The Soul of Route 66

Soul City features live music, drinks and farm-to-table bar food

Looking around at the glitter-soled shoes lining the archways, the shiny framed records, the repurposed junk sculptures, and the Elvis Presley fan pieces crowding the walls of the Soul City gastropub, the glossy glint of a bar tile catches my eye as I sit down to order a drink. 

“It’d be, like, impossible to come here on acid,” a twentysomething said to the doorman earlier. Drunken or not, the girl’s diagnosis is spot on. To enter this place on psychedelics would be a mistake, if not superfluous. It’s stimulus overload—all of it sparkly and curated and beautiful, plenty trippy and mesmerizing on its own.  

Soul City is the newest addition to the Studio Soul art compound that sprawls across the north side of 11th Street between Utica and Lewis. Previously housed at the 3rd and Lansing spot East Village Bohemian now calls home, Soul City made its migration to the famed Route 66 plot a few years back. (The building was the first service station built in Tulsa.) It first gained popularity by being a relaxed, come-as-you-are venue for live music, art shows, even backyard yoga sessions complete with catered booze and food trucks. Now, it offers food and drink with bar hours, live music most nights of the week, and full restaurant service beginning March 4th.  

Old bikes, vintage oddities, sculptures, lamplights, and light installations line the walls from corner to corner; a larger than life mural of Tulsa Sound legend J.J. Cale welcomes visitors driving outside on Route 66, its layered colors lit up and grooving in the moonlight. 

Amy and Kevin Smith—two visual and graphic artists with a deep appreciation for live, local music—have curated the works displayed in Soul City. Pass through its doors and you’ll come face to face with all things music and art, with personal touches of the shop’s owners hiding around every corner.  

“It’s like Disneyland,” Kevin says. “You can spend a whole week in here and still not see all of it.”  

Soul City will serve light breakfast options on the weekdays, including their well-known Big-Ass Muffins and Smoothie Bowls, along with a full coffee and espresso bar. Weekends will offer hangover cures to bleary-eyed stragglers with mimosas and Bloody Marys, alongside specials like quiches, eggs benedict, and other dishes created by chef and “mad scientist” Cecilia Landeros, with food sourced from the Cherry Street Farmers Market and live music on Saturdays by local musician Mark Bruner. 

As for the lunch and dinner menu, expect to see a smattering of gastropub fare—like street tacos, healthy-ish sliders (bison, veggie, quinoa, or sweet potato), and chicken wings—with an emphasis on fun and farm-to-table, “so we can honor local farmers and locally-created products,” Amy explains.  

The bar menu is small but crafty, with generously-portioned dishes like the Hummus Among Us, featuring toasted pita and hummus with carrots and grapes; the Blues Wings, drizzled with barbecue sauce and served with honey mustard, vine ripened tomatoes and pickled veggies; and the Sweetly Toasted, a selection of crackers with cream cheese, toasted wine spread and grapes. 

Taking its cues from classic grit-meets-cool blues venues that dot the landscape in places like New Orleans and Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood, Soul City wants its guests to get comfortable, hang out and enjoy the music of local songsmiths like Dustin Pittsley, Paul Benjaman, and Steve Pryor.

“We’re not about turning a table,” Amy insists. “We’re all about celebrating creativity. And to do that, you’ve got to be comfortable. We’ve cultivated a listening atmosphere. They aren’t just musicians in the corner… they’re people you can actually get to know.”

Soul City of Tulsa
Venue & Gastropub
1621 E 11th St | 918.582.7685 | tulsasoul.com

For more from Megan, read her article on Eritrean & Ethiopian Cafe.