Byrdie’s by Raspberries n’ Creme is a newly opened bakery in Downtown Norman, Oklahoma. The bakery is owned by Nikki Griggs, who has brought her mother’s recipes to Norman. The bakery specializes in homemade desserts, such as macaroons, brownies, cake balls, cookies, and their famous ribbon cake. The ribbon cake is a layered cake made with sour cream white cake, chocolate cake, Italian cream, fresh strawberries, and whipping cream, making it a decadent treat for all.
Byrdie’s also has a birthday and gift section, where customers can find homemade pillows and other gifts to celebrate special occasions. The bakery also offers a grab-and-go lunch area, where customers can order in-house or take away items such as casseroles, soup, salad sandwiches, and other tasty treats.
Whether you’re looking for a special gift or a delicious lunch, Byrdie’s is the perfect place to visit. So, if you’re in the area, head down to Byrdie’s and enjoy a sweet treat today!
You can now enjoy new Uncovering Oklahoma episodes and select timeless stories ad-free and algorithm-free over at The Show Starts Now! Based in Oklahoma, our mission is to add adventure to your life by introducing you to new experiences. You’re sure to have an adventure from trying new foods to learning new skills to visiting fascinating places. Expand your horizons by starting your free trial today.
Thanks to my superstar supporters, Revolve Productions, Christopher Lloyd, and the Keller-Kenton Family, as well as all of my supporters on Patreon.
Melissa Wedman is the owner and head sugar slinger at Mollycoddled Hash Slinger; she slings delicious Artisan candies and caramels. The name came from her first food blog handle ten years ago and has stuck since. They focus on supporting other small American businesses through the supply chain, including many Oklahoma-sourced ingredients.
Their candies are handcrafted in small batches without preservatives and include Caramels, Toffees, Brittles, Candy Floss, and more. Their NW OKC flagship retail store offers over 100 Made in Oklahoma products, American-made gifts, and Corporate Gifting services.
This story is the first in a series of sweet treats I’m doing in preparation for Valentine’s Day. Stay tuned for more!
Apollo Woods of OKC Black Eats guest stars as we travel to three Black-Owned restaurants in Oklahoma City. With the Super Bowl and March Madness coming soon, now is the time to sample some places before ordering big. Join us on this food journey while we show you some amazing food options featuring wings.
You can now enjoy new Uncovering Oklahoma episodes and select timeless stories ad-free, and algorithm-free over at The Show Starts Now Studios! Based in Oklahoma, The Show Starts Now Studios’ mission is to add adventure to your life by introducing you to new experiences. You’re sure to have an adventure from trying new foods to learning new skills to visiting fascinating places. Expand your horizons by starting your free trial today.
Chef Dee’s Creations
Chef Dee’s Creations is a unique restaurant in Oklahoma City that offers a mixture of Cajun and Creole cuisine. The restaurant’s owner, Dequayon Server, has a passion for cooking and started his journey in the culinary world after driving semi-trucks. He wanted to set himself apart from other restaurants and offer a creative menu that includes not just Cajun and Creole cuisine but also Greek, Mediterranean, Italian, vegan, and other types of food. Chef Dee’s most popular dish is the “sauced up everything” wings, which are crispy and spicy with a homemade ranch remoulade sauce and a sweet chili sauce. He also recommends trying the “sauced up loaded fries” for a complete flavor experience. With its creative menu and unique style, Chef Dee’s Creations is a must-visit destination for food lovers in Oklahoma City.
Wing Supreme
Wing Supreme specializes in serving bold flavored wings. The restaurant was established 34 years ago by Eric Johnson in 1989 when he was an undergrad in college at Howard University in D.C. Eric and his partner at the time wanted to bring something back to their campus and they thought a wing restaurant would be a great opportunity to give back to the Howard University community.
Over the years, Eric has perfected the art of making wings through trial and error. The result is a wide variety of wings, including honey love, southern fried, buffalo lemon pepper, and Parmesan garlic. He wants customers to be able to come to Wing Supreme every day for two weeks and three days and still be able to try another flavor.
What makes Wing Supreme special is its growth in the community and the diversity it brings, attracting customers from all over. The restaurant is focused on customer service, a lost art, and consistency in food quality. Eric wants Wing Supreme to be a place people can come to for generations. With its great customer service, diverse flavors, and focus on consistency, Wing Supreme is a restaurant that you don’t want to miss.
