In 2007, an Oklahoma City University team won a national softball championship. Rachel Cope was on that team. From this experience she learned two things that would guide her future life as a restaurateur: the value of teamwork and the joy of success.
What she didn’t know at this point was that she was destined to be a restaurateur. She planned to be a lawyer, and she would have made a good one, no doubt. But before applying to law school, she took some time off. She went to Chicago and Los Angeles and dined at the finest places. That, she says, “sparked my love of restaurants.”
Back in Oklahoma, she waited tables to support herself, soon rising to manager. She noticed that she started caring more than the people she worked for – especially about how you treat people, whether they be employees or patrons. She also paid attention to things that most restaurant owners barely noticed: the lighting, the quality of the sound system, what music was played. The ambiance, the experience, the vibes; it’s those, she discovered (as well as the food, of course) that get diners to come back.
One day in 2013, Cope, visiting Austin for the first time, was happily eating pizza at Home Slice on South Congress. Epiphany struck. OKC’s Plaza District could be like this, she thought, and what would start it going is a really fun, trendy pizza shop. She didn’t know a thing about pizza, so she flew to San Francisco and took classes from a master. In what seemed like no time at all (but actually took months of hard work) she was the owner of Empire Pizza, a great place to be and a beloved neighborhood hangout.
What you’ll find at Empire are “posters all over, and music – anything from 1960s rock to nostalgic hits,” says Cope. “We sell a lot of beer and a lot of pizza.”
The next decade following Empire’s opening was a wild ride. Cope founded her restaurant group, 84 Hospitality, and more branches of Empire ensued, then a punk rock burger shop called Burger Punk. She noticed that one of her sister’s college friends was running a food truck selling ramen. She persuaded him to do some pop-up dinners and then set up a restaurant called Goro Ramen. Nowadays, that friend of her sister, Jeff Chanchaleune, is nationally known and twice a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award.
Fast-forward to today, and she’s just opened an elegant, upscale restaurant in Nichols Hills: Elisabetta. This seems like quite a change. So, why the pivot to fine dining?
“As I get older, enjoying handmade pasta and a glass of wine just sounds excellent.”
How do people react?
“The first thing people say is how beautiful it is,” she shares. That’s because she got her old friend Chris Pardo to collaborate with her in designing the interior. Pardo has been called “a rockstar of architecture” but, says Cope, “he’s one of the most humble, hardworking people I know. He walked into the empty building and immediately said, ‘I know what to do.’”
Cope continues: “A lot of thought went into pleasing all the senses. It’s a moody ambiance: dark lighting, velvet, marble. The sound system is playing Blondie or Stevie Wonder. There are people having a good time, drinking martinis, eating a steak at 10:00 p.m. A lot of good vibes and energy.”
Not to mention the food, which features creative, Italian-inspired dishes. Cope’s favorites include the braised short ribs with confit peppercorns; lobster tortellini in tarragon butter sauce; spicy cavatelli (made in-house like all the pastas) in vodka sauce; and panko and herb crusted pork chop with sweet and sour onions.
Cope has often said that she builds places she wants to hang out in. And that’s why, if you swing by some weekend evening, you just might see her there.
“You’ll find me bussing tables,” she says, “or pouring Prosecco, or just watching people have a good time.”
