This story is co-published with Downtown OKC and the Midtown District.

At a time when everything costs too much, restaurateurs in OKC’s Midtown district are set once again to make lunch delicious and affordable with the return of 10 Buck Lunch Week. This is the fourth year and seventh installment of the popular promotion, which runs February 23-27 and includes more than twenty Midtown restaurants.

Participating restaurants feature lunch specials for $10 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday the week of the promotion, and some extend the time to allow for the late lunch crowd, including Barrios Fine Mexican Dishes and Mexican Radio, both concepts within A Good Egg Dining Group (AGE).

“Barrios has participated every time, and Mexican Radio, which was new to Midtown last year, participated for the first time last fall,” Keith Paul, co-founder and president of AGE, said. “We like to put our best foot forward for diners during the event, and so we’re happy to keep the feature available until at least 3 p.m., but we wouldn’t say no to diners coming in as late as 3:45.”

Born from a Need to Boost Weekday Lunch

The promotion is the brainchild of Midtown District Manager Jakey Dobbs, who created the event to bring more attention to Midtown’s thriving dining scene. “I joined Downtown OKC Partnership (DOKC) in April 2022,” Dobbs said, “and coming from an education background, one of the first things I did was have conversations with DOKC and our Midtown businesses to learn as much as I could about their struggles, needs, current programs, and ideas for promotions and marketing. The recurring theme related to weekday lunch was that post-pandemic, the numbers never really returned to pre-pandemic levels, but dinner and weekends were mostly fine.”

Dobbs and DOKC staff brainstormed ways to help increase lunch traffic to a district that has more dining options than any other downtown district, and in fact, more than any other district in the urban core. They eventually asked Dusty Gilpin to design branding around the idea of 10 Buck Lunch Week, and they launched the first promotion in February 2023. Since then, they run the promotion annually in February and around back-to-school in August or September.

Operators tend to view 10 Buck Lunch Week through various lenses; some see it as a brand awareness opportunity, others test new features, promote ongoing specials, and see a chance to welcome newcomers to their concepts and the Midtown district. The price point makes it clear that this isn’t about generating as much revenue as possible, but operators understand that maximizing lunch revenue isn’t the only goal here.

“We know things are different now in terms of costs and pricing, so we reevaluate the campaign every time after taking feedback from our restaurateurs,” Dobbs said. “We tell them it’s not mandatory, and we understand that certain concepts don’t really have a menu that lends itself to this price point, so we’ve promised them we’ll find other ways throughout the year to help them market their businesses, with programs like the Midtown Walkabout.”

More Than a Promotion – An Opportunity for Creativity

The Chalkboard Kitchen + Bar, a participating restaurant, is located inside the Ambassador Hotel, and Jason Clark is the general manager for the Coury Hospitality property and serves as the Chairman on the Midtown OKC Board and is a member of the Downtown BID Advisory Board. As such, he sees 10 Buck Lunch Week from different angles.

“We pick something different each time to feature for our guests,” he said. “We don’t see it as strictly a money-making opportunity, and we know we’re not losing our shirt over five promotional lunch services. Our approach is to give our chefs the option to be creative, try something new, or test a new feature. We do see some new diners, but the neighborhood, which includes a lot of our regulars, also shows up. Participation means a ton of exposure, because Midtown and Downtown OKC Partnership are running tv spots, creating marketing materials, and promoting the district’s restaurants in a very positive light that is good for everyone.”

Molly Grenier, the owner of popular destination The Hall’s Pizza Kitchen, and Midtown OKC board member, sees the promotion as an opportunity to introduce new diners to her restaurant and Midtown, and sees the synergy as good for business and good for guests. She said, “We are so thankful to be in Midtown, a district filled with incredible lunch spots, and this week is the perfect week to try a few of us out! At Hall’s, a slice and a salad is a perfectly balanced, crave-able lunch break fix. Come try a new slice or enjoy your favorite, and might we suggest throwing in a cookie on your way out?”

The option of add-ons is one of the primary way to increase revenue during a promotion like 10 Buck Lunch Week: a cookie at Hall’s, a cocktail at Barrios, ricotta cake for dessert at Malfi Enoteca, a beer at Fassler Hall, etc., create a more robust and concept-specific experience for diners.

At the new Bar Serra (a member of the McNellie’s Restaurant Group) in the Phillips Murrah building, GM Dylan Kremeier, said they’re featuring menu items for the week, but they anticipate guests adding on to their orders, whether it be cocktails, wine, or an addition to their popular Mediterranean Bowl. “The Mediterranean Bowl is a vegetarian option, and guests can add falafel to keep it vegetarian, or add chicken if they want to go a different direction,” he said. “We’ll also be offering our delicious cheeseburger and fish tacos on special during the week. We see it as an opportunity to introduce ourselves to the community since we’re relatively new. With spring coming soon, we see it as a chance to build our regular lunch crowd for the remainder of the year.”

The Collective Food Hall has a few concepts that are new to Midtown and new to 10 Buck Lunch Week, and like Bar Serra, they intend to use the promotion to introduce the food hall and its vendors to new diners and perhaps get regulars to try something new.

“The Collective is a great lunch spot, and we want diners in Midtown to see it as such,” JJ Kuhn said. Kuhn is with Ghost Restaurant Management, the company that oversees operations at The Collective, and he’s attracted some excellent new talent to the food hall. “It’s easy to have a quick lunch here, and we’re excited that 10 Buck Lunch Week coincides with the launch of our new website that includes online ordering for all our concepts.”

New and off-menu items are exciting for operators, chefs, and diners, and this week features a ton of options in those categories. Jason Clark said Chalkboard is offering an Angry Bird sandwich – smoked turkey salad with pepper relish – and he got to try it last week. “I want it every day,” he said. JJ Kuhn said Kirú’s build your own roll allows diners to choose a protein, two toppings and two sauces, meaning they can create their own off-menu sushi roll.

Add-Ons, Bounce-Backs, and Brand Building

Operators also use the week as a chance to promote regular features and specials in what Keith Paul called bounce-back campaigns, a marketing term that describes campaigns to get return visits after an initial guest experience. “At Mexican Radio, we feature two tacos with rice or beans daily for lunch, and we’re reducing the price for the week, but we’ll be highlighting that special during the promotion, and we’ll also be bringing back our Beerita to incentivize sales at Barrios, where we’re offering a fried chicken taco with jalapeno slaw and agave-serrano sauce for the promotion.”

Participating restaurateurs in Midtown are in agreement that the promotion is good for business overall, and Keith Paul said it’s one of their best lunch weeks of the year. “We saw a twenty percent jump in traffic at Barrios last year and a thirty percent jump at Mexican Radio,” he said. “It was great timing for Mexican Radio, as we were brand new to Midtown then, so we’re expecting to have a great week this year too.”

Plan Your Perfect $10 Lunch

To make it easier to plan your lunch, check out the helpful navigation tools on the 10 Buck Lunch Week page, here, including the ability to filter for only vegan or vegetarian options. Please keep in mind that the promotion is for dine-in only, unless the restaurant opts to allow takeout. Check with the restaurant before ordering to ensure they allow takeout. Some restaurants are including beverages like tea and coffee as part of the deal, but that is at the discretion of each operator, so check with your server before ordering.