Saveur – July 2019

69

Clockwise from top:

Meat and potatoes are

only part of the draw

at Jamil’s; custom

neon and a wall of

distinguished visitors;

a formidable spread

of appetizers; the new

location has plenty of

old-school ambience.

a gift for making deals, Joe worked his
way across the country, trading, buying,
and selling whatever merchandise he
could get his hands on, until he landed in
Oklahoma, where he eventually became
a millionaire. (Legend has it that the
peddler in the musical Oklahoma, who
was a similarly gifted salesman, was
based on Joe.) When word of his success
reached the old country, Don says, “like
half the town wound up here.” According
to the 1900 census, when the area that
would become Lebanon was still part of
the Ottoman Empire, 100 “Syrians” lived
in Oklahoma. By 1910, that doubled, and
1920 showed almost 700—in a place with
fewer than 400,000 people.
Don was born in Oklahoma, but he
grew up in Lebanon. When he returned
in the early ’50s, he recalls hearing
people speak Arabic in the streets. He
took a job at a club that his brother-in-law
Pierre Saab had opened and named after
himself. “To me, he’s the one who started
everything,” he says. His description of
Pierre’s conjures scenes reminiscent of
the 21 Club or Copacabana in New York
City. Stars such as Ella Fitzgerald enter-
tained as Saab served guests with the
food of his heritage. “Pierre was classy, he
was dressy, he was sharp,” Don says. For
the oil big shots who patronized the club,
steaks were a natural part of a night on
the town, but the hummus and tabbou-
leh were the sleeper hits. The Lebanese
steakhouse was born.
Pierre’s didn’t last, but it pioneered a
lasting formula. Don went on to found
his own restaurant, the Phoenicia. And
Jamil’s added some Oklahoma flair in the
form of meaty rib tips and sliced wedges
of smoky bologna. For decades, these res-
taurants have been a throwback to a time
when ribs were cheap enough to serve
gratis as a show of hospitality.
It is the third incarnation of Jamil’s,
the one that opened in 1957, that everyone
remembers— the white house with the red
awning and carpet. Alcott, the current
owner, is the rare person who won’t glori-
fy the old Jamil’s. Diners recall the quirky
entrance through a screen door that
led them right into the kitchen, where a
custom-made smoker did its work on the
rib tips, big-handed cooks tossed steaks
on the grill from the grocery bag on the
floor, and the wonky construction created
a warren of cozy nooks. Alcott remembers
her grandfather bringing his dogs into the

kitchen, how hot it got with no air conditioning, and the flies that

descended the moment they opened the door. The restaurant

also dealt with regular raids by the vice squad— selling

liquor by the drink was illegal in Oklahoma until 1984, and

Jamil’s was well-known for selling “liquor by the wink.”

These days, the conventional wisdom among Tulsans is that

Jamil’s was never quite the same after freeway construction

forced the restaurant to move. The transition was a mess. “My

dad didn’t have the new location inspected or anything, we were

in such a hurry,” Alcott remembers. “So I deal with the plumb-

ing problems now.” It closed for just two days between spots, but

LEBANON to TULSA