Oklahoma Road Trip: A day in Okarche

It’s time once again to hit the road and take you along for an Oklahoma Road Trip. This month we took the short drive over to the Town of Okarche. If you have heard of it, it’s probably because of some chicken place they have over there, or the world-renowned cinnamon rolls, or you follow the Oklahoma Craft Beer scene and heard about a new brewery with a quirky name. Well, we went to all of them and then had to take a nap. So, mount up, and let’s go for a ride.

FIRST STOP EISCHEN’S BAR

Six generations of perfectly fried chicken.

Eleven years before Oklahoma became official, a German family decided it needed a bar in the middle of the prairie that would be the town of Okarche. In 1890 the Okarche post office was established and six years later Eischen’s Bar opened its doors making it the oldest bar in Oklahoma. I guess it was as true then as it is now, as soon as the mail runs, you probably need a drink. Eischen’s Bar at that point just sold sandwiches and chili. They didn’t actually start selling Fried Chicken until 1964 when George “Boog” Eischen orchestrated a shuffleboard competition with the grand prize being his delicious fried chicken. Evidently, it was a hit and the legend of Eischen’s fried chicken was born.

Eischen’s bought their first fryer shortly after the competition and put Fried Chicken on the menu. By the 1970s the word was getting out that there was some good fried chicken in Okarche and they had to start frying around 150 chickens on any given Saturday. That seems like a lot until you realize that today, Eischen’s serves 800-1000 Chickens on a regular Saturday. That didn’t happen overnight, well sort of. In 1993 business was moving along nicely until the bar caught on fire. It was devastating, but the Eischen’s family has gumption. Word got around that they would be opening and news spread like wildfire with the Oklahoma City News Stations and others even coming to report on the re-opening. When they opened the doors again, they were shocked to see a line wrapping around the building. The people of Oklahoma do what they always do, they showed up.

In 2004 is was clear that the family grocery store wasn’t making much profit and the restaurant was needing more tables, so the shut down the IGA and packed it with tables. In 2008 Eischen’s got a visit from the one and only Guy Fieri to shoot an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives after his email inbox kept getting filled up by Eischen-heads. It becomes evident when the episode airs again, because the orders for Frito pies and homemade chili go through the roof. Walking through Eischen’s is like walking through a museum of Oklahoma history with stories and pictures everywhere. You should also check out the maps with pins from all over the world. They keep having to add new maps because they get too full of pins. That’s not a bad problem to have. One family from Germany makes a yearly trip to Oklahoma to visit family, but they can’t leave without coming in for some fried chicken.

The food here speaks for itself and is absolutely amazing. In case you haven’t been, you have a lot of options. You can choose between a whole Fried Chicken, or not to get it. They did recently add a couple options to the menu, you can now choose between getting a large Fried Okra or a small one, get the large, it’s AMAZING. You can also choose between a Large Nacho or a small one. Eischen’s has a couple other favorites on the menu like a couple sandwiches, homemade chili and Frito pie. The menu in reality is the essence of perfectly done simplicity. When you do something right, don’t fix it. We were pleased to see that they had a pretty decent beer selection, including a couple craft beers from the brewery down the street, Expenditure that pair amazingly with Fried Chicken and Okra. Which leads us to our next stop on this road trip.

ON TO EXPEDINTURE

Not quite an Expedition but more than an Adventure…

It all really started 30ish years ago with 3 boys in elementary school. Then, along the way in their teenage years they added another member to their crew and then a little brother. This journey of 5 lifelong friends with Okarche roots became the owners of Expendinture Brewery. After some failed college attempts at brewing, the friends (then nearly in their late 30s) decided to take a class at Learn to Brew and realizing that they could indeed brew a tasty beer, the brewery idea progressed from there.

You can find this hot spot just down Second Street in downtown Okarche. Officially opening in February 2020, the pandemic put a hurt on their storefront but not their spirits. With the town support they started curbside service and growlers. Before long, the parking lot across the street began to resemble a football tailgate party. People came from all over to responsibly social distance but yet still have the feeling of some type of normalcy.

