Welcome to the Neighborhood

Get to know Oklahoma's vibrant capital city by exploring each of its distinctive boroughs

- BY TARA MASSOULEH MCCAY

Pull Up a Stool Bradford House boutique hotel is both a Michelin Key stay and a local hangout.

IT’S THE MIDDLE of the week in the heart of Oklahoma City (OKC), but you’d never guess it based on the crowds—and the live music streaming in and out of restaurants and bars in the hip West Village District. I’m attempting to take a post-dinner stroll down West Sheridan Avenue but find myself stopping to window-shop every few steps, my list of places to visit during daylight hours growing by the minute. A little farther down the road, families, couples, and groups of friends relax on the grass at Myriad Botanical Gardens. The movie Barbie plays on a giant projector screen, while Dua Lipa's dance-inducing theme song pumps through loudspeakers. The late spring weather makes the air feel ripe with possibility, but there was a time when the future of OKC didn’t seem as sunny as it does today.

Thirty years ago, the Oklahoma City bombing thrust the Sooner State capital into the national spotlight. At the time, downtown OKC was little more than a small outcropping of skyscrapers surrounded by fields of empty parking lots. After the tragedy, the city was forever changed. A major landmark was razed in the blink of an eye. But the impact from the lives and innocence lost had resounding repercussions. The future seemed to hang in the balance after this one pivotal event. With all eyes on OKC, the community banded together to become a place bent on determining its own destiny.

Places and Faces (From top) A historic Ferris wheel, bought from the Santa Monica Pier in California, is the calling card for the up-andcoming Wheeler District. Chef Andrew Black's restaurant Perle Mesta is his fourth in the city.