Carican Flavors
Carican Flavors is an authentic Caribbean restaurant located in Oklahoma City that serves a variety of food options, including the famous Hawaiian wings. Owner Sharon McMillan takes pride in the flavors and spices used in her dishes, which are a mix of Caribbean and other cultures. She sources her spices from Hispanic and Vietnamese communities, who carry similar spices used in the Caribbean. To prepare her wings, Sharon marinates the meat overnight to soak in the spices and then oven bakes and finishes them off on the stove with her own homemade barbecue sauce and fresh pineapples.
Sharon’s focus is not only on the flavors but also on providing healthy food options for her customers. She encourages eating greens with the Hawaiian wings, or a balanced meal with the other dishes on the menu. Sharon’s passion for food and making healthy choices shines through in every dish she prepares. Be sure to stop by Carican Flavors for a delicious and healthy meal!
Featured Non-Profit
In addition to highlighting these restaurants, we’re featuring the work of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma serves 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. Just $1 provides 4 meals to Oklahomans living with hunger. Donate today at rfbo.org
After working on New Year’s Eve for the past few years, I’m spending the holiday at home this year, so I thought I would write my annual end-of-the-year reflection.
Starting with client work, my biggest projects included arts educational lessons with the Oklahoma City Arts Council, spending a little over two weeks in Quartz Mountain filming for the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, producing a ton of artist interviews at Oklahoma Contemporary, writing articles for the Oklahoma Venture Forum, promoting events at the Myriad Gardens, recording audio for podcasts, and making lung health videos with Exhale (which finally launched this year).
As with 2021, client work was my main focus, but that didn’t stop me from hitting my personal goals.
The Show Starts Now Studios OTT Launched!
I’m going to start my personal recap with the launch of my biggest venture: The Show Starts Now Studios OTT! I mentioned this project in last year’s recap, and I was able to soft-launch the streaming service in October. I’m still in the soft-launch phase as I’m working on getting more of my archives updated and uploaded to the platform. Ending the year, I’ve launched Archiving Contemporary Art, Art & Victory, Creative Burgers, Colorful Escapes, Leadership Board, Take A Bite with Phi, Tales Unveiled, and Visiting Haunts. All the shows focus on expanding people’s horizons and adding adventure to their life, which I’ve been passionate about with Uncovering Oklahoma.
Take A Bite with Phi and Visiting Haunts were two brand-new shows created exclusively for the service. They are some of my best work yet. I’m extremely proud of them. We held a launch party at Rodeo Cinema to premiere the first episodes of both shows. I released three episodes of the food show and one of the spooky haunts series, and there are more episodes in my editing queue, which I’ll discuss later.
Ending the year, I have one subscriber!!! However, one is more than zero, and existing in the first place is a massive accomplishment. Once I get my backlog of videos caught up, I’ll do a massive publicity push. However, there is a ton of great content already available to watch right now, so I would love for you to subscribe as well!
According to YouTube, my videos got 48,914 views, with a watch time of 2.2k hours and 327 new subscribers in 2022. Here are the Top 10 most-watched videos from the year.
Moving forward in the new year, I plan to focus on short content (like Instagram Reels) and promoting Oklahoma stories of my other shows.
The 16th Phoenix Universe in 2022
My story-writing time got converted into video creation, but I still wrote several short stories. I focused on expanding the stories of my serials. I wrote some epic stories this year, including some modernization of some ancient works.
“You Have 3 Unread Prophecies” – A morning news show host receives three tips on his phone about the future as he spends time with his sister.
Snow Shovel Inc. – In 1992, two nine-year-old boys have an adventure filled day saving the planet, shoveling snow, and catching a criminal.
Bleeding Fear – In a fantasy world where everyone gains a power of light on their 17th birthday, a group of adventurers searches for a place to rest for the night after destroying a laboratory performing harmful experiments on people. The boutique treehouse-style hotel they do find has some secrets of its own.
Missing Memories – Rumors of children losing memory while playing on their own in the new Star Light District. After solving two mysteries, Haley “The Sounds” Riot and Robin Bee venture to the Underground Zone of Aequus to uncover the truth.
Proof of Hades – After her trip to the Underworld, Sally Wilkerson has difficulty convincing her friend of her experience until an opportunity presents itself to her as Hades and Persephone invite her to game night.
