Claret Cafe Offers Unique Restaurant Concept
Local Dining By BLAKE AUSTYN
Contributing Writer
BROKEN ARROW EATERY: The main dining room, pictured at right, at Claret Cafe, 3302 W. Kenosha St., which opened in Broken Arrow in September. The restaurant is a new concept restaurant venture by the owner of local Italian restaurant Ti Amo. Claret Cafe offers breakfast all day, lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and a wide selection of wines by the glass.
BLAKE AUSTYN for GTR Newspapers
“We wanted to create a new concept restaurant that features breakfast all day but also has a broad wine selection,” says Ryan Gorman, general manager of Claret Cafe, 3302 W. Kenosha St., which opened in Broken Arrow in September.
Claret Cafe is owned by the owner of the long-running Italian restaurant Ti Amo, who, Gorman says, was looking to create a restaurant that was different from Ti Amo.
The restaurant’s emphasis on wine offerings is illustrated by the restaurant’s name: Claret, which is a type of house-blended red wine; the restaurant’s logo was designed to resemble a wine splash.
The cafe’s menu, which offers breakfast all day, lunch, dinner and a weekend brunch, is made up largely of comfort foods, including staples like Country Fried Steak, Fish & Chips, and Chicken Tenderloin Dinner.
Some of Claret’s popular breakfast items include its Breakfast Enchiladas, Breakfast Burger and, perhaps its biggest seller, the fresh-sounding California Omelette with Avocado, also with spinach, apples, and brie and topped with a spinach salad.
Its menu features specialty sandwiches, including the Shaved Ribeye Sandwich, with prime rib and swiss: “it’s excellent,” says Gorman; and the Cuban Monte Cristo.
Popular entrees include Meatloaf, Schnitzel: pan fried pork tenderloin with capers, lemon, and red onion, and a side of garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus, and Filet Mignon.
My parents and I visited on a weekend morning in anticipation of a tasty breakfast.
I started with a freshly-squeezed orange juice from the restaurant’s juice bar. Various juice combinations are available: Green Giant, with apple, celery, ginger root, banana, cinnamon, lemon, orange and kale, and Rising Sun, made of orange, red bell pepper, carrot, lemon and honey, are both ones I want to try in the future.
“We have some customers who will come in and grab juices to stock up for the week,” says Gorman.
For our appetizer, we chose the Scallops, which come with a spicy mango sauce. The scallops were extremely tender and nicely seasoned. The portion was large, maybe eight or nine nicely-sized scallops, making the $9 price feel more than reasonable.
For our meals, my mom and I shared the Breakfast Bowl, which is not actually in a bowl but on a plate.
It comes with two eggs on top of a mixture of bacon, sausage, ham, potatoes and cheese, with buttermilk biscuits and gravy on the side. It is more than enough for one person.
My dad ordered the Eggs Benedict based on our waitress’ suggestion.
The dish is the traditional Eggs Benedict and is done very well, my dad reported.
We also opted to add a large pancake to share among the three of us. The pancake is not found on the regular menu but on the brunch menu, but it can still be ordered at any time.
While it may be hard to make a bad pancake, this one blew a lot of other pancakes out of the water, and I consider myself somewhat of a pancake expert. It was crispy on the outside, which made all the difference.
Our waitress brought cornbread for the table, which was nice and crispy on the outside; although I wished they had come out hotter from the oven, which is when cornbread is at its finest.
The restaurant’s interior is dark wood with a mixture of tables and high-backed booths. The main dining room has a nice, warming fireplace for the winter months.
Outdoor seating is also available, and, for chillier nights, the fire pit is a pleasant addition.
Inside, there is a bar with a portion of it being an ice bar, to help keep drinks cold.
Bar specials are available Monday through Saturday after 4 p.m. The restaurant has other specials throughout the week, including on Monday when kids eat free.
Restaurant hours are Mon.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Brunch is available Saturday and Sunday until 4 p.m.
Updated 12-21-2015
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