Ned's Starlite Lounge goes dark

And local onion ring standards may never recover

Pour one out for Ned’s Starlite Lounge on North May, folks. The Shadid family announced the five-year-old restaurant and pub was closed for good via social media on Tuesday, joining a recent spate of closing in the 405 diningscape.

The family made the announcement on social media yesterday.

They all hurt, but this one means the local standard for onion rings has immediately dropped. The Starlite served great burgers because of course it did. Ned Shadid grew up in the burger business and beefed up those skills from the ground floor of Big Ed’s back in the 1970s. His son Neddie is a chip off the old block with kitchen chops that ensured The Starlite always had sneaky great entrees. And those wings dusted with the same barbecue rub on the onion rings… Sad sigh.

When the Shadids opened The Starlite in 2019, they breathed life into a classic Oklahoma dining room. For decades it was The Nomad. It did my heart good knowing someone like Ned Sr. was in the final restaurant home of iconic local restaurateur and gambler Jack “Sussy” Sussman.

News about The Starlite comes just days after Micah Andrews announced he was closing Oak & Ore in The Plaza. You might’ve read about it in the post on Birdie’s Fried Chicken becoming Birdie’s by Chef Kevin Lee. If losing The Starlite costs us a high-quality beer and wings option, Oak & Ore costs at least that much plus long pours.

As I suspected, Andrews isn’t wandering too far from beer folk. In pioneering the local beer scene, Micah accidentally started the state’s pre-imminent draft beer technician business. Micah’s company is called BrewTru Beverage Services, and it’s “grown exponentially in the last seven years.”

BrewTrue’s specialty is installing draft beer systems, but it also installs soda systems. He told me what started as friendly consultations has become a full-scale commercial venture that is now the largest draft beer technician company in Oklahoma with a team of eight statewide.

“If any restaurants, bars or breweries need design, parts, installation or maintenance on the beverage dispensing systems, we’d love to help,” he told me.

While Micah and his staff are installing draft systems, and Kevin Lee is converting Birdie’s from fried chicken to Bibimbap, the Shadids will be catering. Ned’s Catering is one of Oklahoma City’s oldest and most respected businesses. While they’re busy moving forward, we can wax nostalgic about their legacies and await their next moves.

Been a hard week in the 405 diningscape, and its only hump day.