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About 25 years ago, I would have to visit Oklahoma City frequently. I worked as a TV news producer for one of the networks and was based in the Dallas bureau. So when a furnace at an elementary school would blow up or a tornado would wipe out a trailer park, I was on my way. My bags were packed, cigars and all, well before traveling humidors were perfected. Now, my colleagues and I had our favorite breaking news destinations. Houston was always a welcome destination. Austin and San Antonio we enjoyed. New Orleans, even when flooded, was good for at least three days of coverage. Oklahoma City, uh, not so much. But that was many years ago and a government capital improvement project away.
Today, Oklahoma City or, more precisely, the Bricktown section of the town is as fine a place as you could ask to visit in a city with a population of less than a million people. Bricktown is the old warehouse district just east of downtown. Because of a project to build a canal and the untimely bankruptcy of a visionary real estate speculator, the warehouses got bought up on the cheap by developers and turned into Bricktown.
Bricktown is now home to the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark, a fine structure that hosts the Oklahoma Redhawks, the AA farm team of the Texas Rangers.
Just across from the stadium, at #7 Mickey Mantle Drive, is Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse. A block to the west, in the old Oklahoma Hardware Co. warehouse, is Maker's Cigar & Piano Bar. The three together could provide a perfect day, but if you have time for only one stop, make it Maker's.
"I don't sell food, I just sell sin. Cigars and whiskey," Clinton Greenhaw will tell you. Greenhaw, who was in the grocery business for many years, is the founder of Maker's Cigar & Piano Bar. It's named after his favorite Bourbon. He'll tell you that story and many more. Greenhaw got the idea for Maker's back in his Army days in the late 1950s when he used to visit the bars in Chicago. He set opening a cigar bar as a goal. When Oklahoma's politicians, not among Greenhaw's favorites, moved to enact antismoking laws, Maker's became a reality, opening about four years ago. Oklahoma's laws went into effect this past March.
The laws are straightforward -- if you allow smoking in your establishment, you have to have a separate room. Alternatively, you can have a room in which smoking is allowed, but in which no food is served. There's no food at Maker's. Just cigars and whiskey.
Maker's cigar menu is excellent, but you should also look in the humidor to make sure you're not missing anything that might not have made the list. The Graycliff Chairman, a cigar you rarely find in bars, goes for $25. There's also a Graycliff Pyramide. Greenhaw also likes Romeo & Julietas and there are three on the menu, including an Anniversary Series for $30. Three La Gloria Cubanas also make the list, rounded out by Fuentes, Padróns, Macanudos and Montecristos. The milder cigars sell well here, but no one's taste is left out. Get to know Greenhaw a little and he might offer you something special from his personal humidor.
Maker's Mark, the Bourbon, is the well pour here, and that's good enough for me, but other great Bourbons are also on the list: Basil Hayden's, Jefferson's Reserve 15 Year and Distiller's Masterpiece. There might even be an Evan Williams lurking about. Cognac is also well represented. Grand Marnier 150 Year Cuvee tops the list along with RÈmy Martin Louis XIII.
(Note: If you're going to try this Cognac, order it for $90 at Maker's instead of $130 at Mantle's Steakhouse. This is the kind of investigative reporting you DO NOT get on "60 Minutes.") Then, of course, all the usual and popular vodkas and Tequilas are available.
Maker's is the cigar bar you would invent if you wanted a place to smoke your favorite cigar — Greenhaw is enjoying a Graycliff Chairman as we talk — and listen to music. The bar top is a tobacco-leaf design. The big leather chairs are tremendously comfortable perches from which to enjoy music on a daily basis. During the day, jazz plays on the sound system.
Upstairs, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, there's dancing at the Straight Up Club. Maker's took over the entire floor and put in four bars.
The festivities begin at 8 p.m. and go until 1:30 a.m. Go to the web site, www.makersokc.com, to find out who's playing.
Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse is really worth a visit even if you don't want to eat there. As you enter the bar, there's a TV runs a six-hour video of the Hall of Famer's highlights. The walls are full of Mantle and Yankees photos and there's a trophy case in the lobby. The menu has "The Commerce Comet's"
career summary on the back. Mind-boggling stats, though I did ask whether the "most games played for the Yankees" was a record that now belonged to Bernie Williams. The restaurant's manager allowed as how that was the case, but we agreed not many would pick up on the error.
The menu at Mantle's Steakhouse is, well, typical of steak houses, and so are the prices. I asked for my eight-ounce prime top sirloin ($21 with a salad) cooked medium-rare or slightly less and it came out just that way.
The salad was crispy and the blue-cheese dressing was tangy. A couple of the appetizers were appealing. Parmesan-crusted petite lamb chops ($14) and grilled Tequila shrimp ($12) are worth trying. With the free happy-hour fried chicken strips and filet bits at the bar, you might just want to have a big drink and watch the Mick's career flash by you.
Mantle's sells some pretty good cigars, including a Punch Grand Cru, but does not allow smoking. The management is looking to change that by closing off the bar from the dining room.
My suggestion: Have a steak at Mantle's, then finish the night at Maker's.
If Clinton Greenhaw had been a little less patient, I would have been happy to do that — often — 25 years ago.
Maker's Cigar & Piano Bar
25 South Oklahoma Street (look for the Oklahoma Hardware warehouse)
Oklahoma City, OK
405-606-9000
Open from 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.
Dancing in the Straight Up Club on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m.
to 1:30 a.m.
www.makersokc.com
Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse
7 South Mickey Mantle Drive
Oklahoma City, OK
405-272-0777
Bar opens at 4:30 p.m., dinner at 5 p.m.
www.mickeymantlesteakhouse.com
Oklahoma Redhawks
At AT&T Bricktown Ballpark
2 South Mickey Mantle Drive
Oklahoma City, OK
405-218-1000
www.oklahomaredhawks.com
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