When Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford wanted to meet with Oklahoma's most liberal-leaning crowd he could find on its own turf, he found himself holding a town hall in a Norman sandwich shop in April 2017.
Midway Deli, located midway between Boyd and Main Street, has been a staple of the Norman community for decades. Midway's significance, however, has gone beyond sandwiches and serves as a statement about Norman's political and cultural history.
Bob Thompson, owner of Midway, said this unique quality of the shop is exactly why someone like Lankford chose it for his town hall.
“His team tried to figure out what was the most liberal spot in the most liberal town in the most liberal county in Oklahoma, and we’re like ground zero,” Thompson said.
Hidden in a residential neighborhood on Eufaula Street, this five-sided building is covered with signatures, chalkboards and pictures of musicians and politicians. With open seating and a variety of comfort-food style sandwich options, Midway invites customers to make themselves at home — an invitation many prominent Oklahomans have accepted over the years.
History and community
In 1926, the building served as a grocery store and meat market. Today it is a humble yet successful restaurant.
The Midway Grocery and Market opened in 1926 and was owned and managed by Lee Kidd. In the 1950s, Kidd became ill and Bill Ashley, still a current employee, saved Midway by maintaining all of its daily operations.
Ashley has worked at Midway for 62 years, working his first 40 years as a butcher in the meat market. Ashley was the only employee in the restaurant, working six days a week, 10 hours a day, Thompson said. Today, Ashley only comes in once a week to make a Midway favorite — “Bill’s Chili.”
“I wasn’t going to stay here,” Ashley said. “I had been here a long time anyways. When I started working here, I would come in at seven in the morning and leave at seven at night. But it’s the people. Bob’s been good to work for.”
When Thompson purchased the Midway building in 1985, he said he wanted to create a place where people felt welcomed and trusted, even though the building was in a bad neighborhood during the time he purchased.
“When I bought the building, there were bars on the windows,” Thompson said. “We got broken into pretty often. I got robbed one time. Then we had this transition time where the properties were cheap, young couples started to move into the neighborhood, buy cheap houses and fix them up, and we started having the neighborhood kids come in. I'll tell you, that breathed life into this place.”
Thompson said the first person to decorate the store by signing the wall was 3-year-old Abby Flax around 20 years ago. The signature added character to the store and Thompson let the trend run along. Every wall is now covered in the signatures of customers past and present.
Although the relaxed atmosphere may indicate otherwise, Thompson keeps a tight ship with a small crew comprised of those close to him. Thompson also employs outside of the family, though he ensures that the students he employs understand the way a family business works.
Human relations junior Desiree Howell heard about the job from her Bible study leader and has worked at Midway for more than a year. She said she has stayed because of Thompson’s understanding and willingness to work with her student schedule.
“I need flexible hours, and a lot of corporate places want to work you a lot,” Howell said. “Out of all the jobs I’ve ever had, small businesses are the ones I prefer to work at. The bosses treat you a lot better; they actually care about what you may be going through personally and about your work ethic here.”
Howell is often the only employee in the store when she opens at 7 a.m. Her responsibilities include baking the bread, serving breakfast and preparing the store for the lunch rush.
Politics, music and sandwiches
Though Midway serves the public as just a sandwich shop, it is decorated with political themes, from the “Governor’s Reuben” sandwich to a framed picture of American political activist Eugene V. Debs on the wall.
“I've read all the books about (Debs') speeches; I probably have 30 volumes at home,” Thompson said. “People think that socialism is all that, that it's all about people not working. I was always a worker and I got to be an owner, but I didn't have any desire to be that kind of person that got where he was going by making other people do his work. To me, socialism is a very work-ethic oriented deal.”
Thompson works with and serves those all over the political spectrum, including former governors Mary Fallin and Brad Henry. Although Henry is more Thompson’s “brand,” he said it is always an honor to serve a public servant.
The walls are not only decorated with colorful signatures and niche political figures, but also with posters of musicians given to him by his customers. Midway often hosts artists like Terry Buffaloe Ware, a freelance guitarist and singer, to play in the deli once a month for a crowd of 35 to 40 people in a nightclub style, Thompson said. Thompson has always preferred a smaller crowd, because he has always been used to knowing everyone by their name, he said.
“Nobody has to give you a sermon about how important every customer is — you’ve got it imprinted on your heart,” Thompson said. “We just don't want to do anything that makes them wish that they'd gone somewhere else for lunch that day.”
A love for the customers
With a menu of sandwiches, soups and spuds, loyal customers are bound to find their favorite lunch item. One of Thompson’s most loyal customer is former OU head football coach Barry Switzer.
Switzer has come to Midway almost every day for the past 10 years, Thompson said. Switzer will often go on different streaks of what he likes to order, including a time when he specifically wanted pinto beans, even though Thompson did not serve pinto beans at Midway.
“One day at lunch, he came to the door and said, ‘I'm going to take you to lunch,’" Thompson said. “So we get in his car and go to a restaurant and I had cornbread and beans — and he eats a raw onion slice along with that. That was true country. He's from the depths of Arkansas, so when in Rome, do as the Romans do. That was hard to fall in love with. But he had the cook come out and verbally tell me how he made those pinto beans. So now I make pinto beans.”
When Thompson gets a good product in, he will try out a new recipe on Switzer. Thompson recalled a time he made Switzer a pastrami sandwich, which he liked so much he told everyone in the restaurant to try it.
“When coach Switzer tells you to try the pastrami, you try the pastrami,” Thompson said.
The “Big Pastrami!” sandwich is only one of 22 sandwiches Midway offers. Thompson said “The Vulcan” is Midway’s most popular sandwich — it was also named the best sandwich on the OU Daily sandwich crawl last fall. Many of the choices are named after friends of Thompson, like “The Coach!” after Switzer or “The Arnie” after his golfing buddy, Kent Von Bargen, which is an inside joke between the two, Thompson said.
Thompson said it is easy to identify a new customer because they will try to order right as they walk in. The ordering system of Midway asks the customer to come to the side, write down their name and order, find a table as they wait to be served, eat and then pay. This system of eating before you pay requires a large amount of trust in the customer, but Thompson said that is how he builds a deeper relationship.
“I love making food, but the people truly excite me,” Thompson said. “I like to see people enjoying being here. This place is a gem; it's got different facets that depending on where you stand at, a different facet will gleam in your eye — it could be music, it could be politics, it could be food — but something about the place will catch your eye. I have to be in all of those spaces so it keeps my mind really challenged, really occupied. I don't have boring days.”
