Tally Alame, owner of Tally’s Good Food Cafe in Tulsa, was given a deferred 12-month sentence and must pay restitution after being accused of shoplifting thousands of dollars worth of items from Sam’s Clubs.
Fox 23 in Tulsa reported Alame pleaded guilty Monday to six felony counts of larceny. He also was banned from ever shopping at Sam’s Club.
The plea came months after Alame claimed on a Tulsa radio show his arrest and charges against him were “an honest mistake.”
Alame was accused last summer of shoplifting food from area Sam’s Clubs a total of 31 times in 2022 and 2023.
According to detectives, Alame pushed a flatbed through the store, selected bulk items and used the Scan & Go app option, which makes checking out more convenient and allows shoppers to pay through the app. Sam’s Club investigators said Alame did not scan all of the items before leaving the stores.
The total worth of the stolen items was about $7,700,
Alame, a Lebanese immigrant who fled from that country’s civil war in 1979, began in the restaurant business by first working at Jamil’s Steakhouse, another Tulsa dining institution.
In 1987, he bought a restaurant on Route 66 in Tulsa and expanded it.
In addition to being one of the go-to places for Route 66 travelers after the University of Tulsa closed the Metro Diner in 2006 and tore it down, he’s served a free Thanksgiving dinner.
(Nighttime image of Tally’s Good Food Cafe in Tulsa by Sam Paradise via Flickr)