The pre-COVID era was drawing to a close when Erik Reynolds, who helped kick-start Tulsa’s fine dining renaissance when he opened Smoke on Cherry Street eight years before, decided to build a branch of the restaurant in Owasso.
“My partners bought the property,” Reynolds recalls. “It was big enough for two restaurants, and we had to come up with something for the space. I decided to create something cool, family-friendly, with a relaxed, fun atmosphere. Now as a chef, diner food is really what I like. It’s simple, comforting, I love everything about it. A lot of chefs, like me, start their careers with fancy restaurants and then want to open something simple. It’s our roots. It’s classic American food. I wanted to take traditional dishes and do something better with them, elevate them.”
The idea thrilled him.
“We’ll have breakfast and street tacos and cool, fun appetizers,” he mentioned just before MAD Eats opened. “Fried chicken, champagne cocktails, local beers and ridiculously huge milkshakes.It’s going to be a madhouse!”
And indeed it was. There was a short lull because most people in Owasso thought that for dining purposes, you head to 96th Street, and MAD Eats is close to 76th. But when they learned about the sleek, bright and beautiful wood paneled dining space and just how delicious the food was, the crowds started pouring in. They still do.
“Last Saturday,” Reynolds says, “we had eight hundred customers. It gets crazy in here. We have four cooks on the line and two prepping and they serve all eight hundred. I pay well, but I run a tight ship.”
MAD stands for Modern American Diner. Reynolds created the concept, the logo (yes, there are T-shirts) and the menu. About 85% of what comes out of the busy kitchen is made from scratch. That includes the cakes and pies, all baked in-house and all delicious. It includes the breakfast items, served all day. It also includes the chicken-fried meatloaf. Most people, Reynolds says, are surprised by the dish but end up asking: “Why doesn’t everyone do it this way?”
Above: While diners are initially surprised by the chicken-fried meatloaf dish at MAD, they end their meal as staunch supporters, Erik Reynolds says. All photos courtesy MAD Eats
And that house-made touch also includes the Monte Cristo, a ham and cheese sandwich that’s fried, then dusted with sugar and raspberry-chipotle sauce. The sauce, Reynolds explains, imparts “a little bit of heat and smokiness, it’s just so good.” So good, indeed, that everyone used to order it, it had to be made from scratch for each order, and it jammed up the kitchen. Reynolds decreed it would be served Mondays only – but devoted fans protested. Now it’s back on the menu every day.
And it’s a long menu. There are nachos and tacos, burritos and four kinds of mac and cheese. (One features fried chicken tenders, buffalo sauce and creamy ranch in addition to the cheese.) There’s fish and chips, chicken-fried steak and lots of sandwiches. But the biggest hit? The milkshakes. They serve 200 to 300 every weekend. The shake comes in a big, 25-ounce beer mug, brimming with whipped cream. There’s flair on the side of the glass, icing with miniature cakes or M&Ms or maybe cotton candy stuck in. Kids’ eyes open wide when they see their shake arriving.
“Wow! All this for me?” They ask. (For adults who want to join in the sugary fun, they have boozy shakes, too.)
At MAD Eats, the food is so good that it’s so hard to stop eating. But, says Reynolds, “I’m here to please your palate and your tummy. I’m not here for your diet.”