The Dragon with the Time-Traveler Tattoo – When a herd of dragons visits the small town of Valley, the mayor decides it’s his civic duty to greet them, only to get caught in a mystery.
The Horror Prompt Card – A writer is gifted with a mysterious card that will inspire them if they toss the card in a fire while sharing a scary story.
Resurrection on the Oriental Express – People from various worlds wake up on a train to solve who is reviving people from the dead in this reverse murder mystery game show.
According to Spotify, which is how I mostly listen to music, this was my 2020 soundtrack. As always, keep in mind I will often repeat a song (or playlist) when writing or for inspiration sessions. Maybe you’ll find a new favorite song!
Plans for 2023
My new year goals align with The Show Starts Now Studios. I am pushing toward giving myself a salary (even if I’m earning a modest $30,000 a year, but shooting for 50k). I want to film something outside of Oklahoma, which will most likely be for Visiting Haunts, as Jeff and I have expressed interest in doing an episode of Eureka Springs. Having the freedom to film anywhere was one of the motivations for shifting away from Oklahoma branding on the new shows. I would also love to have my first employee as Lessa has been a fantastic partner in my new filming endeavor. Got to get that subscriber count way past one to accomplish those goals. 😉
As I mentioned, I have a large video editing queue of works I plan to get on the streaming platform. While client work takes priority, I wanted to share what I have in store for you. Listings are in order by series title and then episode number.
Archiving Contemporary Art
There might be more stories for season 1 as I go through my Uncovering Oklahoma archives to see what I still have saved. One big requirement is that the artist(s) must speak about their work.
1×02 Janet O’Neal – One Thousand Tears, John Raymond Mireles – Neighbors Project, Mildred Howard
1×03 Bright Golden Haze
1×04 Between Art and Quarantine
1×03 Water and Land / Visual Poetry
1×04 Momentum 2021
1×05 Water and Land / Visual Poetry
1×06 Fieldworks – Beyond Measure
1×07 Momentum
Season 2 consists of brand-new content or contains new footage. In other words, stuff filmed with this series in mind.
2×02 Artful Inlets
2×03 Resistance, Memory, and Play – The Work of Joseph DeLappe
Jazz-Based Dance with Samantha Hayne: 04 Pas De Bourree and Pivot Step
Jazz-Based Dance with Samantha Haynes: 05 Drag Step and Tuck & Roll
Jazz-Based Dance with Samantha Haynes 06 Fan Kick and Piqué Turn
Basics of Auditions and Building a Character with Cat Pitt
Contracts with Cat Pitt
Booking A Venue for Your Production with Cat Pitt
Theatre Tech Basics with Cat Pitt
Props and Costumes with Cat Pitt
Marketing Your Local Production with Cat Pitt
Art & Victory: Sessions
Hard Edge Painting with Jason Wilson
Leadership Board
1×03 Be Sell Ready
1×04 Intellectual Property
1×05 Product Development
1×06 Money Sense
Take A Bite with Phi
1×04 Masa Ramen & Sushi and Rococo
1×05 Humankind
Tales Unveiled
Not going to list every single episode, but Tales Unveiled is on the list to be enhanced for the streaming site. Most of season 1 is already uploaded.
Yes! Science!
Before I publish the season, I will re-edit all of the episodes and include some new segments in the episode. This won’t be a simple enhancement like I did with the Art & Victory Discussions and will take more time.
1×01 Arianne Hunter
1×02 Alyssa Grooms
1×03 Lee Fithian
1×04 Elizabeth Smith
1×05 Lily Peppers
1×06 Autumn Loveless
Visiting Haunts
1×02 Stone Lion Inn and Downtown Guthrie
While there is just this one episode, I may hold off on releasing the story until I film others and can do a proper full season.
Movie
An Untitled Documentary about the Asian District (filmed part of this story and need to film more)
That’s a wrap for my end-of-the-year reflection! Thank you for following me in my various endeavors! I wish you all Happy Year’s Year and Happy Adventures!
Take a preview tour of the immersive art experience by Creaturealm. In this video, hear from Nick Lillard, Co-Director; Lawrence Kincheloe, Electrical Design; Chris McDaniel, Visual Artist; and October Merrill, Visual Artist, about the current status of the build of Creaturealm.
