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“They didn’t tout it as Lebanese,”
remembers Davidson, who is now the
owner of Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ. “We
didn’t even know where Lebanon was.
But if you wanted to have a great rib-eye,
that’s where you went.” Just one of these
restaurants remains within city limits,
serving gut-stuffing steak dinners where
the Middle East meets Middle America.
At Jamil’s, third-generation owner
Jennifer Alcott’s feathery blonde hair
floats around her face as she checks on
diners with a gravelly, worn voice. Her
grandfather, Jamil Elias, opened the
original Tulsa location in 1946. It has
moved three times since then, most
recently in 2008 to a nondescript brick
building just off I-44 in the southern part
of the city. Inside, the faded floral booths,
low lights, and endless array of old photos
telegraph its age far better than its exte-
rior. But to locals, it’s what’s on the tables
that best evokes nostalgia. They come
set with butter and
crackers, and soon the
hummus will arrive,
along with tabbouleh,
pita, and a refreshing
and retro relish tray
of pickles and crudités
topped with ice cubes.
The warm appetizers
follow: barbecue sauce
spiced with za’atar and
sharp with vinegar
and mint comes to
the table in a metal creamer jar, and a
basket with rib tips and smoked bologna
arrives alongside cinnamon-scented
cabbage rolls in a pool of tomato-tinged
butter. It’s a cultural wormhole connect-
ing Beirut and Tulsa. Finally, the entrée
arrives—a thick hunk of beef, medium-
rare, unadorned, with a foil-wrapped
baked potato.
More than half a century before
hummus became a default supermarket
snack and well ahead of the advent of
“fusion cuisine,” Lebanese restaurateurs
created their own hybrid style in Tulsa.
A member of the founding generation,
90-year-old Don Abraham is one of
the few who can shed light on how the
Lebanese steakhouse came to be. He says
it started with his uncle, Joe Abraham,
who arrived to the U.S. in 1898. “Some-
body beat him up, and he tried to get even
with them. So my grandpa put him on a
boat,” Don says. With little more thanLIKE A LOT OF KIDS GROWING UP IN OKLAHOMA
IN THE 1970S AND ’80S, THE FIRST TIME JOE
DAVIDSON ATE HUMMUS WAS AT A STEAKHOUSE.
IN THE LATTER HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY, A
SERIES OF LEBANESE- OWNED AND -INFLUENCED
STEAKHOUSES—EDDY’S, FREDDIE’S, JOSEPH’S,
JAMIL’S, THE SILVER FLAME—RAN THE SCENE IN TULSA.