Agreed. I had the same experience at another Bricktown establishment durning a home game. “Will I ever go grab dinner and watch a game at _ _ _ again? Would I recommend it anybody else?”

What are they thinking?

I mean I kind of agree. It seems like worse business to me to shut down 30 minutes or an hour before the game, especially when there are paying customers, its a THUNDER GAME, AND downtown/bricktown.

I had a friend come from Tokyo, and he couldn’t believe how barren downtown was when he came during the day. (We also got followed by a creepy homeless bum, and thought we were about to get mugged).

I love OKC, but its not a walking culture city. This needs to change. The public transportation is an embarassment. I’m glad that a lot of things are on the rise, including the artistic scene here, but if we want to continue to be relevant to other cities (especially internationally), some things need to continue to change. However, I’m super optimistic for OKC! Good things are happening!

1. You should have gone to the bar at Mickey Mantle’s or to Tapwerks. I’ll promise there were respectable crowds in both bars, and that the game was shown in its entirety.

2. You know everybody in town was home watching the game, right? The same ghost-town thing happens during OU-TX and OU-OSU football games. This year’s playoffs are the first time away Thunder games have had this effect, but it has been POWERFUL.

3. Uh…Tuesday?

Um, no, not everyone was home tonight. Are you telling me that it’s a waste of time to watch a game downtown?

Nope. Just telling you that holding up as representative of nightlife in Bricktown, downtown, or OKC a Tuesday night on which the Thunder is playing in the NBA Western Conference finals is a bit unreasonable. That’s what you just did.

Your generalization is what I’m taking issue with.

P.S. I’ll call it right now: this Thursday night is also likely to be pretty slow – as far as streetlife goes.

Go to a real sports bar/restaurant like Brix to watch the game. They’ll be open.

I’d have been pissed. You should write an article on this for the paper, something that slams Texadelphia hard. Bad press may make them change their ways.

The question should not be who closed down early, but instead who was still open. As mentioned in previous posts here, I’m sure there were plenty of places open that are more “sports viewing friendly”.
Bad management decisions on both places you went to, but don’t judge Bricktown on a snapshot.
I think you were the one that did an unofficial survey a couple of years ago and proved there were plenty of options after a game for those that want night life.
I will also argue that you could have similar findings in other cities. This issue isn’t a “Bricktown thing”, but rather just part of bad business decisions that are made in all parts of Okc and other cities.

I don’t like Texas, and I don’t like Philadelphia. Would never have gone there anyway, but now I also won’t recommend it.

Now, show me a restaurant called OklaNewYork – I’m there.

plenty of places to watch the game in downtown and in bricktown .. should texadelphia stayed open passed their “normal” hours? sure but to say you don’t have a place to watch the game downtown is crazy ..

Brix, tapworks, bricktown brewery, micky mantles roosters hooters

off the top of my head in bricktown ..

Louie’s Midtown was packed last night … as was mcnellies and the red piano at the skirvin ..

lots and lots of places to watch the game, maybe you should have asked what time the business closes before deciding to stay for the duration.

I’d be interested to know which bricktown restaurants and bars stay will stay open for a full thunder game and which ones close at their regularly scheduled hour regardless.

PS, someone should show these restaurant owners that story from the onion and tell them thanks for making the stereotype a reality.

First of all, the Onion is written by a bunch of Wisconsin college kids who have never been out their home state. Their ignorance shouldn’t be validated. But, having said that, this is exactly what happens in Dallas on a Sunday night too. First of all, go to a sports bar if you want to watch the game. Second, I can never find a good club on Sunday in any city I’ve been too. It’s always dead on Sunday nights. I wonder if that has anything to do with most folks having to work on a Monday. Steve, just because you got ran out of Texadelphia, you shouldn’t have perpetuated the myth that somehow we are different. We aren’t. I write this from Panama City FL and Thank God for the beach, because there isn’t anything else to do down here. Wonder if we can get the Onion to write about how boring it is.

Maannnn, I HATE IT when the Onion nails it.

Part of me gets the storekeep’s position, especially for some generic Tuesday. But last night was not a generic Tuesday for okc.

That these shops you visited did not recognize this, did not plan for it, hells bells, did not even promote on it, is just very odd.

Should have taken Durant’s advice (from the Onion article) and just driven up the turnpike.

@ThePlainsman he’s not talking about Sunday’s game, he’s talking about Tuesday’s game.

It’s just bad business. I’d be interested to know whether the owner was there, or if it was his employees trying to get outta there, costing the owner repeat business and maybe another round. And if it was the owner there, that tells me whether I’d repeat (I wouldn’t).

