Tasha Does Tulsa.

Ever have a stuffed hamburger before? No? Look above and behold. Then, find it at Calistoga Bar & Grill, at RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks, just a few miles from downtown Tulsa.

My mother and grandmother like to tease me. What can I say? I’m a tease-able person. Especially when it comes to what they like to call my food snobbery.

But, I mean, since when is a commitment to dine as locally as possible, as often as possible snobbery? Last time I checked it was responsible. It was prudent. It was caring for Tulsa’s economy and our environment.

Of course, if I say this while being teased about my food snobbery, the teasing gets worse. They laugh, they jeer, they threaten to take me to Red Lobster for my birthday.

They’re rascally little ladies, I tell you.

But, they love me. And Lord knows I love them.

Which is why I take them to places like Calistoga Bar & Grill for their birthdays.

October is a busy month for birthdays is my family. That’s when my sister and I were born, and our stepfather was born in October, too.

But, July is more fun. That’s when we get to celebrate my husband’s birthday, along with my mom’s and grandmother’s. That my grandmother had my mom the day before her birthday really makes remembering these things really easy.

Or, really confusing, espeically if you’re in the second grade and it’s part of a class assignment to remember your family members’ birthdays. Which came first, the mother or the grandmother? To this day, I still have to double-check.

Birthdays are a big deal in our family, and we always celebrate with food. As in, copious amounts of food. More like, copious amounts of the best-tasting food we can find. Sometimes we stick to our ol’ reliables (insert Red Lobster and much shuddering here), but sometimes we decide to try something new and exciting.

Somehow, in spite of my snobbery, I’m usually in charge of finding this something new and exciting. And I’m usually under much scrutiny.

Scrutiny in the form of teasing about my food snobbery, I mean.

I didn’t have to fight off much heckling after this macaroni and cheese came to the table at Calistoga, though.

No one really had any good jokes about this flavorful grilled portobello burger or those perfectly cooked, oh-so-crispy, deliciously salty house-made potato chips, either.

Absolutely no one snickered about this stuffed burger, which can be filled chock full with your choice of caramelized onions, bacon, mushrooms or jalapeno, as well as cheddar, swiss, gouda or bleu cheese with all the fixings.

Yeah. I’d call this a food snobbery win.

The menu and atmosphere at Calistoga reminded me of the restaurants my husband and I found as we wandered through Napa Valley in California last fall – very warm, open and lots of earthy materials used in the decor. I’ve heard this cuisine called Cal-Ital, which is a really awful, foodie-babble thing to call such lovely food, so we’ll just say it’s Italian-inspired food made with local ingredients and that it’s a cuisine with roots in California’s wine country.

Okay? Okay.

The point is, Calistoga is the place to go if you’re looking to please to hard-to-please. There’s seating for whatever kind of dining party in which you find yourself – a private, spacious spot by the fireplace for large groups, seating at the bar for you and a few buds and patio seating for those incredible fall days that are just around the corner – and there’s something on the menu for everyone, from the guy who’s guaranteed to look sideways at anything that’s not meat and potatoes to the kid who won’t eat a brick-oven pizza unless it’s topped with macaroni and cheese (yes, by popular demand Calistoga has begun to offer pizza topped with macaroni and cheese) and the lady who likes to play smug about her oh-so-adventurous and cultivated palate.

Not that I know any ladies like that.

At $50 for a ticket of four burgers with drinks and a kids’ meal, the dining at Calistoga is also very modestly priced, especially considering that the quality of what we enjoyed when we visited could have easily held its own against what we found in the restaurants of the city for which the restaurant is named.

For filing in the by-the-way/in-case-you-didn’t-know category: The same folks who own and operate Calistoga Bar & Grill, James Andrews and my pal Kathleen Kennedy, also own and operate Ciao on Brookside, an Italian restaurant and live, local music venue on Brookside. The place is virtually a Tulsa tradition.

The feel at Calistoga is different from that at Ciao, but the quality, service and attention to detail are deliciously the same.

And I’m thankful. My food snobby ways, they have seen vindication in my little family circle.

And I’m pretty sure that stuffed burger from Calistoga Bar & Grill had something (read: probably a lot) to do with it.

Calistoga Bar & Grill
Where: 500 River Walk Terrace, Suite 135, in Jenks
When: Tuesday-Thursday, 12-9pm; Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 12-10pm; Closed Monday; Bar open until the last patron leaves
Call: (918) 995-2555 (be sure to call for reservations on weekends)
Web: www.calistogagrill.com

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