small bites

Midway Deli

By / Photography By | February 27, 2018
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You know Norman by the storm of crimson and cream that rushes into town every Saturday in autumn. The University of Oklahoma was established nearly twenty years before statehood, and since that day, its athletic programs have won dozens of national championships. Although Sooners fans will point to the football legacy as Norman’s central identity, other institutions are equally intertwined into the community, both its past and its present.

In 1926, the store that would one day become Midway Grocery opened its doors and began its long journey. This was thirty years before the construction of I-35, when the population was under 10,000. Originally, it was a gas station and a grocer, which was a fairly new concept at the time as automobiles were only then starting to fill the streets.

In 1955, a local grocery store, Elm Street Grocery, moved into the location, changed its named to Midway Grocery, and added a meat market. It served the neighborhood for thirty years, but eventually began to decline. That’s when Maricha and Bob Thompson took the brave step of buying and rescuing it.

“I was able to revive the business only because I had the guiding hand of Bill Ashley, who had worked there since 1955, to help me learn the business,” Bob says. “Bill was my anchor with our customer base, and my mentor in the art of butchering. Bill still makes our chili.”

Eventually, it became clear that Midway wasn’t going to be able to survive as just a neighborhood store. With larger grocery stores moving into Norman, it was difficult to keep prices competitive and maintain clientele. Starting in 2000, the Thompsons began a transition that took nearly ten years to complete, turning their store into a popular lunch spot for downtown Norman.

Although Midway still offers a smattering of grocery products for the neighborhood, the focus has shifted to offering a variety of flavors, many not typically found around town, in their restaurant. Maricha developed the majority of the menu, most notably the award-winning gumbo served every Monday. In fact, Midway boasts an eclectic homemade soup menu with daily offerings, such as Maricha’s Filipino adobo, her Hatch green chile stew, a vegan style zesty tomato soup, chicken tortilla, and pot roast stew. The half and half is the most popular order during lunchtime at Midway, coming with a cup of one of those unique soups and half of a tasty sandwich.

Speaking of those sandwiches, Midway Deli has some quirky sandwich names, like their best-seller, the Vulcan, or the Governor’s Reuben, named after Brad Henry. Other names are a bit more esoteric, referencing close friends of the restaurant, but anyone who’s spent any time in Norman will immediately recognize the namesake of a turkey sandwich called The Coach. After all, Midway’s most famous regular customer is Barry Switzer.

“Of all of the luck that it takes to survive in a small business, we never dreamed we would have the good fortune of having Barry and Becky just embrace our little store,” Bob glows. “I can truly say that over the course of the ten or twelve years that they’ve been regulars at the Midway, there isn’t anything they wouldn’t do to help us succeed.”

As it turns out, even grocers with nearly one hundred years of their own history are intertwined with our Sooners. Maybe it’s all about football after all. Or maybe it’s about legacy in general, about the past providing gifts for the present. And that’s thanks to people like the Thompsons and Barry Switzer passing the torch and keeping the flame alight. Do your part and make Midway Deli a part of your dining rotation!
> Midway Deli, 601 West Eufaula Street, Norman

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