Back in 2002 or 2003, I had this routine that would instinctively play out as soon as I hit the hotel in a new city or town I was in. No matter why I was there, I had to jump in the yellow pages on the side table at the Hotel or in the info provided to see what coffee was close and which places I needed to visit. (Yes, it was the Yellow Pages. Do you even remember those??) I would make a list of places that I need to go have a sip at and see in person…
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What a dumb idea. No one will eat it.
Published January 23, 2023
I’m pretty sure this is how it happened. Maybe I’m going to make it more of a story than it really was but.. yeah, this is how it happened… Waffle Sandwich – the legend of EVOKE. Maybe the most popular thing on the menu and for sure the most popular personality at EVOKE (except maybe Kyle.. everyone liked Kyle, too….) Here are the characters: An EVOKE House Waffle.. Pesto Mayo.. Ham (and then at one point Turkey) and then Ham again (<– supply chain? Boredom? Who knows…) Egg.. Swiss Cheese Here is how I remember it all going down. We…
4 CommentsYou Will Never Guess What I’m About To Tell You..
Published January 20, 2023
โThis is the first two-story, first masonry structure in the Unassigned Landsโ (Before I get into this post – the above quote talks about the “unassigned lands.” I want to be clear that this district sits on Gรกuigรบ (Kiowa), ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฐ๐๐ท ๐ผ๐๐๐ป ๐๐ป๐ฟ๐ท ๐๐ฐ^๐๐ฐ^(Osage), Wichita, Nสmสnสส Sookobitส (Comanche), and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) land. It still is.) Back in 2013, The Oklahoman ran a story about the building that we – EVOKE – called home in Downtown Edmond. It was an interview with our landlord, David Hornbeek. I love looking back on these sorts of pictures to see what life was like on…
Leave a CommentWait! I have never talked to you about 1708?
Published January 16, 2023
On Sundays (ok, really it isn’t EVERY Sunday but we do try to make it a weekly thing), a group of us and our families meet at Arcadia Lake in Edmond for coffee and trail time. The organizer of this whole deal is my good friend Josh McCullock. Yesterday, as we were slow rolling at the vans getting ready to go ride a lady was talking to Josh and mentioned his office in The Plaza District. All of that to say…. I woke up last night with this strange thought that I have never told you about 1708 – our…
Leave a CommentEVOKE: In OUR Words
Published January 13, 2023
It is funny how much more you remember when you begin to flip through the look book of time. That little spark that gets your heart and soul moving to a rhythm that you thought you had forgotten or that you didn’t even remember you ever had. I can see it in my own kids – my oldest and his memories of “the shop” and growing up full blown a coffee shop kid.. My middle with so many little memories of his older friends and drinking hot chocolate and collecting bottle caps.. My youngest who never really even knew life…
Leave a CommentIt was called SUPER. Of course we wanted it.
Published January 10, 2023
When we opened EVOKE in May of 2012, no coffee companies in the market (except for the big guys) were opened past like 5p – and that would have been late. I was sure they were all missing something and was confident enough to “change things” when it came to coffee drinking in the late night. (Hell, I had been in Nashville for school and we’d hit up Cafe Coco which was open 24 hours a day. IT WAS ALWAYS SLAMMED!) Well, we opened the doors and posted shop from 7a till Midnight. What were we thinking? HA! EVOKE had…
Leave a CommentBut it wasn’t JUST iced tea.
Published January 8, 2023
“I won’t forget it when the gal came in just pissed about the tea and told me to my face across our little pastry case that “everyone hates you” and that we would fail. She was sure of it and she knew why it was going to happen: the iced tea and it’s lack of free refills all day.” We were a coffee company. We loved coffee and all the nuances and stories that made each cup special. Admittedly, we didn’t know as much about tea, it’s processes or what made each tea distinctly special. BUT – we had an…
Leave a CommentThis is where YOU come in.
Published January 6, 2023
This year, I am allowing myself to be nostalgic which, if you know me at all, is something I’m pretty uncomfortable with. Call it living in the moment. Being unattached. I’m not sure. I have really been pushing myself to remember. To remember all the things we got to do at EVOKE – the euphoric highs and the really tough lows. The relationships that we made. The coffees we drank. The excitement that got me up at 5a nearly every day for so many years. To remember the people that made EVOKE what is it both behind the bar and…
1 CommentKeeping it Local in Oklahoma.
Published January 4, 2023
I think it was 2008.. maybe 2009? It was a time in Oklahoma City that mimicked spring. You could feel that something was ahead.. that good things were coming.. growth was inevitable.. We were operating EVOKE in the Plaza District – in a studio we shared with great friends Lindsey Gibson and Josh McCullock we called 1708. It was early and the survival tactic at the time for small businesses like ours was to collaborate and work together to help spread the word on what was good and what was coming. Keep it Local OK Cafe Evoke Feature My good…
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