Tulsa Food

It was only a 15 minute drive, much of it past miles of trees with not a house in sight, but when we pushed through the swinging doors (proudly painted “Crescent Cafe, Prattville Ok.”) it seemed as if we’d gone much farther. It was a long, lazy friendly room, pretty full at 5 PM, and everyone knew one another. “I didn’t see you last Sunday.” “Yes you did, you talked to me.” We sat in a booth across from two old cowboys talking horses.

Crescent Cafe has been around for a while, fifteen years at least, and the owners ran other cafes for ten or so years before, and their parents first started their first diner, a place called Lee’s Drive-In, thirty years before that. I’d heard about it before, but my memory was jogged by a review in the World promising a slice of ham as big as a hubcap. And there it was on the menu, the “Hungry Man Ham” ($5.50). Yes it’s breakfast, but breakfast is served all day every day, except on Sundays. So that’s what I ordered.

It took a while. The cowboys were still talking horses. ?”So I rode that old horse on down into Mexico and he was the best racer I ever had. And I was racing him at this track and cleaning up and I thought I had it made. But then one day they came up to me and they didn’t speak English but somehow they told me my horse was banned.” I never heard the end of the story because that’s when the breakfast came and I couldn’t think of anything else.

Yes, there’s the hubcap of ham, three big eggs (I got them scrambled) and hashbrown potatoes. Maybe not quite as big as a hubcap, and far thinner, but I can’t expect them to serve $10 worth of ham in a $5.50 breakfast. And the ham was flavorful, and the eggs and hashbrowns tasted fine. Oh, and how could I forget. That $5.50 also included PANCAKES!

Here they are, with the ham and eggs making an encore in the background. I put some butter and syrup on top and they just couldn’t be finer. If there’s anyone in the world who doesn’t like those pancakes, he could substitute biscuits and gravy. Betty ordered both, but that costs extra. I told her I’d give her $50 if she ate it all within an hour. Cathe got an omelet.

That’s a fine choice too. They range from $4 for a three egg plain to $7 for a four egg Supreme with a 7 ingredient stuffing. That includes potatoes and pancakes. I’m not sure what kind Cathe ordered but I had a taste and it was delicious.

As we were leaving, one of the diners told us we should come back for chicken fried steak. (Crescent Cafe has a full lunch and dinner menu, including pork chops, fried catfish, country ham, almost everything under $7.) “Best around,” she said. I reckon I will.

After I got home I put a photo of that breakfast on Facebook. “Brian did you know I grew up in Prattville?” “I live a mile from there!” I got so many messages from friends who knew Crescent Cafe. It’s one of those secret places everyone knows about but me.

Crescent Cafe
3417 Old Sapulpa Road, Prattville (also known as S 113th West Ave, Sand Springs)
(take highway 51 west to Sand Springs, then highway 97 south till you see an Arby’s, Crescent Cafe is next door. Or do as we did, go to Chandler Park, take the road between the park and the river, Avery Drive, till it ends in a fork, then take S 113 West Ave to the cafe. Either way it’s 15 minutes from midtown Tulsa.)
245-6443

Open every day from 6 AM to 8 PM, except Sunday open 7 AM to 2 PM (on Sundays, breakfast is not served after 11 AM)

Brian Schwartz:

Born in NYC, age 0, on my birthday. College in Oxford at age 16. Law School in New Haven, Conn. 6 years travel in Africa and Asia. Haven’t done much lately. Still, I’m the only Tulsa member of the little-known Omega Society.  www.theomegasociety.com

I speak enough Chinese to order food not on any English menu. Spanish French Italian too (not fluently but food-ently) My favorite restaurant is Jean-Georges in New York. But those NYC chefs would sell their soul to get the produce available from the farms around Inola.

“A writer writes alone. His words tumble forth from a magical inner void that is mysterious even to himself, and that no one else can enter.” And yet, the most important thing to me the writer is YOU. Without you to hear them, my words are worth less than silence.