OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A restaurant where Oklahoma City diners once ate breakfast while small planes rolled past the windows could come back to life. Design work has begun on a makeover of the dining room and kitchen at Wiley Post Airport, in the space last run as Annie Okie’s Runway Cafe.
Kristy Slater, who manages general aviation at the airport, said the Oklahoma City Airport Trust is acting on steady requests from pilots and nearby residents who want the restaurant back. No reopening date was offered yet.
The cafe went dark when the pandemic hit, and the tenant at the time could not reopen as air travel slowly recovered. It was known for diner plates and breakfast served all day.
Under the plan, the landlord pays for the facility work first and then looks for a tenant. That puts the renovation cost on the airport trust, while the business risk falls on whoever signs the lease. For now the project is still in design.
The restaurant has deep roots at the field. It opened in 1959 as part of a new terminal at what was then Tulakes Airport, which dates to 1942 at Rockwell Avenue and NW 50. The airport took Wiley Post’s name in 1961, honoring the aviator who died with humorist Will Rogers in an Alaska plane crash in August 1935.
Today the airport serves as a reliever for Will Rogers International, handles corporate flights and is the area’s regional base for hobby pilots. Since the Downtown Airpark shut in 2005, local fliers wanting a runway-side meal have had to head to Norman, where the OK Diner sits at Max Westheimer Airport.
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