This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of revisiting 39 Restaurant — the flagship eatery located inside the First Americans Museum along the Oklahoma River.
Although I enjoyed my first visit when the restaurant opened a few years ago, I wasn’t aware it had recently closed for a full-blown reboot under the leadership and tutelage of Loretta Barrett Oden (Citizen Potawatomi Nation).
An acclaimed chef and restaurateur, she's best known for incorporating pre-colonial Indigenous culinary traditions — ones that America tried to erase — into today's modern cuisine.
Fortunately, Chef Oden recently sent me an email inviting me to check out 39's renewed offerings, and I made a reservation as quickly as possible.
As a result, I can now say with both moral and culinary conviction that 39 is an incredible, true, and powerful representation of Indigenous food culture — one that not only Oklahoma, but the entire country, should be proud to celebrate.
Walking into the side entrance of the Museum, we were a tad early for our Sunday reservation, but thankfully, my wife and I were immediately seated in the smallish dining room.
Our waitperson brought out two menus and two waters when, after a few moments, Chef Oden appeared from the kitchen, smiles all around.
Even though it had been a few years since we last spoke, Loretta was excited to highlight the new menu. She told me about the renovations and revisions of the cuisine, talked about her new flavors and themes around what she referred to as “pre-contact” foods, and why this restaurant is no museum snack bar.
Looking over the menu, I told her I was considering the Hominy and White Bean Hummus ($13.00) as an appetizer. She said that was a great choice, but in addition to that, I had to try the Bread Basket ($10.00), with house-made bread, biscuits, and muffins.
Yes, please!
So, we started with the Bread Basket. While the bread and biscuits were top of the line (and don’t get my wife started on the cinnamon roll), it was the lone large blueberry corn muffin that was awfully fresh and very hearty. Split with my wife, with the blackberry honeydew jam and fresh butter smeared all across the top, this was a mighty taste that couldn’t be beat.
The Hominy and White Bean Hummus, on the other hand, was nothing like the nutty hummus that I have had in the past.
While hominy is a true Indigenous ingredient, it was the taste of white bean that gave it the distinct flavor I wasn’t prepared for…and truly enjoyed. Served with crispy smashed new potatoes (a deliberate departure from the previous menu, which served the dish with fry bread), this was a starter that could also be a finisher.
Additionally, I was clamoring to try the Mudbug Stew ($20.00), a hearty soup offering that brought me back to the boiled crawfish I had on my honeymoon last spring in Louisiana. Besides crawfish, the packed bowl featured scallops, shrimp, and cod, as well as onions, chiles, charred corn, and heirloom tomatoes in a bubbling brew.
The sassafras and sumac spices tickled my nose as I patiently took a big, hot spoonful. This was a terrific stew, with the “mudbugs” being very meaty but still very taut, every bite a new experience that had my wife and I competing to finish. It was a perfect distillation of the aquatic flavors of the Deep South.
Time for our mains, my wife chose the classic brunch flavors of the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict ($18.00). Aromatic as all get out, the dish showed off house-smoked salmon atop toasted blue corn cakes, with wild greens, and soft-poached eggs, and a unique hollandaise spiced with sumac.
While her love of all bennies is well known, at least to me, this take was otherworldly! The Native-style salmon was incredibly rich in delicious smoky flavor, but it was the toasted corn cakes that were truly amazing, giving me a new palate sensation and almost had me asking for seconds from the wife.
As I contemplated stealing more bites off her plate, I had to calm down, because I had my own dish in front of me, the most beloved of all Southern breakfast foods, the Biscuits & Gravy ($10.00).
Always a mainstay in an everyday hearty breakfast—in this case, brunch—this variety featured a unique ingredient, and in three different ways, no less. The star of this perfect brunch meal was duck, and it had me swooning. This beautiful bird was central to the flavor of the golden duck fat biscuits, made ever more fantastic with duck sausage inside a confit duck gravy, with a smattering of mushrooms to taste.
I had to personally and professionally shout it out to the world that not only is this the best breakfast/brunch dish I have ever had, but I now think that duck might have stolen the title of my own personal favorite taste. Quack, quack!
The duck fat in the biscuits was subtle at first, but ultimately delivered a rich, high-end flavor. Paired with duck sausage and duck confit, it incited a waterfowl intoxication I thought I was prepared for, but I was quickly seduced and swept away by its webbed wiles.
I was done. My wife was done. With our mouths agape in a post-coital glaze, Chef Oden came out to chat some more about the featured ingredients, many grown in her own kitchen garden right outside the restaurant, their Indigenous history, and how she and her chefs employ them.
Watching her converse about the food—her food—it was like being on inside of a real-life episode of Top Chef, giving me a real lesson in the food, but also about why the cuisine and its intrinsic ties to the culture are so important.
Chef Oden is a true jewel to not only Indigenous cooking and Oklahoma food, but all cuisine in general. She is the true treasure and, if you haven’t unearthed her talents yet, do so now.
As I was about to ask for the check, Chef Oden insisted that we needed desserts to complete the meal…what could I do?
She brought out two: a Sweet Potato Tarte Tatin ($10.00), sweet potatoes baked with salted caramel, puff pastry, candied pecans, and homemade marshmallows, served in a tiny cast iron skillet, and the Ice Cream Trio ($10.00), featuring the house-made flavors of sweet corn, prickly pear, and, amazingly, spruce.
As I tasted the desserts, I realized that I was in true love with not only the sweets but the whole meal as a package. I set my spoon down and realized that this was the best meal I have ever had the privilege to embrace, consume, and enjoy.
Whether you’re Native or not, 39 Restaurant is the culinary adventure that every man, woman, and child needs to experience at least once—just to taste pure heaven, Indigenous style.
Cómpralo ya!
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Follow Louis Fowler on Instagram at @louisfowler78.
