Sterlin Harjo’s Guide to Dining in Oklahoma

Chris Loupos

The “Reservation Dogs” co-creator and Oklahoma native shares his must-visit spots in Tulsa and more

If you are reading this and have still not seen Reservation Dogs, I am sure I’m not the first to tell you that you’re missing out. The FX dramedy is beloved — critically acclaimed, and now (finally) Emmy-nominated — for its depiction of life on a reservation in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma. While Okern, the town where main characters Bear, Elora, Willie Jack, and Cheese come of age across three seasons, is technically fictional, the world at the center of the show is specific and finely drawn, thanks to the show’s Seminole/Muscogee Creek co-creator and executive producer Sterlin Harjo and his team of Indigenous collaborators.

Harjo grew up in Holdenville, a small town in the eastern half of Oklahoma, and still lives in the state, now based in Tulsa. His next project with FX, The Sensitive Kind, will further showcase the region and is being billed as a “Tulsa noir.” Eater spoke to Harjo about his favorite restaurants in and around Tulsa, where he ate during filming, and the elements that define Oklahoma’s food culture. “You have a big mix of influences: You have your typical Southern food; you have a big soul food contingency; and we have great barbecue,” he says. “Then you have the Native influence as well.”

On how Native culture influences the food scene around Tulsa

“There’s no [Native] restaurant in Tulsa yet. But there’s lots of pop-ups. So you’ll go to events where there are Native foods being cooked. My friends Nico Albert and Bradley Dry both do a lot of those. If you are here in the springtime, throughout Oklahoma, throughout the Muscogee Creek Nation, the Seminole Nation, and the Cherokee Nation — some of those cross over in Tulsa, so it happens in Tulsa as well — is what we call wild onion dinners. They’re gatherings and feasts, a social thing where people harvest wild onions as the central staple of the meal. It’s celebrating the spring. Wild onions are cooked with eggs, and then you’ll have fry bread, and usually, like, a sausage and cabbage dish. You’ll have salt pork, which is kind of a fried meat.

“A lot of times in Tulsa, if it’s a Creek or Seminole wild onion dinner, you’ll find a food called sofkee. It’s a traditional slow-cooked corn dish made with cracked corn that’s between a drink and a food.

“If you go to powwows in the summer here, you’re gonna have Indian tacos, you’re gonna have meat pies, things like that. ... Grape dumplings are a really big thing with those same tribes. Traditionally, they were made with what they call possum grapes. Now they’ll use more modern flavors or concentrates to make the grape. But traditionally, it’s made from possum grapes and a dumpling. It’s kind of a dessert.”

FX on Hulu

In Season 1, Episode 2 Elora (Devery Jacobs) and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) sell meat pies outside the IHS clinic.

On the inspiration for Rob and Cleo’s, Bear and co.’s favorite fried catfish spot in Reservation Dogs

“There’s a place called the Castle Store in Castle, Oklahoma. I drive from Tulsa to my hometown, Holdenville, Oklahoma, and on the way, I started stopping at this gas station. They have this locally sourced catfish that they fry, and … I’d stop at this convenience store, get the catfish, and I’d take a photo of it and always write, ‘Catfish is life.’ That became the inspiration for Rob and Cleo’s.”

On eating with the Reservation Dogs cast and crew in Okmulgee, Oklahoma

“As a little reward for the crew and cast, somebody would buy like 200 burgers from Coleman’s. They’re really good; everything’s really fresh. But it was hard to eat out anywhere because our craft services was so good. This guy named Gator [Guilbeau] — he does a lot of shows in Montana and Texas. He makes the best chicken and dumplings I’ve ever had in my life. So a lot of times we’d just eat his food.

“After season two or three Bradley Dry started working with Gator, and started cooking for us as well. His food’s amazing. Sometimes I have dinners at my house, and Bradley will cook a Native-inspired meal.”

On where to eat fried catfish – and more – in Tulsa and beyond

• White River Fish Market: “White River Fish Market is amazing. They fly their fish in every day, or every other day.”
• BurnCo: “There’s a barbecue place called BurnCo that an old friend of mine has. They cook everything in Hasty Bakes grills, which is a Tulsa company. It’s one of the best barbecue places around.”
• Tina’s: “If you’re in downtown Tulsa, there’s a smash burger place called Tina’s that’s really good.”
• Bull in the Alley: “There’s no sign. It’s just this door in an alley. You go in and it’s this really nice, really great restaurant. They have steak and escargot, things like that.”
• Maple Ridge Grocer: “I go there for the omelet.”
• El Rio Verde: “Usually it’s the first place you want to go to if you’ve been away from Tulsa for a while and you come back to town.”
• Pat’s Cafe: “In my hometown, there’s a really great diner called Pat’s Cafe that everybody goes to, and I think it’s the best diner burger that you could ever find.”

On where he goes when looking to impress Hollywood friends

“There’s a really great place called FarmBar, and the owners have a destination farm restaurant called the Living Kitchen. They actually moved here from Seattle years ago because they wanted to give up city life and start a farm. And they started the Living Kitchen where they use all locally sourced ingredients. You’ll go and it’ll be like, ‘Oh, this is a wildflower salad,’ or whatever that they pick there on the land. It’s a really amazing place.

“All the places I mentioned though are places I would go to impress people. If I want to impress my friends for the barbecue, I’ll take them to BurnCo. If I want Amelia’s or Bull in the Alley — all of those places I’ve taken people to. Also, I don’t have Hollywood friends.”

On the best sandwiches in Tulsa

“There’s a place that not a lot of people know about called Moonsky’s — it’s a Daylight Donuts franchise, but they started selling sandwiches. There’s a Cajun po’ boy-style sandwich, and a Philly cheesesteak. And, man, that place is rad. It’s kind of a well-kept secret.

“And I also have to say another restaurant that’s newer that I love; I’m going to go there today. My friend Aimee [Hunter] owns it, and it’s called Prism Cafe. They have the best sandwiches. I get the mortadella sandwich, but I add calabrese to it. So it’s like mortadella, provolone, pepperoncini. So good.”

On where to find the state’s official dish — chicken fried steak

“Chicken fried steak is the Oklahoma dish, and there’s two places you have to go to to get it. One is Evelyn’s, and they have great catfish as well, and then the other one is Nelson’s Buffeteria. I took Lily Gladstone here one time, and if you go there at noon on Friday, there are these old guys that play old Western music. They’ll play Bob Wills and Hank Williams songs, just in the corner playing music — fiddle and guitar and banjo — and singing.

“There’s also another Tulsa staple that I have to mention, because I’d probably get kicked out of town if I didn’t: Coney Island, a coney place. It’s legendary. It’s Wes Studi’s favorite restaurant.”

On whether people should make a point to visit Oklahoma

“I think that if you get it, you get it. And a lot of people move here or travel and visit here and get it. Some people don’t. Everybody that was on my crew, for my new pilot, The Sensitive Kind, all the cast from out of town — there were people looking for houses to buy. They loved it. But, yeah, no one should visit, I don’t think. Just let us have it.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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