Based on the name alone, Bread & Butter Kitchen and Bakery sounds like a place to go when you want the things dieticians warn us against: carbs and saturated fats. But just because dieticians might caution you against pot pies or candy bar pie doesn’t mean either of those things aren’t delicious.
When you walk into Bread & Butter, you are greeted not by a hostess, but by desserts. The restaurant’s dessert counter exhibits all the offerings of the day, so you don’t have to spend the entire meal wondering what each menu item will look like. Past the counter, the rest of the place is set up with a country theme; surrounded, as my group noticed, by pictures of farm animals staring into our souls. With the restaurant being new, wait times can be long, so a reservation is recommended for those late nights.
Bread & Butter’s menu is somewhat deceptive. On one side, there were appetizers, sandwiches and salads, which can call into question the restaurant’s designation as a southern eatery. But on the other side, there was a section of classic southern dishes, along with steaks, burgers and healthy options, termed “Southern Lights”. The alcoholic drinks menu was also rather varied, but the dessert menu shone. Pies, bakery items of the day and cakes all had a spot on the menu.
The only caveat with Bread & Butter’s menu is availability. Our server warned us they might be out of fried chicken and the pot pies for the day when we ordered around 8 p.m. Some of the desserts, too, were almost gone when we walked through the door.
To start the meal, we ordered deviled eggs and fried green tomatoes. A piece of fried chicken topped off each half of the deviled egg. The fried green tomatoes had a pleasantly crunchy outside, with a hearty bite of tomato inside, and a plentiful scoop of pimento cheese accompanied each one. The cheese itself, with a few crackers, would’ve made a great appetizer and in fact, was part of the house board appetizer.
Soon after came the meals, all of which were well-sized for the price and depending on your appetite, could mean leftovers. Even the “small” Cesar salad was enough for a meal, with extremely large croutons. The po’boy catfish sandwich came out on a huge hoagie, which was perfectly seared in the middle, accompanied by a side. Though it was supposed to come with steak fries or chips, I went with their honey glazed carrots, which were thick cut and had a surprisingly spicy kick. The fried catfish was flaky but held together nicely with the breading.
The other meals my group ordered were burgers, with one roasted half chicken meal as the exception. Most of the burgers came with fries, but one chose the house biscuit, which was marketed as being “as large as your head.” While not nearly as large as his head, it was larger than a fist. Delightfully crunchy outside, the biscuit was extremely soft inside but could’ve done with a little more salt. The Oklahoma bacon burger, with an added egg, was “veritably bursting with umami flavor,” according to one friend, and the accompanying fries were good as well. The chicken had been roasted until soft to the fork and laid on a bed of rice.
For dessert, our table of six split the bread pudding, which needed to be ordered in advance, as it was warned it took 20 minutes to prepare. Our server brought it out on a mini, still hot, cast iron skillet. The baked bread was covered with and set in a bed of syrup. While the top had a nice crunch, the inside was soft with threads of cinnamon throughout. There was more than enough syrup for each piece of bread, as we dipped them in the icing. The dessert was extremely rich and although delicious, I couldn’t imagine eating it alone.
Overall, Bread & Butter is a new restaurant Tulsa has welcomed with open arms, after it opened late last December. Though getting in can take a while, the wait was worth it and offers satisfaction for every taste. Be sure to save some room for dessert and you should be more than fine, no matter what the dietician says.
