Miami and Ft Lauderdale, and I never knew quite what to make of that. I had a hard time believing it. And this was before quite a bit of the current crop of OKC restaurants had landed (he died in 2018 and the last time he was in town was probably 2015).

Anyway, all of that is to say I'm not super shocked to see us ranked over Miami.

[Mountaingoat]

I thought this was interesting. Hopefully one of the links will work for you:

https://l.smartnews.com/p-fA6EB/jNL8E1

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...oklahoma-city/

PS - try the Seattle Times link first unless you use SmartNews.

[Laramie]

[soonerguru]

Surprised no one mentioned Andrew Black taking home the James Beard award for Best Chef: Southwest! For those above being snide about OKC as an entrant in the world local food scene, here's some impressive validation.

Keep in mind that Chef Black beat out chefs from Las Vegas, etc. for this award, and that fellow OKC chef Jeff Chanceleune was also a James Beard finalist.

No reason to sneer about the OKC food scene. As a city, we are beginning to perform above our weight class.

Here's a link to a non-local publication about Black.

https://andscape.com/features/black-...award-winners/

[soonerguru]

Also, the Tulsa World did a very nice piece on Black. Good for them!

https://tulsaworld.com/life-entertai...d16ef3d86.html

[Pete]

Very happy for Chef Black!

He also happens to be one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

[gopokes88]

Mayor Holt is promoting this article (if we want to call it that) declaring OKC the 87th best food city in the world. It at least sounds semi-quantitative.

https://www.tasteatlas.com/best-food...NuytR7w9z7BTeU

Can't fault the Mayor for doing his job

[LocoAko]

Not solely about Oklahoma City, but this recent New York Times piece on where Gen Z is beginning to buy homes mentions Oklahoma City being 2nd out of the 50 largest metros, only slightly behind Salt Lake City.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/r...me-buying.html

LendingTree, an online loan marketplace, analyzed about 3.4 million mortgage purchase requests on its platform during 2022 and found that Gen Z-ers made up nearly 15 percent of potential home buyers across the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. (Gen Z comprises people born between 1997 and 2012, so only the generation’s elders are looking to buy homes.)

...

To conduct the study, researchers examined loan requests made by Gen Z borrowers as a percentage of the total number of requests made by platform users of all ages. Salt Lake City had the highest rate of Gen Z applicants, at 22.6 percent, said the LendingTree economist Jacob Channel, the author of the report. Up next were Oklahoma City, at 22.4 percent, and Birmingham, Ala., at 20.8 percent, followed by Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Ky., and Minneapolis.

I know we often bemoan when leaders promote the city as affordable to make us attractive versus other cultural things, but as so many metros that young people traditionally flocked to become prohibitively expensive (and remote work opportunities proliferate) this is becoming an increasingly important factor for where young people can afford to settle. (See all this earlier NYTimes piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/p...ain-drain.html)

[OkieinGeorgia]

Not solely about Oklahoma City, but this recent New York Times piece on where Gen Z is beginning to buy homes mentions Oklahoma City being 2nd out of the 50 largest metros, only slightly behind Salt Lake City.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/r...me-buying.html



I know we often bemoan when leaders promote the city as affordable to make us attractive versus other cultural things, but as so many metros that young people traditionally flocked to become prohibitively expensive (and remote work opportunities proliferate) this is becoming an increasingly important factor for where young people can afford to settle. (See all this earlier NYTimes piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/p...ain-drain.html)

Kelly Ripa and her husband brought up this article in their intro segment on their show the other day. My wife was watching it and I suddenly got interested when I heard Oklahoma City. Lol

[Jeepnokc]

Oklahoma mentioned but primarily talks about OKC

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/u...tes/index.html

[Urbanized]

Also mentions Tulsa and “the nearby Wichita Mountains.”

[soonerguru]

Also mentions Tulsa and “the nearby Wichita Mountains.”

Which summer intern put this together?

[HOT ROD]

Southern U.S. Leads Real Estate Development Of The Decade, OKC is #10

[theanvil]

Southern U.S. Leads Real Estate Development Of The Decade, OKC is #10

Finally, Stitt gets a Top 10 win, lol.

[HOT ROD]

that OKC ranking is in spite of Stitt not because of him. He'd prefer it to be Tulsa.

[BG918]

Also mentions Tulsa and “the nearby Wichita Mountains.”

The nearby Wichita Mountains is in reference to Medicine Park

while Medicine Park village and the nearby Wichita Mountains offer a taste of Wild West days.

[Urbanized]

Sure did. I misread and ran two sentences together, apparently.

[Jeepnokc]

We are winning in the race for the state with the most smokers

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/04/healt...ort/index.html

[Bellaboo]

And they are all at the casinos...lol