When I worked in retail and food service, we were never allowed to kick out a customer just because the clock said closing time. Course that was a long time ago. And you rarely find that level of service (which translates into higher profits) anymore.

Make hay when the sun shines. Stay open when the Thunder plays, big conventions are in town, and when people are sitting at your tables. It’s called hospitality.

We went to Republic! It was great! They were open after we left.

Downtown is still evolving. We need more people living downtown before there are more places to hang out later at night other than the weekends.

Once developers and the people that are sitting on the properties realize this the better the city will be.

I have a friend that is going to be doing his medical internship and residency here for the next three years and he can’t find a place to rent downtown. He really wants to live in walking distance to bricktown, but there aren’t many options.

I agree with most of the comments already presented. I did find it funny that the Onion article discussed that maybe the players should have driven to Tulsa – there’s even less to do there, especially downtown.

I read that article yesterday, I thought it was funny because it was true. I can’t believe the manager didn’t keep the doors open for the game, since there were customers in there watching it. I also agree with ThePlainsman. The only cities that have that all night, every night culture are Vegas, NYC, and SanFran. Maybe New Orleans. Plus OKC will always be a conservative, mainly bedroom community. You can live as liberal as you want, but the city will remain conservative, family oriented.

Wow – wish you were here yesterday during the day – another time of day that Bricktown is highly criticized for. We were bustling with thousands of families and children for a REDHAWKS game. It was sold out. I’d be courious as to how the rest of downtown compared on a Tuesday night – with Oklahoma Citians glued to their tubes to cheer on the Thunder. Perhaps this is just an “Oklahoma” thing – and not nescessarily a Bricktown thing. We are checking with our members (restaurants and clubs) to see who will be open and celebrating on remaining away games – and will do a better job in communicating that through our website.

That’s really disappointing…. sounds like poor management (and general lack of common sense) at all three places.

OKC is so far from “Big City”. In terms of entertainment it just does not measure up. One of the “risks” of having a team is that OKC will be exposed for what it is, a sleepy, uneventful compilation of suburbs with not pulse or rhythem to it. We will be lucky if we can keep most of our good players because there is absolutley nothing to keep young, rich, or educated AA in OKC, they all leave for Dallas, Houston or anywhere they can have just a decent time. DT is dead with not vibrancy. Has nothing to do with size of the city (Memphis, Nashville, SLC, even Sacramento (Old Sac) have vibrant areas with People that make them more interesting places.

Lacking nightlife isn’t what makes people think OKC is uncool. It doesn’t help, but it’s a problem a lot of cities our size have. No, it’s that we HAVE to say something defensive every time someone says anything remotely critical. We’re basically the overly sensitive kid in class who cries every time they’re made fun of instead of just rolling with the punch and laughing at ourselves.

The article was funny. And a little true. Move on.

Jeannette, others … keep in mind I’ve written on this very site in defense of Bricktown on this very subject. I’m very well that if I had been on the other side of the district, I likely would have had luck with TapWorks, Brix, etc. But I purposely looked at this issue through the eyes of an “everyman” – the sort of person I’m assuming we need to create an active nightlife. IF Texadelphia was virtually empty … and IF Texadelphia hadn’t promoted itself in social media, etc. as place to watch Thunder games … IF Texadelphia hadn’t given the impression that it was ok to eat, drink there and enjoy the game … IF In the Raw hadn’t treated guests with the same attitude …
Do you think that an “everyman” wouldn’t have driven away from Bricktown after this experience disgusted and disappointed, vowing not to come back again to watch a game?
Perceptions are everything… and as Bricktown folks know, all it takes is one guy with a $20 parking sign to prompt critics to say the whole district is greedy and exploitive (which I will add at AJ’s proper response is not my belief, and thus a clarification has been made in this comment).

No all it takes is someone to link $20 parking with the words greedy and explotive.

Do you think the Texadelphia closing time is a lame corporate uniformity issue? That’s “their” closing time, so be it perspective from the manager? “I’ll get in trouble if my regional manager finds out I’m having people work overtime because it doesn’t fit corporate policy.”

If so, then this is what’s wrong with filling Bricktown with “big box” restaurants that “everyman” could go to in any city.

Lower the rents in Bricktown and make it hospitable for “mom and pop” who can and will use good judgement in managing their hours in trying to retain customers. A thriving Bricktown takes collective support from both the property owners filling spaces via reasonably priced rents and “mom and pop” who might put more effort forth.

Basic business sense is lost these days, particularly with franchise restaurants with little sense of civic pride. More a sense of “let’s make it easy on ourselves and let the customers’ wants be darned.

