While on a weekend road trip, we found ourselves hungry while driving near Ponca City, Oklahoma. This city of about 25,000 people is located in the northern part of the Oklahoma, less than 30 miles from interstate I-35.
As we often do when we’re somewhere unfamiliar, we used Yelp to find a good casual lunch spot. Since it happened to be the fifth of May, also known as Cinco de Mayo*, we thought of Mexican food.
We found good reviews about Enrique’s Mexican Restaurant, and entered the address into our GPS. As we arrived, we were surprised to learn this restaurant is inside the Ponca City Regional Airport.
While the Ponca City Regional Airport hasn’t had scheduled passenger flights since 2006 when Great Lakes Airlines stopped flights to Denver and Dodge City, the airport — with a 7,201-foot long concrete runway — is still active with private and commercial planes.
Most of the terminal is now a part of Enrique’s Mexican Restaurant, which offers great views of planes taking off and landing in addition to Mexican, American and Cuban-inspired food.
Really hungry, we munched on the house-made fried corn chips and salsa while waiting for our entrees to be cooked.
I ordered the Shrimp Ranchero — described as a Cuban-inspired dish of shrimp sauteed in a green chile sauce with pico de gallo. It is served with black beans, rice and a lettuce salad. Delightful favor, without much spice.
Mr. Jones ordered the Tampico Fiesta, listed on the menu as one of the “Sabor de la Casa” or specialties of the house.
Also described as a Cuban dish, Tampico Fiesta comes with your choice of an 8-ounce rib eye steak, or two pork chops, smothered with grilled onions and peppers, and topped with shrimp.
Mr. Jones chose the steak, and was very happy with his meal.
Since we were getting back on the road to drive onward to Kansas, we did drank ice tea rather than a more traditional Cinco de Mayo beverage.
What is Cinco de Mayo?
*We knew that Cinco de Mayo is not a celebration of Mexican Independence Day, but we did not know why the 5th of May is widely celebrated. It turns out the Cinco de Mayo holiday celebrates the Mexican army’s victory over France at the Battle of Puebla (on May 5, 1862) during the Franco-Mexican War.
Other things to see and do in Ponca City, Oklahoma
While we did not have time to explore Ponca City on this trip, I did pick up a Ponca City Tourism brochure at the airport. There are several things that I’d like to see the next time I’m near Ponca City, Oklahoma, including:
- The Marland Mansion built in 1928 by oil tycoon E.W. Marland and his wife, Lydie. This 55-room castle has ceilings covered in 24-karet gold leaf and million-dollar chandeliers.
- The Standing Bear Museum and Education Center that tells the story of six local Native America tribes: the Kaw, Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee, Ponca and Tonkawa.
- The Wentz Swimming Pool and Camp, built in 1928 and donated to Ponaca City by oil millionaire Lew Wentz. The 150 foot-long pool, built on a hill overlooking Lake Ponca, is still open to the public today.
- The Conoco Museum that depicts the merger and transformation of the Marland Oil Company and the Continental Oil and Transportation Co. into Conoco.
- The Pioneer Woman Statue and Museum that celebrates Oklahoma’s pioneering women.
To learn more, check out this book:
Have you visited Ponca City, Oklahoma? Did you eat at Enrique’s?
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