Bar Arbolada
Like the curved imprint of a rocks glass on a cocktail napkin, life is circular. Places and people can enter and exit and re-enter our lives in the most unexpected ways.
When Riley Marshall left Oklahoma to pursue a career in the music industry in Los Angeles, coming back home to open a bar years later was probably not on his mind. But as these things go, a chance meeting with a friendly bartender would change everything.
“A few weeks after moving there, I was sitting at a bar, chatting with a bartender,” Riley explains. “I think we had been chatting for an hour or so, and finally one of us is like, ‘Where are you originally from?’ The other says, ‘Oklahoma,’ and then it’s, ‘Get the hell out of here, I’m from Oklahoma!’ He’s from Deer Creek, I’m from Edmond, he’s just a few years older than me, so we know a lot of the same people and have friends in common.”
The coincidences did not end there. As the conversation continued, it was revealed that they both lived on the same dead end street, Arbolada.
“Two boys from Oklahoma who didn’t know each other before, live next door to each other,” Riley says, laughing a little with incredulity. “That’s when we met, we became fast friends and stayed friends the whole time I was out there.”
That bartender, Dustin Lancaster, opened his first bar in Los Angeles, called Bar Covell. The name is an homage to Covell Road in Edmond, a little shout-out to his family back home. Since then, Dustin has built up a little empire of a dozen concepts, including bars, restaurants, a boutique hotel, and even a brewery.
Now the duo has brought some of that success back to Oklahoma with Bar Arbolada. It’s a unique vibe, managing to appear old-school, but not in that speakeasy kind of way. The boxy windows of the historic Main Street Arcade building allow natural light to pour in and glint off the white marble countertop and brass backbar fixtures like it could belong in a Golden Age noir film. The timeless feel is comforting.
There’s nothing else like Bar Arbolada, especially in Downtown OKC. Although the area is changing rapidly, it’s more associated with party bars in Bricktown. Arbolada feels like a neighborhood bar, one where you could read a book or have a quiet conversation with a friend, which is much needed in a part of town that is starting to fill with high-rise residential buildings.
“We’ve gotten a lot of comments from 30-somethings, 40-somethings, 50-somethings that say, ‘I’m just so glad there’s a bar where adults can go now and I don’t feel out of place, or the oldest person in the room,’” Riley says.
That is perhaps the laid-back magic of Bar Arbolada, where anyone can walk in the door and feel comfortable. It’s a place where you can get a bottle of pet-nat, a $6 Old Fashioned, a rustic farmhouse ale on tap, or a cheap beer and a shot. Somehow, it manages to be fresh and classic, new and familiar, all at the same time.
“We’re here because we want Oklahoma City to be great,” Riley muses. “We didn’t come to capitalize on the growth that is happening in Oklahoma City. I moved my family back here, and I want to do more things. I’m here for the long haul. We want to make Oklahoma City a better place to live.”
