Mike Samara shows off the first license to serve liquor by the drink in Oklahoma in 1984. Tulsa World file
My review in
Thursday’s Weekend sectionof the Celebrity Restaurant, known for most of its life as the Celebrity Club, could not possibly contain all the stories there are to tell about the 50-year-old business.
Mike Samara started it as a private club during "liquor by the wink" days and has been at the helm as it evolved into a public, fine-dining, family friendly, upscale restaurant.
Samara related one story I had not heard previously during a recent interview.
"Two guys come in and said that Red told them to look me up and I could tell them how to find some action -- gambling, you know, a long time ago" Samara said.
"I told them I didn't know any Red and I didn't know anything about any gambling place. Of course, I did. There was this gambling place in a house out around 193rd (East Avenue) where a guy had a craps table and a 21 table. It was a nice place.
"These two guys keep asking me about it, and I keep saying I don't know anything and eventually they left. Later that night I get a call from the gambling place asking if I know these two guys or someone named Red. I tell him I don't have any idea who they are.
"We later found out one was from the state bureau of investigation and the other was a reporter from the Oklahoman who was doing an expose on gambling."
Today, the Celebrity Restaurant is operated by Mike, his son Nick and daughter Paula Osko. Mike is 88, legally blind and a cancer survivor, and still comes into the restaurant almost every night to greet guests.
Here are some facts you might or might not know about the Celebrity Restaurant:
- Mike Samara received the first license to serve liquor by the drink in Oklahoma in 1984. "I poured the first legal drink in Oklahoma," Samara said.
- Mike Samara once owned three Big Mike's Hamburgers, six Burger Kings (he brought the chain to Tulsa) and Utica 21 Restaurant. Nick once owned La Cafe and The Brick and was a partner in Peppers and Hamburger Haven.
"I got rid of Big Mike's when I acquired the Burger King franchises," Mike said in a 2003 interview. "I got rid of the Burger Kings and Utica 21 in 1978 when I was told I had cancer. I was told to divest myself of my businesses, which was not encouraging. I kept the Celebrity Club and wound up beating the cancer."
- In 1957, Mike left his hometown of Oklahoma City to manage the new Mickey Mantle's Holiday Inn in Joplin, Mo.
"I told Mickey I didn't know anything about running a hotel, so he sent me to Memphis to train under the guy who founded Holiday Inn," Samara said. "I went back to Oklahoma City when my brother gave me the club he had across the street from the capitol. We lost that one to eminent domain when the government expanded."
- Talk about repeat business: "I know the family of Sharon King Davis has had five generations eat here," Samara said. "Another lady has celebrated her birthday here for 40 straight years."
- The Celebrity dining room, with its plush red velvet and gilded artwork, has long been a favorite for special occasions, such as high school prom dinners.
"I know a lot of restaurants don't really like the prom crowd because sometimes the kids don't know how to act or they don't tip well, but Dad has always embraced it," said Osko. "He realizes what a special night it is for them."
- Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve are the only two days of the year diners can't order skillet fried chicken or have a Caesar salad prepared tableside.
"I tell people how to make our Caesar salad, and they come back later and tell me it just didn't taste the same at their houses," Nick said. "I tell them they probably don't have enough crushed red velvet in their home. It's the atmosphere that's missing."
It is the atmosphere, it is Mike Samara and it is the memories.
