By Bailey Coyle, Fox23 News
TULSA, Okla. — For more than three decades, two barbecue restaurants in North Tulsa have served their community side by side — not as competitors, but as neighbors.
Stutts House of Barbecue and Oklahoma Style Bar-B-Que both opened in 1993, just months apart. From the beginning, owners Almeda Hill-Stutts and Mattie Bledsoe-Hayes built a relationship rooted in friendship, mutual respect and community support.
“We’ve never been competitors — never,” Hill-Stutts said.
That bond is now being tested — and strengthened — after months of city street construction outside Stutts House of Barbecue led to a sharp drop in business.
Earlier this year, road repairs began directly in front of Stutts House of Barbecue on Apache Street. Stutts says the construction made it difficult for customers to access the restaurant, especially during the lunch rush — her busiest time of day.
“After they started working, our lunch hour just went flat,” Hill-Stutts said. “People told me they couldn’t see how to get in.”
As a result, she says the business lost hundreds of dollars a day.
When Hayes saw what was happening, she immediately understood.
In the mid-1990s, road construction outside Oklahoma Style Bar-B-Que on Harvard Avenue caused similar challenges for her business.
“When they redid Harvard, people couldn’t get to me,” Bledsoe-Hayes said. “I lost a lot of business. A lot of places didn’t survive that construction.”
Remembering how difficult that time was — and how close she came to closing — Bledsoe-Hayes decided to step in.
Without telling Stutts at first, Hayes created a GoFundMe to help her longtime friend recover lost income and keep the doors open at one of North Tulsa’s most beloved legacy restaurants.
“I didn’t know how to do a GoFundMe,” Hayes said. “I just thought it would be nice to try to help her.”
Stutts says she was overwhelmed by the response.
“My heart was really touched,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
At 84 years old, Stutts still comes into the restaurant every day — something she says is driven by her love for people and the community she serves.
“I want to be able to stay open so that people who come here as strangers leave as friends,” she said.
The street construction has now been completed, and Stutts says she’s already starting to see customers return. She hopes as word spreads that access has been restored, business will continue to rebound.
“I pray and hope they’ll come back now that the streets are clear,” she said.
Stutts says her goal moving into the new year is simple: to continue spreading love, helping others and serving the Tulsa community that has supported her for more than 30 years.
