The Mother Road Market just off Route 66 in Tulsa opened a few weeks ago as an incubator for about 20 food or retail stores and an events center, and the results since then can be described as stunning.
John Klein, a columnist for the Tulsa World newspaper, in a recent entry passed along these tidbits about the Mother Road Market on Lewis Avenue near 11th Street (aka Route 66):
- Jeff Thompson, general manager of the Mother Road Market, said sales volume has exceeded forecasts by more than 170 percent. That number is not a typo.
- Penni Shelton, coordinator at the Farm Stand in the market, echoed Thompson, saying sales volume “has far exceeded everything we thought possible.”
- Mother Road Market holds a waiting list of entrepreneurs or chefs wanting space there.
- Thompson said not only has Mother Road Market become a hit with Tulsans, but he expects tourists traveling Route 66 to visit there, as well.
Thompson said the financial backers of Mother Road Market — the Lobeck-Taylor Foundation — did their homework on what the region would support and chose carefully among the 15 restaurants that would be there.
In retrospect as a person who resided in Tulsa for almost a decade, the success of Mother Road Market should not have surprised anyone.
Tulsa long has been known as an excellent restaurant town, and a higher percentage of its residents go out to eat than the national average. Tulsa also has served as a test market for many national restaurant chains.
On a related noted, a local Tulsa television station took a closer look at the nine-hole miniature golf course at the Mother Road Market.
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The course features Route 66 attractions such the Blue Whale, Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park, Chicago’s Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower), the St. Louis Gateway Arch, Cadillac Ranch, POPS and Round Barn of Arcadia, Wigwam Village and Santa Monica Pier.
Mother Road Market is a $5.5 million redevelopment of the 1939 Scrivner-Stevens Grocery building at 1124 S. Lewis Ave., a stone’s throw from the 11th Street alignment of Route 66.
Scrivner-Stevens once was a regional wholesale grocery chain, based in Oklahoma City, that dated to 1917. The store in Tulsa was one of its early satellite ventures.
Sorry to put a damper on this bit of enterprise, but does Tulsa really need another 15 restaurants? Or even another market selling food? Obesity is one of the biggest problems facing the so-called developed world, yet more and more food outlets get built. Surely the Lobeck-Taylor Foundation could have come up with a healthier solution?