MIDTOWN: Home of Extraordinary Food, Fun and History

 Continuing our ongoing series on Oklahoma City districts, it’s time to focus on Midtown. Just north of downtown and west of Automobile Alley, Midtown offers shopping, restaurants, bars, housing, lodging and many professional services. It is also home to some of OKC’s most distinguished historic buildings. The Plaza Court building is considered by many to be the “social center” of Midtown. Near the city’s first roundabout at N.W. 10^th and Walker, this extensively renovated triangular building houses eating, drinking and unique retail establishments. Perhaps the most important site in the entire state is also found in Midtown. The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum honors the memory of the 168 people who lost their lives during the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. The museum and accompanying outdoor monument and memorial offer a stunningly emotional reminder of that day for visitors, who continue to come from around the world to experience it firsthand. All who visit are immersed in how the day played out through photos, video, audio, artifacts, interactive exhibits, survivor stories, and much, much more. With Mesta Park and Heritage Hills to the north, historic homes can be found all around the midtown area. In addition, at N.W. 14^th and Classen the Oklahoma Hall of Fame at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum offers many excellent exhibits designed to “Tell Oklahoma’s story through its people.” In addition to all the historic experiences that await in Midtown, the district also offers entertainment at the Dust Bowl, a 12-lane bowling alley that harkens back to another era, with its retro-inspired décor. Directly above the Dust Bowl is Fassler Hall, a German-inspired beer garden that features beers and brats. The Bleu Garten, provides open-air dining, lawn games, a fire pit, full-service bar and several large TVs, along with a rotating schedule of food trucks. Later this year the Collective Kitchen and Cocktails will open at N.W. 10^th and N. Harvey Ave. It will offer eleven distinct culinary concepts, a 40-foot bar featuring 32 taps, and a 95-person rooftop patio with views of downtown. Returning May 31, 2019, H & 8th Night Market will continue its tradition of providing the fun, family and pet-friendly environment that has made it the largest Food Truck Monthly Festival in the USA. And in the heart of Midtown you’ll find Nonesuch, the 20-seat tasting-menu eatery that Bon Appetit named America’s Best New Restaurant of 2018. Extraordinary food, fun and history are all to be found in abundance in Midtown OKC.

*Photo By Curtis Burga - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21728189