The Golden Drumstick building before it turned into the Middle Path Cafe at 11th Street and Yale Avenue. BERYL FORD COLLECTION
In today's review of Lola's Gypsy Caravan, I wrote about the Middle Path egg salad sandwich, which sparked memories of the Middle Path Cafe.
It was opened in 1976 in a former culinary landmark, Golden Drumstick, at 11th Street and Yale Avenue by Steve Housel, a former radio disc jockey and newscaster, and his wife, Mary, a former office worker.
"The building was in horrid shape," Steve Housel said during an interview I had with him a few years ago. "The health inspector who came out said they should have bombed the place before it closed. But my wife and I had a lot of energy and a lot of naivete, so we didn't know any better than to just jump in and get it done."
The Housels took down the neon signs, installed an awning and decorated the interior with tabletops made from oak parquet flooring lacquered to a high shine, homemade macrame lamp shades donated by friends and paintings by local artists. When they pulled up an old rug that was glued to the floor, they uncovered original Mexican terrazo tile.
The Middle Path introduced a menu of sugarless desserts and dishes with no red meats. The lineup included such favorites as Hot Toddy bread, a heavy-textured bread of whole-wheat flours, seeds and grains; chilelquiles, a rich, Tex-Mex casserole; dark, heavy gingerbread; potato corn chowder, black-eyed pea stew, vegetable lasagna, egg salad sandwich and housemade peanut butter sandwiches.
"A cousin of mine who had opened the Across the Street restaurant in Norman told me that unless he had seen it with his own eyes he never would have believed anyone in Oklahoma could get away with a restaurant that served avocado sandwiches and no meat," said Housel.
About a year after Middle Path opened, the Housels made another bold move by creating one of the first, if not the first, nonsmoking sections in a Tulsa restaurant.
"Our dining-room manager was deadly opposed to it, predicting it would be confusing, difficult and a turnoff to customers," said Housel. "We did it anyway, and it worked out fine."
In addition to the menu and smoking policy, Housel said the Middle Path probably was one-of-a-kind for employees, as well. Most of its staff were young adults working in the aftershock of Vietnam and Watergate.
"It was a commune as much as it was a restaurant," said Housel. "Our people were all young, free-spirited, countercultural types who were very connected to the Middle Path. We had a profit-sharing plan, and we had a communal grocery plan where employees could buy at our cost from wholesalers."
Housel said general burnout and a downturn in the economy led to the closing of the restaurant in February 1984, following a year in which the Middle Path failed to turn a profit.
Housel said at one time he had an opportunity to purchase the Golden Drumstick/Middle Path building but declined on "pragmatic grounds when the appraisal showed it being too high-priced."
Still, he muses about what might have been.
"If I had it to do all over again I would have purchased the building, left the beautiful neon Golden Drumstick sign in place, refurbished the other neon signs, cleaned up the interior, kept the name Golden Drumstick and served both natural foods and fried chicken," he said.
"Remember the great grocery co-op on 15th Street? It closed about the same time we did. I knew the owner, and I would have had him move into the hair salon building next to us, which was the old grocery store and now is a used-car lot. If we had done all of that, we might still be in business today instead of being the subject of nostalgia."
The Golden Drumstick/Middle Path Cafe building was demolished on Jan. 25, 1985, to clear the way for a Circle K convenience store.
And for me, the last time I was there, I got dumped over lunch by an intelligent, classy lady. But at least the peanut butter sandwich was really, really good.
