OKC Underground with Chris Becker

Angela Muir is the owner and founder of Boom Town Creamery, which for our money, is the best ice cream in the metro. Shortly after beginning the process that would lead to Boom Town, Muir, a Tennessee native, hired Chef Kayli Bartnicki to oversee culinary operations for the now 4-location, locally owned ice cream concept. The addition of a chef was a major indication that Muir was making something very different than the norm with Boom Town. That includes a very active collaboration schedule with other locally owned businesses, including, most recently, Jabee and Cafe Kacao.

The mind behind Della Terra Pasta and Carletti's menu.

Chef BethAnn Lyon is one of only three women to graduate from the Coach House apprenticeship program, along with Chefs Anna Banda and Mackenize Bentley. Over the course of her career, she has worked in every aspect of restaurants, including owner (Black Cat food truck and one of the original The Collective tenants).

Chef-owner Stefanie Embree opened OKC Sweets in 2020, after working as a home baker since 2018. We met in late 2020 while judging a spiked hot chocolate competition for Halloween. I stopped by her Western Avenue bakery shortly after, and was immediately impressed with her products, the thought and creativity that went into the displays, and of course, how damn cute all the specialty items are.

At this point in 2026, it seems obvious that Le Parisien is our best new restaurant, and one of the overall best in the city period. The combination of an incredibly talented team, remarkable food, excellent wine list, solid cocktail program, and beautiful buildout has made the Midtown French bistro a favorite for date night, special events, casual dining, and happy hour. Much of their success is due to Executive Chef Bryant Gallegos and operating partner Alain Jeu, both industry veterans, mainly in California, where Jeu worked at the famous/infamous Chateau Marmont for many years, and before that, he worked in San Francisco, where he met and worked with the great Kermit Lynch, a pioneer in the modern wine trade.

Jonas Favela is the executive chef at Vast, a job that includes overseeing lunch, dinner, tasting menus, banquets, Nova Lounge, and a crew of dozens. The Las Vegas native has been an Okie most of his life, and he's spent a good chunk of his career in some of OKC's best restaurants, including The Metro, The Ranch, and now Vast. He had his own spot a couple times, including Graffiti in The Parlor, the spot where I first had his red curry salmon, a dish that has been added to the Vast tasting menu and one for which I waited seven years to have again since the closing of Graffiti. Favela joined Vast after moving over from The National, both Coury Hospitality food programs.

Chef Gabriel Lewis made his MasterChef debut when only 19, moving from fast-casual "Mexican" food to one of the best stories in the Gordon Ramsay corpus of television cooking shows. Not because he won, but because all of us who watched remember the emotional moment when Ramsay, clearly taken with something sincere and promising in Lewis, said after the elimination that he would finance Lewis's culinary education.

Chef Caleb Stangroom is currently executive sous at The National, where oversees culinary operations at Tellers, Gilded Acorn, and The Vault for Coury Hospitality. The New Hampshire native grew up in southern Missouri, and he's been cooking as long as he can remember. While working at various spots around the metro, he's been refining a concept that one day will move from pop-up to brick and mortar, if we're lucky. Tiger Style is the brand,

Sheamus Feeley is an acclaimed executive chef and restaurateur based in Oklahoma. His restaurant Little Belly in Tulsa is turning heads.

John and Mark Hunnell founded Levity Breakfast House in Norman in 2024. The brothers are Cleveland, Ohio natives but came to OKC via Portland, where John worked for Apple and Mark learned all about coffee at Stumptown Coffee, one of the third wave pioneers in the bean business. Their spot on Peters just off Main is in a converted house, and the homey vibes contribute to a feeling of sitting down to breakfast at your friend's house, but only if your friend cooks as well as executive chef Luke Fry.