Tasha Does Tulsa.

UPDATE//Ladies and gents, we have a winner!

Jennifer Bare, you’re holding the 6th entry – congrats! E-mail me (within 24 hours – it’s 6pm on Friday now) to claim your prize.

Thanks to all for playing, and don’t forget – there are only 40 spots open for Fondue and Football nights at The Melting Pot. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one (and if you’re in Oklahoma, odds are 99.99 percent that you have): Football season in this state starts as OU and OSU kick off this Saturday night. As in, just two days from now.

Say it with me: Wooooooooooooooo! Football!

And I meant all 15 of the o’s, y’all.

As much as I know how we Okies love to sit around a TV blaring the latest college or NFL game with a bowl of hot wings in one hand and a bowl of ranch dressing in the other, I know about a way to take your football spectating to the next level: the Fondue and Football series at The Melting Pot, at 300 Riverwalk Terrace in Jenks.

Fondue and Football will be a way to share your love of football – the same love that compels you to do things like paint your face in your team’s colors even when you’re watching the game from home or to tackle anyone who walks in front of the flatscreen during gametime – with your bewildered and uninitiated loved ones.

The event, which lasts until the end of this month, kicks off next Thursday, Sept. 9, with Football Training Night.

I just love that in a city like Tulsa, we can do stuff like combine our football and our fondue. We’re comfortably cosmopolitan like that. Plus, lots of traditional football season foods translate to the world of fondue. For example, if you love chips and queso on game day, my bet is that you’ll dig the cheese fondue at The Melting Pot.

And probably the chocolate fondue, too.

In fact, it’s hard not to like fondue. As a glance through the dining room at The Melting Pot on a Friday night will attest, a lot of people have serious trouble staying away from the stuff.

Let’s just put it this way: That this smile and that fondue pot appear in the same photo is not exactly a coincidence.

Football Training Night will be led by Steve Smith, a voice you’ll remember from the KBEZ Morning Show. Steve’s presentation from 7-9pm will give the significant others, friends and children of football fanatics a crash course in basic game rules, common terms and plays so that even if they don’t pull up a chair to join their loved one every time there’s a pigskin on TV, they’ll at least know what all the hollering is about.

On the giant projection screen at The Melting Pot that night will be the NFL season opener, the Minnesota Vikings vs. the New Orleans Saints. Kickoff is at 7:30pm.

Oh, and another thing? Anyone who signs up for a Fondue and Football event this month (the events on Sept. 13th, 20th and 27th) is entered into a drawing for a tour of Marshall Brewery, which is right here in Tulsa near downtown at 6th and Wheeling. If you win this prize – personally, I’d pay the $35 ticket price just for a chance at this – you get to invite seven of your buds to go with you.

And then you’ll be their favorite person. For forever. The winner of this contest will be chosen Sept. 27.

By the way, beginning at 5pm attendees of the Fondue and Football events on Sept. 13th, 20th and 27th get deals on beer from Marshall Brewing Company. Keep in mind that The Melting Pot is one of the few restaurants in Tulsa that carries all four of the main Marshall beers – Sundown Wheat, Atlas IPA, McNellie’s Pub Ale and Old Pavilion Pilsner. So, that’s a pretty nice bonus.

You’d better get your tickets to Football Training Night and Fondue and Football while they’re hot, y’all, because there are only 40 spots open at each event.

So, here’s what you do. Go ahead and grab a pair of tickets to Football Training Night. Then, enter to win a football fondue set, a cookbook from The Melting Pot and a pair of tickets to the Football Training Night event on Sept. 9 (a prize package worth about $100).

Cute, right?

If you win, you’ll have a pair of tickets to give to one of your brothers in the fraternal order of football fans. You’ll also have a bunch of stuff to keep and treasure. And to not tell your friends about. Because if you do, especially after they’re welcomed to the world of fondue, they’ll probably try to tackle you to the ground and steal it.

Entering to win is simple. Simply leave a comment on this post before 3pm on Friday, Sept. 3. And, you’re done.

I’ll announce the winners as chosen by Random.org before 5pm on Friday. Good luck, everybody!

The Melting Pot
Where: 300 Riverwalk Terrace, Ste. 190, at the RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks
Call: (918) 299-8000
Web: TheMeltingPot.com

Tasha’s note: This giveaway is sponsored by The Melting Pot at RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks.