The Mother Road Market in Tulsa, a food hall and a business incubator for fledgling restaurateurs, held its grand opening over the weekend.
The complex, developed by the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, in the historic 1939 Scrivner-Stevens Co. grocery building at Lewis Avenue and 11th Street (aka Route 66) contains about 20 businesses under its 27,000 square feet. In its own way, it’s for entrepreneurs to use food-truck ideas without the cost of buying a food truck.
Foundation CEO Elizabeth Frame Ellison explained to the Tulsa World the food hall’s benefits to the community and local business climate:
“While many of the food halls you see around the country are for-profit developments, the secret sauce in Mother Road Market is its ability to leverage nonprofit programming and partnerships to give Tulsa a place to find community and food. We curated our merchants in this food hall with a mix of established businesses who could both draw customers in the space and also serve as mentors alongside start-up businesses so we could all learn from each other.”
The Frontier produced this video about Mother Road Market a few days before the grand opening:
Here are the merchants housed at Mother Road Market, according to its website:
- & Tacos
- A New Leaf (a nonprofit group that hires developmentally disadvantaged people)
- Andolini’s Sliced pizza
- Bakeshop
- Big Dipper Creamery
- Bodhi’s Bowl
- Chicken and Wolf (featuring Nashville hot chicken)
- Kitchen 66 Takeover Cafe
- Kitchen 66 General Store
- Tulsa Farmers Market stand
- Metropolis (Italian and American sandwiches and frankfurters)
- Mythic Press (Tulsa- and Route 66-themed merchandise)
- Nice Guys Shrimp Shack
- The Nest (kitchen products and gifts)
- OK Cookie Monster
- Oklahoma Joe’s Barbecue
- Radish (meats, wraps, sandwiches and salads)
- Trenchers Crustacean Station
- Umami Fries
- The WEL Bar (coffee, beer, wine or cocktails)
Mother Road Market also has an indoor/outdoor seating area with a nice view of the downtown Tulsa skyline and children’s activities. including Mother Road Mini Golf, a nine-hole miniature course featuring Route 66 landmarks from across the U.S.
(Image of Mother Road Market by Debbie Martin via Facebook)