When I am laying on my death-bed a few years from now, the spectral image of the Grim Reaper floating over me as the diabolic fugue of my death rattle begins to play, there are many things that I am going to tearfully have many regrets about. But failing to eat three large chicken fried steaks in an hour probably isn’t going to be one of them.
Ever since I started covering the chicken fried steak scene in Oklahoma, everyone in every comment section, direct message, personal email and brick through my window has told me that I absolutely need to go to Kendall’s Restaurant in Noble, Oklahoma, as it is apparently the end-all, be-all for the Oklahoma delicacy, that I won’t be able to even look at another chicken fried steak by the time I was ready to call for the check.
They were right. They were all right. For all intents and purposes, let’s subtitle this piece “The Last Temptation of Louis Fowler.”
Noble seems like a great place to live, for the most part. Kendall’s, 100 S 3rd St., sure does seem like a valuable microcosm of that community, a downhome diner with a decidedly welcoming rock and roll feel, a place where, on this past Saturday for lunch, was absolutely hopping with a nice mixture of locals and visiting lookie-lous, with almost every plate I passed on the way to my table covered in their famous chicken fried steak and white cream gravy.
