Tulsa, OK – May 20, 2020 – Just in time to celebrate the unofficial start of summer, Mother Road Market is open for patio dining with a new online reservation system and contactless ordering and payment, designed to keep guests and staff safe and healthy. As a leader in the food service industry and non-profit community, Mother Road Market strives to be a model for innovation and supporting local entrepreneurs, while balancing the importance of public health during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“When our doors closed March 17, Mother Road Market and Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, the nonprofit founder of Mother Road Market, prioritized merchant revenue generation over our own financial and environmental sustainability goals.  Mother Road Market has not charged merchants rent since February and our team spent the last 9 weeks searching for innovative ways to provide the community centered guest experience that Tulsa  has grown to love while simultaneously keeping our staff, merchants and guests as safe as possible. I am really excited to test our new contactless system!” said Elizabeth Ellison, Founder of Mother Road Market and President & CEO of Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation.

Mother Road Market is excited to announce a partnership with Tap Tap Eat, a food technology startup out of Edmond, to test a new concept that consolidates online reservations and tableside ordering and service for a mostly contact-free, socially distanced dining experience. Safety requirements including answering a short health declaration and the wearing of masks and gloves for staff, and masks for diners when not seated will be enforced to keep diners, staff and merchants safe. Other new health and safety protocols include keeping the interior of Mother Road Market closed to the public, spacing tables 8 feet apart and time for increased sanitization and cleaning between reservations.

Guests can go now to  www.motherroadmarket.com/reservations to secure a reservation for lunch or dinner service for as early as Friday, May 22. Curbside / To Go ordering will still be available for those not quite ready to dine on the patio.

“We are excited to reach our loyal and new customers with the partial reopening of the Mother Road Market,” said Samantha Cooper, Owner of Big Dipper Creamery. “This is a great chance for us to bring our staff back to work and start regaining financial stability during the pandemic. We’ve got a lot of seasonal ice creams that we can’t wait to share when we welcome our friends back on the patio!”

“The concentration of businesses within Mother Road Market presented a unique challenge for Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation.  Although each individual MRM business was classified as an “essential worker”, the combined number of workers in the space exceeded sixty people.  Moreover, each individual shop is 320 square feet which made employee social distancing impossible. Instead of risking our MRM family’s health, we set out to find a new way to serve the community while supporting the financial goals of our merchants during the restaurant shut down due to COVID-19,” said Elizabeth Ellison, President & CEO of Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation.  “We prioritized paying our Mother Road Market employees throughout the closure and we launched a fund to support displaced industry workers throughout Tulsa whose employers couldn’t retain them.  I am proud of the support we offered our community, the innovation our team exemplified in reaching this solution and I am eager to return to serving Tulsans on the BEST patio in town!”

Patio service begins Friday, May 22 and hours are 11 a.m.  to 8 p.m. through Sunday May 24.  After this opening weekend, new hours of operation will be Tuesday-Sunday from 11 a.m.  to 8 p.m.  Food will be available from &Tacos, Andolinis, Big Dipper Creamery, Bodhi’s Bowl, Chicken and the Wolf, Howdy Burger, Metropolis Regional Street Food, Nice Guys Shrimp Shack, Radish, Umami Fries and in the Kitchen 66 Takeover Cafe: Union Jacked Tulsa and in the NEW Kitchen 66 Landmark Food Truck (on the patio): Nom & Spice. For more information, please visit www.motherroadmarket.com/reservations and please follow us on Facebook/Instagram at @motherroadmarket.

ABOUT MOTHER ROAD MARKET: Mother Road Market, a nonprofit development of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, is housed on historic Route 66 in the 1939 Scrivner-Stevens Grocery building. Mother Road Market is a vibrant community space, allowing Tulsans and tourists alike to eat, sip, shop and enjoy over 20 different business concepts, all under one roof. Customers are also able to browse specialty gift items in our retail store options. The WEL Bar offers a full bar, plus coffee offerings throughout the day. Kitchen 66, Tulsa’s kickstart kitchen and program of Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, is housed at Mother Road Market and also operates the Kitchen 66 Takeover Cafe and Kitchen 66 General Store. Mother Road Market features a demonstration kitchen for cooking classes, indoor and outdoor seating areas with views of downtown Tulsa, nine holes of Mother Road Mini Golf, rentable event spaces and children’s play areas. Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to use the 320 square foot small shop model to pilot test their latest concepts without the burdensome financial investment of opening a full-scale restaurant or retail space. Learn more by clicking here.

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