Western Concepts includes Sushi Neko, Musashi’s, Will’s Coffee Shop, The Lobby Bar and Will Rogers Theater. It’s new crown jewel is one of Oklahoma’s most renowned and respected restaurants, The Coach House.

Since 2007, Milam and Fleischfresser have been collaborating on projects including the Fire Room at Musashi’s and the design and development of The Lobby Bar and Will’s Coffee Shop (located in the lobby of the Will Rogers Theater).   In January of 2009, Fleischfresser became an official partner of the Western Concepts Restaurant Group.

 “Kurt and I have been friends for quite a while,” said Milam.  “Kurt first came in as a consultant to help us improve all aspects of our food preparation.  The fit was a good one and the merger of our two entities made sense.”

Opening in 1985, The Coach House, located in Nichols Hills Plaza, has long been established as of one of the state’s finest upscale restaurants and is Oklahoma’s only 4 diamond restaurant. As the mastermind and chef of The Coach House, Fleischfresser has perfected his own brand of gracious and elegant dining.

 “The basic doctrine of The Coach house will not change,” explains Fleischfresser, “This merger will allow us more support and additional technology, but we will remain the pinnacle of high cuisine that has made The Coach House a treasured part of our neighborhood landscape.”

Western Concepts also currently is renovating the Will Rogers Theater with more than $300,000 worth of upgrades to the heat and air system; as well as the lighting and sound systems. 

“We strive to continuously improve our food, our services and our environments,” said Milam.  “Our customers have approved whole-heartedly.  We see our future as very bright.”

Fleischfresser’s previous partnership, Restaurant Resource Group with chef Chris Lower, yielded the original Iguana Lounge, Earl’s Rib Palace, The Deep Fork Grill, Ground Floor Cafe, The Museum Cafe and Portobello.

So last week I ate at three prominent fine dining restaurants: The Coach House on Thursday, Nonna’s on Friday and Red Prime Steakhouse on Saturday.

At Coach House, under the direction of Chef Kurt Fleischfresser, we were treated to an elegant, refined and artful eating experience. Chef Kurt is the Big Kahuna in Oklahoma. There are many great young chefs, but Kurt is sensei to many if not all of them in some way. I won’t go through each course, ingredient-by-ingredient, because what I loved about the meal was its intimacy and personality: Bright, inspired, refined, mature and restrained. When people talk about artful food, the initial assumption is that you’re talking about the presentation. While the presentation is artful at Coach House, I’m talking about the flavor. From prawns over a cheddar-corncake to a fennel salad to scallops and crab to Duck breast and confit to the palate-teasing amuse bouche, each dish is prepared the way Pavarotti carried a note, F. Scott Fitzgerald crafted a sentence or Renoir mixed his paints. This is not food set on the table to be casually consumed in between an exchange about the plight of world economy. This is poetry on a plate, and you’ll commit it to memory.

At Nonna’s, I was lucky enough to lunch with owner Avis Scaramucci. She assured me the fried mozzarella was the best I’d ever eat unless I stole her batter recipe and flew to New Jersey to get the cheese from her supplier. She was right. Fuggitaboutit, Danny Falcone, these are the best. The highlight for any meal at Nonna’s is bound to be the vegetables. They grow the vast majority their produce at Cedar Springs Farms and so the menu is a reflection of the freshest ingredients. I had a lightly breaded and sauteed tilapia in meuniere sauce, but the vegetables that surrounded piqued my palate the most. And that’s no bad reflection on the fish as it was great, but in our day-to-day lives we just don’t get to eat enough truly fresh produce. When you do, it’s a real treat. Not to mention, Avis has led an inspiring life and hearing her tell the tale should be on the menu.

Finally, there is Red Prime Steakhouse. In many ways, it’s the polar opposite of The Coach House, but there is no less precision in the food. Owner/chef Keith Paul and executive chef Robert Black have crafted an aggressive, bold menu. Start with dry-aged, prime beef. That’s all you need to know. Can’t lose.

But rather than leave it at that, they offer special rubs and sauces to accompany these precious cuts. My interest was piqued by the Wagyu skirt steak. Wagyu is cattle raised and fed in the Kobe tradition, leading to tender, buttery succelent beef. Skirt steak, traditionally, is either braised in chile or, in the case of fajitas, grilled to medium well as the muscle tissue is fierce. Even then, the meat must be cut across the grain to avoid a consistency reminiscent of taffy.

I chose the guajillo chile rub and homemade Worcestershire sauce. Assertive, piquant and unafraid. If Coach House is poetry, this was rock n roll. A young chef’s proclomation that he was in the kitchen, and in the kitchen to stay. Flash fried spinach was feather-light, but somehow buttery in flavor. Again, nothing classic about the dish but no less inspired or bathed in self-expression.

Oklahoma has an exciting restaurant scene as all three of these restaurants illustrate. The people behind them have great stories.

Space and time, a philosophical and scientific mystery to us all, present real-world constraints on my role as your humble Food Dude.

Stay tuned, and we’ll get these culinary tales told. In the meantime, visit any of these three when you get a chance.