Muneeb Ata keeps a brick in his room at all times.
The letters and biology senior keeps it there as a memory of friends discovered, freshmen welcomed and chocolate chip pancakes devoured.
The brick comes from Ata’s favorite place to spend time during his first two years at OU: Cate Restaurants.
After operating for 66 years, Cate Restaurants shut down in May 2018 to become a central production hub for OU Housing and Food. But when Cate’s closing failed to generate more traffic for dining options in Cross Village as the university had hoped, OU announced in July that Cate would reopen for the fall semester and that it would cancel the parking and commercial leases for Cross Village.
After his favorite hangout reopened Aug. 14, Ata planned a reunion for 3 p.m. Aug. 26. Cate lovers and newcomers alike will gather at the Cate rock garden before walking to the restaurants, sharing a meal and socializing.
Ata said he spent much of his time at Cate his freshman year. He met some of his best friends there, and when he became a resident adviser his sophomore year, it remained a focal point for him and his residents.
“Cate was just the center of my life two years ago, when I was a sophomore,” Ata said. “I ate there for breakfast, ate there for lunch, used the spaces to study. Cate honestly felt like that OU experience to me.”
When the restaurants closed, Ata started tweeting with the hashtag #JusticeForCate.
“At first, you know, I was clearly joking,” Ata said. “It’s clearly not something (where) Cate was some person or had some bad event happen to it.”
But he was not the only one to miss Cate. The hashtag spread.
“People went along with it, which I was surprised by,” Ata said. “Cate built a community while it was running, and it built a community when it closed down.”
Ata missed Cate so much during its year of closure that he wrote a page-long op-ed called “The Case for Cate,” but OU announced Cate would reopen before he could release it. The op-ed shared an anecdote from Ata’s Cate experience and argued it should reopen.
“My feelings about Cate are simple: Beyond the warm-fuzzy nostalgia that the restaurants provide, reopening their doors will critically assist campus cohesion, meal affordability and overcrowding,” Ata wrote in the op-ed.
The day Cate reopened, Ata ate breakfast, lunch and dinner there.
“It’s awesome,” Ata said. “It’s back. Clearly, you remember things a lot better than they are. But the whole point of Cate is that it’s convenient, and it’s that beat-up kind of building. It’s a good place to just be. The environment is always good, the atmosphere is great, and it’s just Cate food. I loved it. I love being back.”
Adelle Sturgell, psychology and human relations senior, will attend the reunion. Cate was one of Sturgell’s favorite places to study and eat during her freshman and sophomore years.
“I’m really excited that it’s back,” Sturgell said. “I think it will be a really good addition to campus as a whole. One of the things that struck me about Cross is that it was ... a little bit too nice. I don’t think it was that good of a place to just gather and hang out ... but Cate, I think it’s one of those places that — it’s just a community place.”
Sturgell remembers Cate for the times she spent with friends there, but also for its relatively cheap prices and convenience due to its proximity to the South Oval.
“There’s definitely a lot of nostalgia there,” Sturgell said. “It’s easy to look back at the tables and think of all the different things I used to do here ... I think the food, the quality is the same. Questionable at times, but the value? 100 percent.”
While being interviewed on a Friday afternoon in Cate, Sturgell saw two people hug.
“There’s people who came in and hugged and reunited,” Sturgell said. “I just saw them over there. To me, that’s the kind of place that Cate is. And I know it’s a lot of just nostalgia from the way it used to be, but I’m excited to see that and build it up.”
Ata’s advice for freshmen and sophomores who haven’t experienced Cate yet?
“You’ve got to give it a try,” Ata said. “It might be one of the uglier buildings in the middle of campus, and it might look super old to you, like it was made in the '50s, because it was. It doesn’t seem like it could mean a lot to so many people.”
But it does, Ata said.
“Go in there, go order something ... Sit down with a bunch of friends in one of the booths and just feel it for yourself,” Ata said. “That is one of the quintessential OU college experience moments. Getting college food in this older college center. It’s not the newest, the next fad or whatever. It’s just — OU.”
