The Time Jay Shipped Me Off to Oklahoma for a Week: Part II

by Blair "B-Rex" Loup

Much like Baton Rouge, Stillwater, Oklahoma, is a college town. Oklahoma City aside, Stillwater is considered to be a bustling oasis amid the rolling plains. Home to the world-famous Eskimo Joe's, Stillwater has recently opened the doors on its first craft brewery and is 23 years deep in a red-dirt tradition: the Calf Fry.

Eskimo Joe's is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, and, like Rotolo’s, they've become famous for their plastic cups and for being the only company in America that prints more t-shirts than Hard Rock Café.

Legitimately, most of the other casual restaurants in the area have adopted the same cups printed in a similar style. It's so ubiquitous that Eskimo Joe's cups are an actual unit of measurement in Stillwater.

Most of the shirts that are printed in Stillwater came from the warehouse Eskimo Joe's owns. If something were to happen to their cups or shirt printing operation, or the well of cheese fries dried up, I'm not entirely sure life would go on in Stillwater.

Needless to say, they’ve come a long way from being a hole-in-the-wall bar. Now that you have a grasp on how important this place is to Stillwater, let’s talk about the cheese fries.

These cheese fries are sacred to anyone in Stillwater and any student who has attended OSU, but in my mind I kept thinking, “Okay, cheese is good and so are fries. Together they’re delicious, but can these cheese fries be that groundbreaking?” The answer to that question is no, they can't.

But what is so incredible about these cheese fries is the sweet pepper bacon they're topped with. You take ordinary bacon, make it a little sweet, and add a kick of black pepper. Suddenly, these scrumptious cheese fries transform into groundbreaking cheese fries. They absolutely live up to the hype, and if you happen to be in the area, I suggest you pop in, grab some cheese fries, grab a shirt, and don’t forget to take your cup on the way out.

The legendary Sweet Pepper Bacon Cheese Fries at Eskimo Joe's

Drinking Iron Monk's Milk Stout
with Co-Founder Dave Monk

Iron Monk Brewing Company shows a lot of promise. Co-Founder Dave Monk has his PhD. in biology, which is a great start to making solid brews. While we were touring the brewery, Dave and I were talking about some of the great beers in Louisiana and tasting their creamy milk stout and bold double IPA. I look forward to seeing more from them in the future and you can find them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@IronMonkBeer) to see what they’re up to.

As an adventurous eater, I jumped at the chance to eat fried bull testicles in Oklahoma; it’s the part of this trip I looked forward to for months.

The Stillwater Calf Fry is a colossal festival in the middle of nowhere where young men in their flashiest cowboy hats and young women in their shortest cutoffs go to listen to country music and eat bull testicles.

If you can’t see the magic in this, stop reading now.

I will say that if you’re looking for tasty testes, you may want to eat them elsewhere. The calf fries at the Calf Fry are frozen, pre-breaded, and then dropped into a deep fryer. They taste like fried—nothing more, nothing less. In any case, the event is a sight to behold.

Calf Fries at the Calf Fry in Stillwater, Oklahoma

In the end, I'm okay with Jay shipping me off to Oklahoma any day. The people are passionate and forward-thinking in a way that's making room for some very cool stuff.

The Time Jay Shipped Me Off to Oklahoma for a Week: Part I

by Blair "B-Rex" Loup

The first time Jay sent me on a media trip to represent Bite and Booze, I didn’t know what to expect.

Typically, these kinds of press trips are orchestrated by convention and visitors bureaus to familiarize other travel writers and bloggers with the area in hopes that we’ll like what we see and encourage others to travel to said destination.

I had zero expectations on my first media trip to Shreveport, Louisiana. Originally, I couldn't imagine what Shreveport had to offer that was worth writing about. But during the trip, I was blown away by all the cool things to eat, drink, and do in Shreveport.

With this in mind, when Jay asked if I wanted to go on a trip to Oklahoma City and Stillwater, Oklahoma, I immediately agreed and booked my plane tickets.

Similar to Shreveport, if there’s one thing I learned about Oklahoma, it’s that it isn't what you'd expect.

After indulging in a big (literally physically large) country dinner at Toby Keith's, we enjoyed an informative water taxi ride through Bricktown at sunset before we crashed at the beautiful boutique Ambassador hotel.

Learning about how the Bricktown development came to be with my buddy Karen Dawkins. She admittedly likes me more than Jay. It's the small victories in life that keep you going.

The lovely ladies at Visit OKC had us up early to show us a different side of town where we had the chance to enjoy an authentic Guatemalan breakfast at Cafe Kacao. If you've never eaten breakfast plates piled high with chorizo, black beans, avocado, eggs, and plantains, I highly suggest reevaluating your lifestyle.

Shorty after we were seated, I realized why Tabbi and Brittany from Visit OKC had us up so early. The place stays packed.

Traditional Guatemalan Breakfast at Cafe Kacao

I know what you're thinking...

"Blair, where does a girl like you find herself on the average OKC afternoon? Surely you aren't eating the entire time."

It is impossible to eat all day long, so we took a couple of breaks to tour the American Banjo Museum, home to the largest collection of banjos in the world.

Later, we visited ACM@UCO, a highly esteemed school of music run by the manager of The Flaming Lips, zip-lined across a river much to my chagrin (I have a fear of heights), and had the opportunity to tour the Oklahoma Memorial.

My roommate encouraged me to visit the Memorial, and I'm ashamed to admit I didn't know what it was all about at first. In my defense, I was born in 1991, and my history classes in school never mentioned the bombing. So let's just blame the Louisiana public school system for that one.

The Memorial was emotional and beautiful, and I'm glad I carved out the time to visit. 

The Oklahoma Memorial

Enjoying an Oklahoma brew at Bleu Garten

After a long and exhausting day, I rushed back to the hotel to get ready for drinks at an amazing food truck park/bar, Bleu Garten, and dinner at a farm-to-table restaurant called Ludivine.

The highlight of the meal was demolishing bone marrow and doing bone marrow luge shots around the table.

Afterward, we hit up the restaurant's sister cocktail bar, R & J Lounge and Supper Club for some classic, stuck-in-time cocktails.

Bone Marrow at Ludivine

Most of what I ate in OKC lived up to my standards, but it was our last meal that piqued my interest.

Waffle Champion is everything Leslie Knope ever dreamed of. Sweet waffles, savory waffles, and gourmet sodas to boot; Waffle Champion made me hungry for more of Oklahoma City.

Smoked Duck Banh Mi Waffle packed with pickled veggies, jalapeño, and cilantro mayo

The thing I enjoy most about traveling is discovering great restaurants and bars, and Oklahoma City has plenty of them. We got the chance to try out a handful of cool establishments, but there’s still more to discover, and I can’t wait to go back. From drinking out of a red solo cup in Toby Keith’s I Love this Bar and Grill to zip lining across the Oklahoma River, to doing a luge shot of whiskey out of a bone, I did it all in OKC.