Over 80 years ago, cyclopean aviator Wiley Post brought fame and glory to Dust Bowl ravaged Oklahoma by being the first person to fly solo around the world. After all of that toil on the ground and all of that turbulence in the skies just to make that historic flight, I kind of wonder how he’d feel if he knew his life’s work cumulated in being honored by a French toast dish that clumsily bears his pun-strewn name.
I’m talking about Annie Okie’s Runway Café, of course, located in the sparse Wiley Post Airport at 5915 Phillip J. Rhodes Ave. in Bethany. Mostly identifiable by the word “RESTAURANT” in block letters on the outside of the terminal, inside Annie Okie’s is actually a surprising barrel-roll of aviation fandom as breakfast foods face the desolate runway while patrons with child-like glee hope that one—just one measly plane—will take off in front of them to make this early morning excursion doubly worth it.
The menu itself is filled with clever-ish names that are based on and around the aeronautical field, from the eponymous Annie Okie Omelet with ham, mushrooms and mozzarella to the blazing B-2 Bomber featuring two eggs, bacon or sausage, hash brown and toast and jelly, all of which are marvelous choices for morning meals that most people, I’m sure, would devour at Mach speed.
As for myself, however, I haven’t really sat down to a proper breakfast lately, at least not since my rehab days. But, coming in hot with an empty fuselage, I decided to fill-up with what I hoped to be a delicious take on the aforementioned legendary airman’s lasting namesake; with effortlessly prompt service, the Wiley Toast ($5.69) came in for a landing at my table with a hearty helping of a fresh biscuit and gravy ($2.99) beautifully guiding them in.
Starting off, as anyone really should with most every breakfast, the biscuit and gravy were a top gun starter, earning high marks with a flaky tuft of well-baked bread that came apart in tasty layers, which I dutifully covered in a thick drenching of that peppery white cream delight. I thoroughly mopped the deck with that biscuit to nourishing effect, leaving little-to-no gravy on my plate or the table, Roger that.
And while that was a self-contained black-box of a breakfast appetizer, the real block of crew-duty at Annie’s comes from the wildly surprising Wiley Toast: four points of golden pan-fired toast, bathed in powdered sugar like they just came in on the first flight from Medellin, with a slight dollop of Churn Spread across the tops with a bogey of warm syrup right on my tail. It was obvious the Wiley Toast was at the top of its class at Annie Okie’s.
The addition of two spicy sausage patties and a nice-sized scoop of scrambled eggs was a highly unnecessary but fully welcomed treat that'll gives anyone’s hunger a big mayday, defiantly proving that not all airport eats have to be overpriced fast-food. As I scooped up the last bit of egg into my toast, I looked over at the inspirational bust of Wiley Post in the lobby and, giving a one-eyed wink, realized he’d be damn proud this French toast carries on his Okie namesake here. Cómpralo ya!
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