The Cattlemen’s Cafe, Stockyard City, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The Cattlemen’s Cafe also known as the Cattlemen’s Steakhouse has been around for over 100 years, since 1910.

It’s changed hands over the years. In 1945, while shooting craps, the Cattlemen’s owner bet the restaurant that a local rancher couldn’t make a “hard six” (two threes). With a roll of the dice, the rancher became a restauranteur. the place has expanded over the years, and has two distinct sides. There’s a formal dining room that prompted a name change from Cafe to Steakhouse, and the original cafe side, unchanged in decades with wood paneling, a counter with stools along the flanked by lines of red leatherette booths.

The walls are lined with old photos. The cars and clothes and hair styles have changed, while the Cattlemen’s has not.

The Cattlemen’s is an Old School steakhouse. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they offer the same steaks all day long — plus the usual eggs, etc., at breakfast. And what steaks they are! I fell in love with the Cattlemen’s while supervising a criminal investigation in Oklahoma City decades ago, so when Nancy and I went back to Oklahoma City to do our 47th state capital 10k walk, the first place we went was the Cattlemen’s.

Nancy and I drove straight from the airport and arrived about 5:30 pm.  A good number of people were waiting for friends and relatives to complete their groups so that they could be seated, but we were able to grab a two-person booth right away. We decided to skip appetizers. They’re known for their “lamb fries,” but that part of mammalian anatomy is a little personal. Instead, I ordered the special–a 16-ounce rib-eye, rare (red cool center), only $35.95. Here it is in progress.

the steak came with a baked potato and a house salad and, as you can see, I’d already started on it. I was excited.

My steak was at once tender, juicy, and meaty, with that big, almost buttery flavor that you only get with well-marbled corn-fed steaks. Like Nancy’s salmon, the steak was cooked with charcoal, and that makes such a difference. I rarely order steaks because I’m reluctant to spend the usual $50 or $60 or more on something that isn’t as good as I can cook at home on my faithful Weber.  I cannot, however, cook a steak that tastes this good. I gave some to Nancy, and she was enthusiastic, although she really doesn’t like rare meats.

Nancy, once I promised to share some of my steak, ordered the Norwegian salmon, cooked through ($22).

Nancy has a genius for making her food look small. She took a bite of her salmon and announced, “This is cooked perfectly.” But I’m getting ahead of myself. No sooner had we ordered than the Cattlemen’s unusual bread service arrived.

Doesn’t look like much, does it? It’s just dry toast, but they snuck in some garlic and other seasonings. We started by breaking off tentative bites, and kept at it until it as all gone. The stuff is addicting.

Both of our orders came with salads as well as baked potatoes. Nancy declined butter and sour cream for her potato in favor of “a little olive oil,” while I agreed for my potato to be “loaded.” And indeed it was.

We also wound up with an order of fried okra — with my full assent.

This was fresh okra very nicely fried, and battered but not too thickly. it was another quiet hit that gradually vanished during the course of the meal.

The house salad was decidedly old fashioned, a mix of iceberg with some other lettuces and shreds of carrot. Mine came with a large dollop of a marvelous creamy, garlicky, ranch house dressing. That’s an awful lot of dressing, but it went beautifully with the toast as well as the salad itself.

Meanwhile, bread service #2 arrive in the form of two gargantuan yeast rolls.  

I don’t see yeast rolls on menus that often, and to be honest, that’s just as well. I did have a good one at Country Boys BBQ in Suffolk, Virginia, recently, but most sorely lack flavor. I gather that cooks usually rush the rise process and fail to pre-ferment the yeast, so yeast rolls get a bad reputation. The Cattlemen’s bakers took their time with these, and Nancy and I both loved them. 

lt was a sensational meal. I ate far more than I intended but the food quality so far exceeded any reasonable expectation that, well, how could I stop? Everything clicked. Our server, Liz, was friendly and cheerful. And Cattlemen’s has such a warm atmosphere. Each and every thing they put on the table added to our pleasure. Just about everything surprised us with its abundant flavor. So many restaurants have turned to fashion, to sleek lines and white walls, that many people associate the sleekness with the quality of the food, and look down at wood panelling, at yeast rolls and other old-fashioned foods. Sometimes, there’s good reason. So often, however, the decor rather than the food is the focus, the goal is to be New! or Hip or Cutting Edge rather than good.

Go to the Cattlemen’s and have a steak. Take a bite. Close your eyes. Focus on the flavor. You will love it.

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