My name is Manny Leclercq and I am one of the owners of the Texadelphia in Bricktown. I want to first apologize to Steve and the customers who had this experience in our restaurant. It is our policy to keep our doors open to customers past the normal closing time when there are special events that might dictate that, and this should have been one of those events. We are fervent supporters of the Oklahoma City Thunder and have been as excited about the current state of our team and our playoff run, as most of you all are. We are even a proud advertising partner with the OKC Thunder through the Bricktown Association. In the past, we have hosted official Budweiser Thunderstruck Event watch parties, which we promoted through social media, and although this Tuesday’s game was not promoted as one of these events, we should have remained open.

Unfortunately, a critically poor decision was made by someone on our management team in closing down before the end of the game, and we have already address the situation with our team.

As some of you might already know, on many of the evening Thunder home games, we are open 2-3 hours past our normal closing time (as late as 1am at times). With many of the away games, especially during the playoffs, we have remained open past our official closing time when there are customers still enjoying the event. We want to promote the Downtown/Bricktown area as the fun, family-friendly social destination that it is. Texadelphia is uniquely fortunate to have world class sporting events in it’s backyard, and we try to celebrate that with the other Oklahomans who enjoy it as much as we do. Please understand that the poor decision by one of our staff members does not reflect on our true sense of civic pride, and our genuine excitement to actively support our home team and the wants/needs of our customers. We are local owners with strong ties to this city, and we are excited to be doing business here.

I can assure you that this sort of occurrence will never happen again, and we hope you will allow us to prove it at some time in the near future. Our goal is to provide our customers with great food, drinks and customer service, in a fun, social setting, and we fell short in this instance. We are looking forward to watching the Thunder play again this Thursday (and we will be staying open for the duration of the game!)

Sincerely,
Manny Leclercq
Texadelphia Social Grill

There you have it. Looks like one of the managers isn’t a big fan of basketball and is probably paying the price.

Midtown has the idea, though. Places like Stella not only stay open through the game but even after is there are people wanting food. They also offer a Limo service to the games! It may not be the “sports bar” atmosphere, but you won’t find any less enthusiasm.

Manny thanks for getting on this and making corrections. I have seen your restaurant open late before and when I read Steves lead in I was surprised.

Thanks for getting the situation handled.

My buddies and I have watched plenty of games at Texadelphia, in their entirety, past normal closing hours. I wouldn’t let one employee who made a mistake on one night color your opinion about this restaurant or Bricktown as a whole. T-Delph has great food, drinks, TVs, patio, and atmosphere and should continue to be supported by it’s community despite an off night. Oh, and the food isn’t limited to Texas or Philadelphia fare- they have great burgers!

The bottom line is that no business in the hospitality industry, regardless of location, night of the week, or television programming, should ever close with 30 paying customers still wanting to spend money, unless required to do so by law. However, this behavior definitely perpetuates the stereotype. This occurrence isn’t limited just to restaurants – a friend of mine got kicked out of Red Pin, which has a full bar, at 10:00 while watching the game.

Tulsa does in fact have a very active bar scene. Check out Brookside, Cherry Street, Blue Dome District and Brady District. Truthfully they do surpass OKC in this area. It’s a very fun town, nightlife-wise.

i drove from stroud for a regular season thunder game on a sunday night, and found mcnellie’s CLOSED. i was really disappointed. when i went there before, it was great (hence the second attempt). if i had a downtown restaurant, you can better believe that i would be watching the game calendar like a hawk. for that matter, i’d be watching for baseball, hockey, and major concerts. it’s just good business.

I know this forum isn’t about OKC v. Tulsa, but come on Keli. I have spent time in all of those places in Tulsa, love them. None of them exceed Bricktown, Midtown, Classen Circle, or Western Avenue. A bar closed at 10:30 because a manager had a bad day. The fact is, Tulsa is behind OKC and the gap is getting wider.

Yeah, the Tulsa bashing of OKC gets old. It’s amazing what has happened with the “if Tulsa can’t get the OK Pop Museum, no more money for the American Indian Museum in OKC” temper tantrum at the Capitol.

I am glad I am not just being sensitive. My best man is probably the world’s biggest Tulsa promoter. When he starts talking, I just ask him how his D league basketball team is doing.

I still remember how Tulsa’s online community went on and on saying Devon tower wouldn’t get built or if it did, it would be halted half way (and said in a jeering, cheering kind of way). It seems as if all the hostility, jabs, etc., have been a one way street, from Tulsa aimed at OKC. But at some point you’ve got to wonder if OKC won’t slap back. Or is continuing to ignore Tulsa the best retribution?

How many different places in BT or Midtown have kitchens past 10 pm, even if it is a more limited ‘late’ menu’ similar to what Deep Fork Grill offers? With the number of concerts, games, etc. so close to BT, it seems like that would be worthy of their time and energy.

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