We want to start developing more and different content in 2020 here on The Tasty Escape. While food and travel will always remain our main focus, we’d like to see this website become a more complete representation of who we are. As part of that process, we’re going to start writing these monthly overviews to highlight everything that’s going on that doesn’t make it into our other posts. We really enjoy seeing this on other blogs, and I hope you will as well! So here’s what happened behind the scenes in January 2020.
Blog
January was a slow month on The Tasty Escape. The start of the new year, and a lot of work changes between me and Tom got in the way. We only posted once, but it was a good one! We wrote all about our anniversary trip to Broken Bow, Oklahoma last year. It reminded us that there is so much of the Sooner State we still want to explore. Hopefully, this is something we’ll be able to do more of in 2020.
Going forward this year, we hope to put out a lot more content as time allows. Expect more travel, more food, more OKC and some new topics as well!
Food & Drink
Bold declaration alert: Gun Izakaya is our (current) favorite restaurant in OKC
There are so many restaurants we adore in Oklahoma City, but when you find yourself at the same place over and over (we went to Gun two Saturdays in a row in January), you know it’s good.
On one trip, we focused on small bites (the mustard greens in the tsukemono are everything) and Toki highballs with my brother. The next weekend, we had a family-style feast with our friends Chris and Miranda (of Bevographer) and fell in love with the mushroom udon (pictured above). Every time we go we find something new to love, and each experience is completely different. Oklahoma City is so lucky to have this restaurant.
Other notable food and beverage experiences in January included:
DIY Bloody Mary bar and fried burrata at Bar Cicchetti
This was our second visit to the Deep Deuce hot spot, and we enjoyed it every bit as much as the first time. We were there to check out the new Bloody Mary bar (full disclosure, these were comped for us as media), which is a great addition to the brunch experience but we couldn’t resist ordering the fried burrata as well. Fried cheese is always a good idea, in my opinion.
Dinner at the bar at Cheever’s
While Cheever’s is a restaurant we’d typically lump into the “special occasion” category, we indulged in a little weeknight splurge with my friend Taylor.
And in reality, it doesn’t have to be all that much of a splurge depending on what you order. We sat at the bar, had a couple of cocktails and thoroughly enjoyed our meal. I enjoyed the roasted molasses chicken breast, which was sticky and sweet and delicious atop a bed of their glorious cheddar green onion grits. It was such a fun way to break up a winter week because we all know January can drag a little bit.
Palo Santo Pop-Up at Barkeep
Palo Santo is a new cocktail bar and kitchen opening very soon in OKC’s Farmers Market District. They hosted a pop-up at Barkeep to introduce OKC to their cocktails, and we were excited to check it out. Based on what we tasted, I’m super excited for Palo Santo to open!
Barkeep is such a gem for hosting pop-ups like this, and they’re also one of our favorite bars in OKC. If you haven’t been yet, add it to you to-do list for February and thank me later.
Travel
We purposefully didn’t travel at all in January. The last quarter of 2019 was almost maniacally crazy with travel, so this little break was much needed. We do, however, have a quick trip scheduled in February that we’re really excited about. Stay tuned!
Personal
On a personal front, January was a really busy and productive time for me and Tom. I started the month at a brand new job, after leaving my previous job of nearly eight years. Being a newbie is a bit of a challenge, but I’m really enjoying it so far and think I’ll have a lot of great opportunities there.
Another big priority for the month was getting our new rescue pup, Scooter, fully settled into his new forever home. We lost our first rescue, Ashton, in December and quickly realized that a dog-free life is not for us. (Losing Ashton was so brutal, we miss him so much every day.) Scooter is a super sweet little Maltese with a silly personality. We’re not sure how old he is, but so far he seems like a healthy and happy dog. I’m sure he’ll be featured on these monthly reviews quite often.
Stereotypically, we also spent a good deal of the month refocusing on our health and goals for the future. We didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions, per se, but a new month at the start of a new year in a brand new decade is a pretty good time to reevaluate priorities and start new healthy habits. We spent a lot of time taking stock of everything that happened in 2019, and what we want our lives to look like moving forward. It’s been a really invigorating and challenging experience!
Other fun January activities included a Thunder game for my birthday, and seeing the OKC Philharmonic perform the score of Raiders of the Lost Arc alongside a showing of the film.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: people who say there’s nothing to do in Oklahoma City just aren’t trying hard enough.
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