From the beginning, Expendinture’s style has been based on European style beer. Several trips to Germany doing what they later learned was really market research will do that! Their mindset was to brew the best European style beer possible. They really try to focus on tradition and most of their grains are German in origin and their hops are in true style from the county of origin that the beer requires. Occasionally you will find a historical style of beer which is something no one else does.

One of their best sellers is the Irish Red Ale is about as Traditional Irish as you can get and was the first of their beers to win at a competition. With the first recipe being Midnight Black, which was basically made from a bunch of grains they had left over, and it turned out to be most of the owner’s favorite beer!

Thankfully, Expendinture started bottling within the last 6 months using a Stubby Heritage Bottle which gives their bottled beer and old timey feel. Right now, you can pick up an Expendinture beer in Yukon at The local, The Shed in Kingfisher and Social Capital across from Scissortail Park. They do have plans to expand their distribution in the future as well.

Expendinture is not short on fun events. Every 1st Friday you can expect some type of live music, desert style food truck, a boutique type vendor and of course, delivery from Eischen’s. Wednesday night is card night, and they have Pitch tournaments a couple times a week. And don’t forget about their Trivia nights and Singo on Sundays. In the fall they also have a huge Octoberfest block party and bring in Oom-pah bands, food trucks, and of course a new beer release.

Of course, we had to do some beer sampling, and here are just a few that we would recommend:

Pluto is still a Planet is a northwest IPA that has a lighter nice hop that lingers just enough on the backend.

Robust W is an experiment beer that went over very well. Special W grain split 50 / 50 with a lighter grain and created this heavy body brown and aged in Jack Daniels Barrels… because of the high alcohol content you will only be able to get a 10 oz pour on this one!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout … well that is just self-explanatory!

If you are looking for a fun, get out of town for the day trip, we whole heartedly recommend Expendinture Brewery. With the small-town charm, welcoming hosts and a fantastic patio that wraps around the building with TV’s for watching sporting events etc.…you can’t go wrong. You may even run into us there.

AND FINALLY, TOWER CAFE

Who doesn’t love a hot delicious cinnamon roll? Absolutely no one. On our journey to the town of Okarche, a billboard caught our eye with the words “Best Cinnamon Rolls in the West.” Now that sounded like a challenge to us for sure so of course, we had to pop in and see what all the fuss was about.

The Tower Café has been in business since 1968 but their amazing cinnamon rolls made their grand entrance several years later. It all started with Ms. Louise, the proprietor of the Tower Café, sending her special cinnamon rolls as a favor for a friend to a Cattlemen’s event. That following Monday, after the event, her friend came back to her and said, “you have something here, everyone was fighting over these rolls!” And so it began.

The Tower Café’s Cinnamon Rolls are a beacon of your childhood. They remind you of school lunches and breakfast at grandma’s house after spending the night. It makes sense that the special recipe is an “Old grandma’s recipe” and contains all-natural ingredients. You won’t find any preservatives here.

What started as a cinnamon roll making business in a little 12’ x 12’ room eventually morphed into a full-scale retail food service. Although they no longer sell their rolls in grocery stores, you can still purchase them at the restaurant. They also allow fundraisers and work with schools, baseball teams, soccer teams, cheer groups and many more to help them raise money.

We can tell you that it is well worth the trip to The Tower Café to grab a tin or two of these heavenly cinnamon rolls. The café is open Monday – Saturday 7am – 9pm and is closed on Sundays.

Our advice for your day trip to Okarche? Feast on some amazing chicken and absorb the history of the décor at Eishen’s, find a table on the deck at Expendinture, soak up the sun and the atmosphere while you enjoy their fantastic craft beers and then stop by The Tower Café to pick up some of their delectable cinnamon rolls. Maybe they will make it home, maybe they won’t…