Tulsa Date Night: Exploring the Brady Arts District

(pssst – have you entered my giveaway for a magic sleep suit? Last day to enter is Sunday!)

We went to Tulsa to visit J’s parents last weekend. At some point on our drive over we realized that, just like when his parents are visiting us here, when we go there…we have babysitters.

So, naturally, we decided to have ourselves a little Tulsa date night.

One of our favorite things to do is to walk around a part of town with a lot of bars & restaurants and just hop from place to place eating appetizers and having cocktails. So we headed down to the Brady Arts District and set out to do just that.

Our first stop was The Tavern.

I loved this place from the second we walked in.  It has a very bar-like feel when you first walk in but there’s also a really pretty dining area.  We actually sat at that table in the picture above. I snapped that pic as we were leaving and if you look carefully you can see my purse straps on the chair on the left.

Yes. I walked out of the restaurant with my phone and without my purse. I am very responsible.

Here is what you need to know about this place:

Bacon Popcorn.

I’ll give you a minute to let that sink in.

I cannot begin to tell you how good this was. As we dug in we realized there was something sweet and wonderful on the bottom of the plate.  I asked our waiter about it and he said it was maple butter.  That’s right, just when you think BACON POPCORN cannot get any better they double down with MAPLE BUTTER.  And also? The popcorn is popped in bacon fat, just for good measure.

I told J later that I could have eaten an absolutely embarrassing amount of this if given the opportunity. And, bless him, he didn’t tell me that I already had.

I asked our waiter for a cocktail recommendation and he did not steer me wrong with this.  I had the Summer Babe and it was light, refreshing and delicious.  We also ordered the beef tenderloin skewers which were just perfection.

We left the Tavern and walked down the street and around the corner to Mason’s.  Mason’s has such a great casual vibe.  When you walk in there are comfy couches, games, and a STOCKED bar.

See above: the jukebox of the future (of the now?).  When we walked in “Party in the USA” was blaring and my first thought was, “that song does not match this place” and then I saw the digital jukebox and it all made sense.

We ordered our drinks, I got a cucumber spritzer that I did not get a picture of – so just trust me when I say it basically looked like a large glass of water. The bartender was super accommodating, he let John sample a few beers from the tap before he settled on one he liked.

After we had our beverages, I noticed a long narrow hallway leading to…where?

Leading to this room o’ fun. We played 2 games of pool and I learned this about my husband: He is very good at pool.

And I learned this about myself: I am very bad at pool.

But we TIED at a game a piece because on the second game he scratched on the 8 ball. #DefaultWinsStillCount.  After that miracle I was all “Let’s go to the next place!” because I didn’t want to walk out of the bar a loser.

This is where, on a normal date night “food crawl” we would have gone to someplace else for dinner. Instead, we went back to the Tavern because the menu just looked TOO GOOD.

It did not disappoint.  We decided on a few things to share. And oh my gosh, I’m so glad we did.  They might as well have been family style portions. For example, here is the pear, fennel, and arugula salad:

It was HUGE. And also fresh and just the right amount of salty & sweet. We also ordered the Steak Frites and the Angry Mac & Cheese which was spicy and delicious.

We did our best to save room for dessert, because when we were at Mason’s, we noticed what looked like a bakery across the street.  So after dinner we went back down the street and around the corner again to satisfy our sweet tooth at Glacier Confections.

This is the part where I shut up and let the pictures speak for themselves:

So. Many. Truffles.

We bought a large sampling to take home with us and enjoyed the heck out of them over the next few days.  This place is absolutely worth a trip – I mean, a strawberries and champagne truffle? YUM.

All in all, this was an absolutely perfect date night for us.  The Brady Art’s District did not disappoint – we can’t wait to go back!

Posted by Kelly & filed under Travel. This post has 2 comments.