The odds of getting shot in Midtown have gone down significantly!
Over the weekend, the entire metro let out a collective cheer when Sunset Patio Bar – the east-facing riff-raff hangout in Midtown – announced it was closing its doors.
Sunset had been open for less than three years, but thanks to its comically dumb name – and glowing reputation as the Precinct 13 of the local bar scene – its final sunrise got a heavy dose of media attention.
For example, Channel 5’s Meghan Mosley filed a story about the closure. It was titled “Midtown Oklahoma City bar known for its nightlife closes doors.”
Based on the content of Meghan’s report, she probably should have swapped out the word “nightlife” for “shootings!”
Via KOCO:
"It wasn’t a good crowd of people. It got really violent on the weekends, and no one wants to do that. No one wants to go out, get drinks with their friends and then potentially get shot," said Cassidy Kirby, who frequents the midtown area often…
KOCO 5 reported a shooting in the area in February 2022 where a security guard shot a man for shooting outside the establishment. Another shooting happened on New Year's Eve when a 22-year-old was shot and killed while multiple other people were injured.
"I remember that. I remember having to stand by, watch all the police go by, and I remember a lot of lot of people running. Definitely not a fun night. Definitely a memorable New Year's Eve," Kirby said.
KOCO 5 reported another shooting in September 2023, where a 17-year-old shot someone outside of the bar.
For what it’s worth, I stopped by Sunset a couple of months after it opened and – kind of surprisingly – didn’t get shot.
It was actually on 4/20 of 2021. I was in the Midtown area finishing up a gig and a friend asked me up to meet him and some people he met at OKC Cannacon at Sunset for a drink. I obliged.
After I arrived, I quickly learned that some of the people he met at Cannacon were the infamous Chinese marijuana kingpins you’ve probably read about in the news. After about 20 minutes or so, the regulars/enforcers at Sunset seemed to notice our presence, and our table was quickly surrounded by a bunch of dudes who looked like bad guys from Double Dragon.
I started to feel like I was a disposable extra in a Tulsa King fight scene, so I quietly snuck my way to the bar, paid my tab, and pulled an Irish goodbye. I then headed over to R&Js to drink an Old Fashioned with a local anchorwoman. Good times.
The Oklahoman's food person JaNae Williams filed her own report about the closing and – in a sign of the sad journalism times – basically just reposted what people said about the club on Reddit.
Another closure has come to Oklahoma City, this time in Midtown as Sunset Patio Bar held its "Last Sunset" event Saturday.
With no official permanent closing post made to social media, patrons did not have a place to lament the bar's closing.
However, a Reddit thread in the r/okc subreddit shared the story post about the bar's "last sunset," leading to conversation and commentary from multiple users.
"They’re rebranding as Sunrise Patio. Someone finally pointed out that their name made no sense," posted one Reddit user, JonathanStat, in reference to the bar facing east, despite being named Sunset.
Mocking Sunset’s name has been a fun activity in the OKC Social Media Scene for the last couple of years, so it’s kind of fitting that The Oklahoman didn’t know about it until after the place closed. Imagine how excited the newsroom is going to be when they hear about the OKC Cock Ring!
For giggles, I did some crack research to see who was the first person in town to observe that a club named Sunset Patio Bar faced east.
That honor apparently goes to famed OKC renaissance man Taylor Carraway.
With Sunset going down, it will be interesting to see what rises in its ashes.
Since the same ownership group still holds the lease for the building, I assume it will probably be rebranded with an equally dumb name, and bring out the same dumb crowd and same dumb problems.
Until then, stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
