#87 - The Mule, Oklahoma City, OK

A few weeks ago I was in Oklahoma City running errands.  I've decided that whenever I go to OKC in the future I'm going to eat somewhere new.  Even though that was the whole plan when I started this blog, I was still stuck in the same old restaurants rut in OKC.  No more.  I had heard good things about The Mule, and since I was going to be in that area anyways, decided to try it out.

It's located in the Plaza district, technically in Midtown.  I had never been to that district before, but it's a cute little area with shops and restaurants.  The down side is the parking.  The streets are narrow,  and people are parked everywhere.  I was there on a Saturday, so I'm thinking that it might not be as bad on a weekday.

It's a small place, with about 25 tables inside plus an outdoor patio. The building is very industrial looking with metal on the outside, but it adds to the charm.  It was too hot to sit outside plus the patio was full, and the only other available table was right next to the door.  I hate sitting at those tables, so I took a seat at the bar.  Normally I don't mind sitting at the bar, but on that day it turned out to be a big mistake.  I sat one stool down from 2 women, and after about 10 minutes 2 male friends of theirs showed up.  The guys were really drunk, and all 4 of them were really loud.  And they kept drinking.  Yes, I realize I was sitting at the bar. But it was 1:30 in the afternoon...a little early for all that.  I could tell the other people sitting at the bar weren't too fired up about it either. 

There's 2 huge TV's behind the bar, and a wall of drinks.  They've also got a big chalkboard behind the bar and you can name your own drink.

They offer lots of different beers and unique cocktails.  Most of the beers are served in cans and they pour them into a glass for you.  They've only got 8 beers on tap.  There's several drinks with ginger beer, but I've never been a fan of it so I passed on those.  Decided to try an Avery White Rascal, a Belgian wheat beer, on the advice of the bartender.  It was really tasty and pretty light.

The Mule's specialties are different types of grilled cheese.  They've also got salads and a few desserts.  I thought about starting with the fried cheese curds, but I saw someone else had ordered them and it was a lot.  And I didn't want to ruin my lunch.

I got the FYDH with fries.

Sourdough, avocado, goat cheese, pepperoncino, bacon, spicy aioli,egg.  Added lettuce & tomato

The sandwich was so delicious!  The goat cheese was really good and creamy, and the egg was a perfect over medium.  The pepperoncino and spicy aioli definitely added a good kick.  The fries were fresh, hot & delicious. 

Will I go back?  No doubt.  It's really a fun place, and there were several other sandwiches I was choosing from so I want to go back and try them.  And next time no sitting at the bar.

#86 - Lottinville's, Edmond, OK

I've known my friend Joe for over 20 years.  He was the cop who traveled with us when I worked at Maryland Football.  We loved it, because thanks to Joe, we never paid cover or waited in line when we went out the night before a game.  Except for one random bar in Winston-Salem, where the bouncer refused to let us in free.  And we ended up at the Social Club down the street....that's a long story.  I honestly can't even begin to describe all the funtivities we had over the years.  And, let's just say all of us are very happy there were no cell phones back in '95 during our trip to Louisville...

Joe is also a huge wrestling fan, and a bunch of years ago he became a Minnesota wrestling booster and follows them all over the country.  I hadn't seen Joe for probably about 8 years, but wrestling brought us back together.  We wrestle Minnesota every December so he's been to Stillwater twice for that.  And again last summer when OSU hosted the world wrestling trials.  And last month for the NCAA wrestling championships in OKC.  And he'll be back in June when Maryland's head coach Kerry McCoy gets inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame, which happens to be in the building right next to my office.

Joe invited me to dinner the night before the tournament started with him and a group of donors at Lottinville's in Edmond.  I had never eaten there before, and honestly never even heard of it.  He found it randomly when looking for a place for dinner, and apparently it's one of the top rated restaurants in town.

My friend Dianne had raved about the salted ciabatta bread and butter that they bring to the table.  The group had already been there for about 10 minutes before I arrived, so unfortunately the bread wasn't warm anymore by the time I dug in.  But it was still so delish.   You wouldn't think that sea salt on top would add so much flavor, but it does.  I thought about asking for more bread just so it would be warm, but I was saving myself for the meal and didn't want to go overboard.

I decided to start with the pear salad. 

I'm not usually a big fan of pears because I think they're too tart, but I figured on a salad it wouldn't be too bad.  And I was right.  The pears were sliced very thinly so I think that helped tone down the tart.  This salad was absolutely delicious.  I'm also not normally a huge fan of pecans, but the spice added the perfect kick to the salad. 

For dinner I went with the blue corn chicken enchiladas, with green chile mac

Dianne had recommended the enchiladas, and they definitely did not disappoint!  So good.  The flavors worked so well together.  I'd never had enchiladas with blue corn tortillas before.  But honestly, the star of my plate was the green chile mac.  The chile added a little kick, but not too much to overpower the dish.  I wish it had been hotter, but it was still really good.  And I absolutely loved that it was served in the individual cast iron skillet.  What a great presentation.

I had briefly considered the special, which was a seafood risotto.  But I'm still so skeptical of seafood at restaurants in Oklahoma that I passed on it.  Mary, who pretty much runs the Gopher wrestling program (don't tell their head coach that) got it, so I got a picture and tasted a bite.

This dish was fantastic.  Lots of veggies, huge shrimp, lobster and scallops, and the cream sauce was so good.

As if all this food wasn't enough, of course we had to get some dessert.  I would have been fine without it, but we got a couple to share with the group.  So I figured that way I would only have a couple of bites.  We went with The Wedge

eight layer chocolate ganache chocolate chip cake

This was absolutely heavenly.  It was a good thing we shared, because it was a huge piece of cake.  The cream was fresh and I think homemade.  Every bite was better than the last.  I forced myself to stop after a couple of bites, but probably could have kept going.

Will I go back?  Definitely!  The food was delicious, the restaurant has a great atmosphere and is nice and quiet.  And I would love to try some other dishes on the menu.