TULSA, Okla — Crews demolished the Celebrity Restaurant years after it officially shut down in 2021.
City Councilor Jayme Fowler remembered some of the restaurant's most well-known qualities, "Comfort food, fried chicken, that was kind of one of their signature dishes. They had the most interesting interior, kind of like a fire engine bright red."
He said the Celebrity Restaurant was the place to be, "A lot of people don't remember that up until the early 80s, you couldn't get liquor by the drink here in Tulsa," added Fowler.
"So, you had to belong to a club, and one of the hottest, neatest, coolest clubs in town was the Celebrity Club."
Besides the celebrities who went to Tulsa's Celebrity Restaurant, Tulsa has a celebrity of its own—the Piano Man Mark Bryan.
He's known for his dazzling piano playing.
He still plays at the Summit Club but misses seeing the many faces he did at the Celebrity Restaurant.
He started playing there in May of 1991 and played right up until the restaurant closed in 2021.
"It was very, very defined from the moment you hit the door," said Bryan. "From the very second you stepped in, there was absolutely no doubt where you were."
The Three Sirens Restaurant Company still owns the plot of land where the Celebrity Club used to be, leading many to believe it will be revitalized.
“Tulsa is about Renaissance, and the people who own this property, I’m sure they’ve got some great, great ideas," said Fowler. "I look forward to the next chapter of what’s gonna happen."
As for Mark Bryan, he's hoping for another place to play piano, "I would love there to be another piano bar, but that's a fading thing in our society now. Because I love people and I love music."
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