BREAKING: Andrew Black announces return to Skirvin

The James Beard Award-winning chef adds Park Avenue Grill space to his roster

Andrew Black is coming home.

On Sunday, Black was surrounded by friends and family at The Skirvin Hotel to celebrate his win at The James Beard Awards back in June. In the middle of the festivities, Black made an announcement he’s been negotiating since before he traveled to Chicago hoping to become the first Oklahoma chef to bring home an individual chef award from the Beard Foundation.

Black told the more than 500 in attendance he is taking over the Park Avenue Grill space and rebranding it as Perle Mesta.

After the applause subsided, Black said, it won’t be Grey Sweater, Black Walnut or Gilded Acorn but promised it will become the culinary pearl of the city.

Black brought home the state’s first Best Chef Southwest Award for work at Grey Sweater, Black Walnut, and The Gilded Acorn, but the Skirvin Hotel brought Black to Oklahoma City in 2007.

More than a decade and a half later, Black not only still calls Oklahoma City home, he says it’s home for life.

“This is home, man,” he said. “I tell people all the time, this is my home.”

More than 500 people attended the event, which supported Black’s favorite charity, Freedom City. The celebration wasn’t just for chef Black. He thanked his longtime business partner Rudy Khouri, co-founder of La Baguette, and his Grey Sweater sous chef Dylan Morgan. He said he would never have stayed in Oklahoma City if not for John Williams.

He called for applause for Florence and Victoria Jones Kemp, who brought Oklahoma it’s first James Beard Award last year.

His family was also on attendance, whom he thanked fighting back tears. But that didn’t stop him from firing a barb at my old colleague Steve Lackmeyer for his comprehensive introduction.

Perle Mesta will open next year.