Friday, July 28, 2006 | by nathan

Fried Chicken on My Birthday

With everything else that has been going on this week I entirely forgot to blog about my birthday dinner.

Well - that is partially true. I wrote an entire blog post about it and then accidentally clicked on one of my live bookmarks and the whole thing was lost. It was late at night and I was tired of writing, and so I just said, "Screw it." THEN everything got crazy and I never had a chance to rewrite.

So here’s Opus 2.

Everyone kept asking me where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner. I threw out three suggestions, all of which were closed on Sunday night. So we postponed the dinner until Monday morning, but I was still faced with the same horrifying choice: Cafe Nova, Galileo, or Sushi Neko. I was torn, and everyone said it was up to me, as if the only unacceptable birthday present was to ask for someone else to make the decision, which was really all I wanted.

In the end, I decided on something very different than all of those places, and much more sinful.

I decided on Eischen’s Bar, in Okarche, Oklahoma.

For the uninitiated Eischen’s Bar is an historical landmark in a very small town northwest of Oklahoma City about twenty miles. It is a straight shot out of the city on the northwest expressway or directly north of El Reno on U.S. Highway 81. 

Monday night Laurie and Jaye, Erica, my mom, my brother, Brian and I loaded up into three cars and flew up the expressway to chicken heaven. Eischen’s is famous in Oklahoma and, no matter where in the state you live, it is always worth the drive. The menu consists of fried chicken, fried okra, some barbecue, and chili.

But you go for the fried stuff; especially the chicken. The chicken at Eischen’s is legendary, as is the okra. The whole thing is served not on plates but on large pieces of butcher paper and in little paper boats. Every order comes with a large setup of dill and bread and butter pickles and white onions soaked in vinegar. They bring you almost an entire loaf of white bread, and you wrap the pickles and onions up in this to get you started.

The beer on tap is cold and delicious - let’s not even mention how cheap. In the face of this much fried food - not to mention the country music on the jukebox and the sawdust on the floor - it is neither possible nor desirable to be a beer snob. The beer on special was Coors, and along with all that sinful, delicious food it tasted delicious.

Oklahomans get crazy excited about a trip to Eischens. Health nuts put aside their hang-ups and everyone else makes sure to eat nothing before an Eischen’s trip. Just look at how excited the Flynns are here.

Laurie looks like she could split with excitement. Our food took awhile to arrive, but in the interest of being fair, we were a party of seven who ordered three chickens, two orders of Okra, and three pitchers of beer with only 30 minutes left before the kitchen closed.

Notice behind Jaye’s head that there is a large blackened piece of woodwork. That is all that is left of an old baroque Spanish bar that was crafted in the 1500s and was shipped to the U.S. early in the 20th century. It found its way to Eischens after it was built, and when a huge fire gutted the place in the 1980s the bar was almost entirely consumed. What is left of this wonderful piece of antiquery hangs on the wall around news clippings from papers and magazines from around the world praising Eischens and lamenting its near loss in the horrible fire.

We walked out of there feeling like we were about to burst; this was not a problem, as the food was - pardon my French - fucking delicious and we all thoroughly enjoyed one another’s company.

Bride-to-be Erica was particularly excited about the delicious chicken and pitchers of beer. She has to fit in a wedding dress one week from tomorrow, and in the face of Eischens food, it did not matter.

Dude, I’m telling you - it alone is worth a trip to Oklahoma.

This weekend Brian and I are headed back out to the plains to go camping. This is the first weekend we have not had prior commitments since the middle of June - between Pride and wedding stuff we haven’t had an entire weekend to ourselves in a month and a half.

We’ll be at Roman Nose State Park if you desperately need us, but the computer is not coming with, and I promise you that you can do without us for a couple days.

Photo blog on the camping trip to follow on Sunday night or Monday morning.
 

Fambly, Oklahoma, Food