Good beer and fancy pizza

Elgin Park transcends its sports bar concept

Throughout Elgin Park, Tulsa’s newest sports bar and brewpub, natural light brightens and balances a space full of TV screens (47 to be exact), and the green walls, yellow trim, and industrial light fixtures beckon to the nostalgia of stadium architecture, locker rooms, and the Green Giant at Fenway park. The wide, contained booths give off a press or penalty box feel and are built for crowds—alums, fantasy football groups, die-hards in sweatshirts, or families out for dinner. And without the expected smattering of sports memorabilia to distract from the charm of the subtle ballpark theme, the space successfully makes room for all kinds of crowds. As someone who doesn’t know anything about sports, I can say it lives up to its early reputation as being more than just another place to watch a game.

Elgin Park capitalizes on its downtown location with several urban appointments that give the brewpub a cool Chicago or Denver-ish vibe in the evening. I remark to the staff on how bright everything feels, and I’m told that owner Elliot Nelson likes to add a signature mechanical element to each new concept he churns out, and with Elgin Park, it manifests as a retractable garage door. When the doors go up, the bar area is transformed into an open-air concept on brisk days, and the view of ONEOK field looks even more mythic set against the Oklahoma sky—especially on game days when fireworks boom overhead. A serviceable patio seats diners even closer to the ballgame, and two-way televisions in the bar area mean you won’t miss a second of the action if you choose to dine or drink al fresco.

As a brewery, restaurant, and sports bar fusion, Elgin Park’s proximity to the ballpark is perfect. There are elements of a warehouse-style brewery at play, the well-appointed swank of a gastropub, massive, sharable portions, and the simplicity of a pizzeria menu—wings, dips, and other apps, grinders and hoagies, salads, a few surprising dishes (clam chowder, churros, cauliflower wings), and of course, the pizza—Elgin Park bills theirs as “New Haven style.”

Traditional New Haven pizza is quite different than the hand-tossed, deep dish, true Neapolitan, or paper-thin New York styles found in most places around Tulsa. New Haven Appiza (pronounced abeets), as it was dubbed by Frank Pepe back in the ‘30s, usually comes as a shapeless stretch of crisp, sooty crust with tomato sauce and toppings lightly sprinkled over like any traditional pie. But the real difference is in the pizza’s foundation. New Haven-style dough is ashy and crisp on the outside—thanks in large part to the coal-burning ovens used to prepare it—and soft and chewy on the inside. Elgin Park’s isn’t exactly New Haven-style (a bit too little char, a bit too much cheese, maybe) but it’s close.

Elgin Park is currently serving a few mainstay beers in-house with the help of local aficionado Eric Marshall. Bar manager Evan Kuck and crew have developed a solid list of craft cocktails and a wine selection. For the full experience, you’re going to want to take advantage of the Monday night pizza and pitcher special, where $20 gets you the pizza of the night, and a pitcher of one of Elgin Park’s three signature brews, one of which, right now, is Mr. Oktoberfest—a smooth amber nod to Reggie Jackson. “Good fall drinking,” Kuck calls it. The Slow Pitch—a piney session IPA with a mild hop flavor—is great for warmer days. 

As for the pizza of the day, it rotates, but with any luck, you’ll come in on a Monday where the two MNF teams dictate the menu. The kitchen rolls out themed pizzas on game nights like the Philly Cheese Steak pizza, or the heavily topped Chicago Dog Pizza. On my visit, New Orleans was playing Atlanta. We had our choice of a creole combo pizza featuring Andouille sausage, crawfish, and fried okra, or a fried green tomato pizza made with goat cheese, mozzarella, and frying tomatoes from a little farm in Inola. 

We went more traditional and tried the white clam pizza—clams, garlic, olive oil, pecorino, oregano—which offers up a true taste of New England, along with the cauliflower wings, which are a great starter (get all the dipping sauces).

Other noteworthy touches include the trophy-topped taps in the bar, TVs in every bathroom, a bullpen party room that can accommodate around 60 for private events, the sleek, 40-seat bar, drink specials during games whenever an Oklahoma team is ahead, $15 house pitchers, the ridiculous mountain of waffle cheese fries, the upper management’s very appropros baseball card-inspired business cards, and the foul balls that make their way onto the patio from time to time. 

Thanks to a recent change in law, Elgin Park can now brew and sell beer on site, though their focus is currently on low-point beer. The brewpub has plans to expand the operation to include higher offerings, and is hoping the likely passage of SQ 792 will open up opportunities for the coming years. Kuck says he envisions street parties, tailgates, events and happy hours in Elgin Park’s future.

“We want to be your third place,” he says. “We want to be your favorite bar.” 

With $10 pitchers and themed pizzas on Monday nights, who knows? I might have to start watching sports.

For more from Megan, read her interview with Tegan and Sara.