I’ll be there for a few days, and need to find a hotel. I’d prefer one close to the north end of town, I’ve got a tournament just north of Mohawk park. I’d prefer somewhere that has things to do in walking/cheap cab distance, I’m trying to avoid having to rent a car this trip. Can anyone clue me in on the hip areas?
H.
I think you’re going to want to stay downtown. I’d probably stay at the Crowne Plaza by the Williams Center, but it has been a long time since I was in a hotel in Tulsa (I’m an escaped native).
Arnie’s Bar can be pretty decent at times. There might be a few other good ones now - there has been a fair effort at revitalizing downtown Tulsa over the last several years.
Make sure you get a coney from Coney I-Lander.
What kind of tournament?
Shooting, they’ve built the best facility in the world out there, see if I can’t get on the team for Bali.
Downtown seems far away from everything else, what’s up with the North/Northeast portion of the city?
H.
Other than being home to lovely race riots about 80 years ago, nothing’s ‘wrong’ with North Tulsa. But there isn’t a lot that is ‘right’ with it, except maybe a few authentic BBQ places that are so dark you can’t read the menu. (And that’s where my excellent middle and high schools are).
But I haven’t spent much time in that part of town since the late 80s, and I know there have been efforts to renovate the area, especially the old Greenwood area, over the years - no idea how successful those have been.
Everything is close in Tulsa, in big city terms anyway. But, it’s a southwest/midwest suburban city meaning that, without a car, there are only a few areas you can go.
Owasso is white trash death zone. I passed through once in the mid-80s. Never went back, even when I had family there.
Oh, if you like paintings and such, Gilcrease Hills Museum and the Philbrook
I can’t vouch for the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum but it’s not too far and might be good given your interest in firearms (it’s in Claremore, about 25 miles or so NE).
I shouldn’t disparage t-town too much, but suffice to say I have no intention of ever returning to the place (except maybe to acquire the coney-islander recipes).
You’re going to have a tough time getting by without a car in Tulsa for more than a day or so. Cities west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies are like that.
I haven’t lived there in a while, but downtown appears to have been undergoing some sort of rehabilitation. Try the Hideaway Pizza near 15th & Peoria, that whole Cherry Street / Utica Square / Tulsa University area has some charm to it. I wouldn’t stay anywhere north of 13th street that wasn’t downtown.
Peoria between 51st and 21st has some arty places to shop & eat with some night clubs as well. Breakfast is great at Brook By Day, and the Brook restaurant/bar (no relation, the whole neighborhood is named Brookside) has magnificant cheese fries (it’s run by the same folks that run Snuffer’s here in Dallas).
Really, I visit Tulsa for family and friends, not the dining & shopping.
Go visit my brother at ORU. He loves Jesus.
What RickH said. I forget too easily the nicer places. And driving by the Martian landscape that is ORU, as well as the giant-Jesus hands at the City of Faith…something you gotta do just to see it. (I was always fond of the idea that there was a giant Jesus trapped under the City of Faith, with only his hands sticking out).
Rickh, you an escaped Tulsan?
Jesus, you weren’t kidding, were you? It’s like Louisville, but somehow with 10x as much Jesus. Also, could you spring for a fucking coffee shop or two? Downtown seems to be locked in the rebuilding, Baghdad without the flavor. Suddenly I’m charmed by the Midwest again.
H.
Yep, went to high school at Broken Arrow. I hate setting foot there anymore. Tulsa’s mostly OK, but I guess I don’t even notice the religiosity anymore.
I grew up in Tulsa, too. Went to school at Jenks through high school, then University of Tulsa through undergrad. Unless you just want to go out to the kinds of bars you can find in any town, Tulsa isn’t exactly the kind of place you go for the culture and entertainment.
Actually, I’m in Tulsa right now! Visiting family. I’ll tell everyone you said hi.
Booker T, class of 87, here.
Oklahoma’s a great place to be from.
Awww, shame I wasn’t around here (ie, the messageboards, not Tulsa) a month ago…I live in Tulsa. AND I LIKE IT!!
Grew up in Shawnee, my brother lives in Tulsa now. I managed to escape Oklahoma after undergrad years at OU, now I’m just forced to visit every couple of years.
The only things I recall about Tulsa these days are that strange castle-looking motel on the highway through town, and the fact that the new “bypass” around the east side of town is way way longer than actually just going through town on main highway, plus they charge you a fucking TON since it is a turnpike.
The Camelot Inn. A den of scum and villainy. Site to many a con (in the late 70s, early 80s), such as Okon (where Larry Niven scared me) and a lot of great after prom parties.
You’re not somebody until you’ve been kicked out of the Camelot for underage drinking, or at least run out in a panic to avoid arrest/hassle from the Man.
Ha! I went to one of those at the Camelot. I remember one of the guest scifi authors yanking on the sword in the stone in the hotel lobby.
Sadly, that hotel is being torn down. It’s been empty and for sale for a couple of years now, and I think it’s being torn down to make, like, a QuikTrip or something.
RickH, if it was the one where the author of Recon did a pre-publication play-test and, IIRC, the first Call of Cthulhu RPG had just been released, we were there at the same time. Niven and James Hogan were there. There was a monster game of Killer going on I think. With the free sodas in the con/gaming suite, I was up for over 60 hours straight. Mmm, sugar-fueled early adolescence gaming binge!
QuikTrips are now invading DFW. And actually, as convenience stores go, they completely kick ass. I think they must pay their employees well (or a lot of smart, capable people are even more hard up than I thought).
Oh, dude…don’t get me wrong. I LOVE QT. My last trip to Dallas, I was very happy to find one here and there. And yeah, they pay pretty well for convenience stores.
Hmm. Not sure about the timing. I remember Alan Dean Foster was there. I was mainly focused on buying comics and watching the Star Trek blooper reels. You know, back when those things were hard to find. : )
And yeah, QT kicks ass. I’ll drive past any number of 7-11’s to go to a QT. Clean bathrooms, cheap hotdogs, and fountain sodas FTW. And the English-as-a-first-language staff is icing on the cake.