One Year After Fire, Tulsa Restaurateurs Focus On New Beginnings And Resilience

Two Tulsa restaurants called Lowood, and Hodges Bend burned down a year ago.

The fire also destroyed the apartments above the restaurants.

The two restaurants are now an empty lot, the buildings have since been torn down.

Two employees say during the past year, they've focused more on the memories they've gained, rather than what they've lost.

Stephen Toma has learned a lot in the last year.

“Take this as an opportunity to lean in, to lean into life, and to not take anything for granted and to be grateful for what you have because one day it may burn down, Toma, a LoFi server said.

Toma was working at Hodges Bend on Sept. 23, 2023, when everyone inside the restaurant and everyone next door at Lowood, had to evacuate because of a fire.

Toma thought the fire was small and he'd go back to business as usual.

“Instead, the fire burned all night and took the whole building, and it ended up being a very sad and desperate situation for all of us,” said Toma.

Trevor Tack is the Executive Chef for the group that owned the two restaurants, and he says they were already working on opening a new Restaurant, called LoFi, on Cherry Street.

After the fire, they used the opening of LoFi to motivate them.

“We're hospitality, we're tough, you come to us when you need to celebrate or mourn or just plain hungry. Our duty is to serve and that's what we wanted to do,” Tack said.

People in the community raised More than $77,000 to help the restaurants and employees after the fire.

Tack says it was the love of Tulsa that pushed his group forward.

“You do have those doubts, you have those do we want to do this anymore and do we want to do something different? It's no, it just reaffirmed that we have to keep going there is no other way but forward,” said Tack.

GB Provisions owned the two restaurants and after opening LoFi, they now plan to open another one right next door, next year on Cherry Street.