Clanton’s does not look like a Route 66 landmark because it was gutted by fire in 1999 and totally rebuilt. The original version was one of the first restaurants to open along the Oklahoma stretch of “America’s Main Street.”
When Sweet Tater Clanton christened his restaurant in 1927, most of the new road was not yet paved, and it said that to attract customers he used to walk out the front door and bang a pot and pan together when he spied someone about to drive past. Today, Sweet Tater’s great granddaughter, Melissa, and her husband, Dennis Patrick, run the place as a town cafe where locals gather and sightseers along the old Mother Road are welcome.
Lunch specials include ham & beans on Wednesday and catfish every Friday, and the every day menu lists pot roast, calf fries and grilled pork chops as “customer favorites.” We found this place many years ago when hunting for Route 66’s best chicken fried steak.
Clanton’s chicken fried steak starts with what the Patricks call an “extra tenderized” cube steak they get from Tulsa. The beef patty is dipped in a mixture of egg and buttermilk, then dredged once in seasoned flour. “If you double-dip,” Patrick says, referring to a common practice of repeating this process a second time, “you will get a steak that looks bigger. But it takes you farther away from the flavor of the beef.” The steak is cooked on a flat griddle in vegetable oil until the blood starts rising up through the flour, then flipped and finished. The edge of a fork effortlessly will sever it into a bite-size triangle with beefy, crisp-crusted luxury that is all the better when it’s pushed through mashed potatoes and peppery cream gravy.
Other Nearby Restaurants
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Ike’s Chili House
Tulsa, OklahomaIke’s is an early 20th century urban chili parlor in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eats are cheap and cross-counter attitude is served in abundance.
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Hodges Bend
Tulsa, OklahomaBehold happy hour at Hodges Bend in Tulsa’s East Village: an ice cold martini and juicy, brioche-bunned burger with fries and pimento ketchup.
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Dilly Diner
Tulsa, OklahomaTulsa’s Dilly Diner serves an all-day breakfast that includes the hefty “Jed” — a doughy cinnamon roll that arrives on a dinner plate with a steak knife.
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Coney I-Lander
Tulsa, OklahomaA handful of Coney I-Lander restaurants around Tulsa serve beguiling little weenies topped with mustard, raw onions & no-bean chili. Cheese shreds optional.
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White River Fish Market
Tulsa, OklahomaA fish market and semi-cafeteria restaurant, White River is a Roadfood gem in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Have it your way: fried, broiled, grilled or raw (oysters).
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Dink’s Pit Bar-B-Que
Bartlesville, OklahomaA Bartlesville, Oklahoma BBQ, Dink’s offers brisket, ribs and pork tenderloin. Décor is pop-culture West: steer horns, barbed wire, pix of cowboys & Indians.