TULSA, Okla. — Tucked away just north of Tulsa International Airport, you'll find a local favorite: Wanda J's Next Generation Restaurant. Customers keep coming back for its homemade, Southern comfort cuisine.
Tyron Walker, Wanda's son, runs the eatery.
"My mother started it in 1974, August 1974," said Walker. "She's actually been in business for years.
Walker was only eight years old when his mother opened the restaurant at its original location off of East Apache Street and North Peoria Avenue.
"We call it the Cowboy Corner," Walker said. "That's where all the local cowboys would come around because Tulsa had a big, old, rodeo scene at that time in the '70s. So, all the cowboys would come and congregate around the restaurant," Walker said.
Decades later, the business is still going strong. Through the years, it's operated out of three different locations; all with one thing in common.
"We've always been located in north Tulsa. That's something that she's always been adamant about," Walker said.
Walked said the restaurant opened a location in the Greenwood neighborhood in 2016, but closed it last year.
Walker said his mother is now semi-retired, but still breaking barriers as both a Black business owner and a woman.
"She came up in a time where business was really male-dominated," explained Walker. "All the men that she's actually come up with, started business with back in the '70s, they're no longer around. She's the only one still standing."
Also still standing is a loyal customer base.
"All races and backgrounds have supported us and kept us going, even through COVID. We've had all walks of life," Walker said.
A customer, Aulton Ferguson, said he eats at the restaurant three to four times a month and that Wanda treats him like family.
"She fuss at me like I'm her own kid," said Ferguson. "She's so nice, I just take the fussin' and don't say nothin'. You couldn't find a better second mother."
The restaurant said it's planning a 50-year celebration party in August at the Greenwood Cultural Center.
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