In 2004, Elliot Nelson must have been slightly nervous about the business he was opening. That business was James E. McNellie's Public House (or simply "McNellie's" to most Tulsans), and he was opening it to a fairly desolate downtown. Remember, these were the days before El Guapo's Cantina, Joe Momma's Pizza, and the Dilly Deli. At one end of the Blue Dome District sat another Irish pub, Arnie's, and there was not much else. McNellie's sat at the other end of the street, and it seems to me like the first days were a little dry.
Hitting the bar for happy hour now makes it seem like it's been down there for years, though. The community has embraced it as a downtown Tulsa staple, and it has helped breathe life into the Blue Dome District that it calls home. On the morning I met up with Nelson for this portrait, he had quite a busy schedule. He was getting ready to leave for Norman to launch the third spin-off of McNellie's, a bar called Abner's Ale House.
Since 1951, the Admiral Twin Drive-In has been one of Tulsa's most beloved gathering spots. Nearly every long-time citizen in our city has at least one great memory there. Others might've recognized the Admiral Twin from its role as the backdrop for scenes in Francis Ford Coppola's movie, S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders.
Last night, the audience crowded the synagogue of B'nai Emunah for Book Smart Tulsa's evening with Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated. Foer offered a lucid and compelling argument for going vegetarian, using stories and research from his recent book Eating Animals.
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