Yeast Rises in the Eastside
Eastside Pizza House Adds Another Stone in NE OKC’s Foundation
After touring nationally and then internationally, local hip-hop artist, Emmy winner, community leader, activist, and Eastside native Jabee, realized his love of OKC’s Eastside could only be rivaled by his love of food. In February 2022, he fused the culinary with the cultural by opening Eastside Pizza House at the new, community supported development known as EastPoint, honoring the history of OKC’s Eastside, while propelling the community towards a better future.
The fact that “The Jabee” is Eastside Pizza House’s most popular signature pizza is no mistake. Eloté-style street corn, pickled jalapeños, goat cheese, and a drizzle of chipotle aioli sits atop their signature activated charcoal “melanated” black crust. Traditional white crust and cauliflower crusts are also available. Second in popularity to “The Jabee” is the meaty “Deep Deuce,” named after another of OKC’s historically Black neighborhoods. For pizzas bearing the name of historic Eastside leaders, the menu offers the “Clara Luper” and “The Ellison.” Images of those notables adorn the walls in original art installments.
The welcoming interior features bright, yet soft color schemes that speak to the creativity of each original pizza. Two long community tables welcome larger groups. Smaller tables accommodate interior seating with a covered breezeway available just beyond the wall featuring a grid map of the Eastside.
Jabee was motivated to open Eastside Pizza House by the disparities he witnessed growing up in OKC’s Eastside. “You take care of the things you care about. We’ve been last on the list for so long. Our community has gone without love and not being loved. I’m 38 years old. Before EastPoint development, I hadn’t seen any development… in my lifetime,” he says.
Williams remembers the improvements mentioned in city council meetings twenty years ago going unfulfilled for years. While Bricktown, Midtown, and Plaza District were developed and the city’s leaders claimed an OKC renaissance, the Eastside community’s most basic need, food, remained unaddressed. “It’s not a food desert. Deserts aren’t man-made. It should be called ‘Food Apartheid,’” Williams says. Through a history of limited options and access, EastPoint now includes a grocery store, The Market at EastPoint, operated by local nonprofit RestoreOKC. Its opening ended a twenty-month hiatus between operating grocery stores on the Eastside. Since then, Homeland has opened a location on NE 36th and Lincoln Avenue.
In Jabee’s experience, Black people have been told what to do with their lives and where they can do it for their entire history in America. Now, watching developers come into the Eastside without meaningful community input is seen as traumatizing for many residents who know or lived the history of bulldozing of Black neighborhoods for the purposes of urban renewal and an interstate highway addition that keenly benefited those in need of a downtown gateway. If Jabee could have them understand one thing it would be this: “What you do for us, without us, you do to us.”
Everyone on staff at Eastside Pizza House is or has been an Eastside resident. It’s a business that serves as an opportunity integrated into the community. It provides teachable and creative moments for its staff and ownership as they combine their personal livelihood with neighborhood-centric employment.
Looking forward, the strengthening of the community and identity of the Eastside is the primary goal. Eastside Pizza House may be the star tenant of the EastPoint development, but its many businesses provide avenues to wellness and leisure that support the community and its visitors.
> Eastside Pizza House, 1740 NE 23rd St, Oklahoma City, 405-900-6767, @eastsidepizzahouse, eastsidepizzahouse.com
