Episode 7: Elizabeth Frame Ellison, CEO of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation

You're listening to Tulsa Talks, a TulsaPeople podcast. I'm your host Anna Bennett.  

Today's episode features a conversation with Elizabeth Frame Ellison, the President and CEO of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, which just celebrated the opening of the Mother Road Market. Then city editor Morgan Philips tries her hand at storytelling in this week's episode of what the what?! So let's talk Tulsa

 "I think I'm raising little entrepreneurs because they they're asking me if they can sell things out of the pop up vault. And if I'm going to charge them or not. And I tell them absolutely you can sell something out of the pop up fault. And yes, I’m absolutely charging."

That's the voice of Elizabeth Frame Ellison, President and CEO of LTFF. Now, the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation just celebrated the opening of the Mother Road Market at 1124 South Lewis Avenue on historic Route 66. This 27,000-square-foot market has a collection of over 20 retail and restaurant concepts ranging from brand-new startups to well-established Tulsa restaurants. Among these are innovative new offerings from local favorites such as Pollo al Carbon, Andolini’s, Lone Wolf Banh Mi, Trenchers and Mr. Nice Guys. In addition to these retail and restaurant concepts Mother Road Market features the WEL bar which is a full-service bar with beer, wine, cocktails, and coffee, a demonstration kitchen which is ideal for special events like cooking classes and workshops, a small pop up space where local entrepreneurs showcase their products, a gigantic patio that features outdoor lounge and dining seating and frequent live music and other events. Out on the patio. You'll also find a nine-hole miniature golf course that features fun landmarks from across the United States.

The market also works in tandem with Kitchen 66, Tulsa’s kickstart kitchen and a program of LTFF which removes barriers for Tulsa food entrepreneurs by offering affordable commercial kitchen space business training programs and sales and distribution opportunities inside the Mother Road Market. Kitchen. 66 has 2800 square feet of commercial kitchen space, as well as the Kitchen 66 takeover cafe featuring a rotating mix of food entrepreneurs and the Kitchen 66 General Store featuring products made by Kitchen 66 entrepreneurs and other Oklahoma makers. A complete list of amenities tenants and events can be found at MotherRoadMarket.com. But now let's dive into our conversation with Elizabeth Frame Ellison, the President and CEO of LTFF, which as you know, just celebrated the opening of the Mother Road Market. So congratulations on that, I know that's a huge deal. And we're all very excited. Can you give us a rundown of what's happening?

EFE: Just coming up this week, we have a pop up vault within the space that's actually original to the building. The building was built in 1939 as a grocery distribution warehouse. So that's appropriate. I know we're really excited that we get to repurpose it for another type of food enterprise. But the original vault of the building is actually a pop up space that anyone can rent just for the day or for the week to try something out. So this week will actually have Fleet Feet doing a pop up. We also have businesses like Magic City Books doing cooking pop ups, jewelry pop ups, pottery pop ups, all sorts of stuff like that. We've also got yoga class going on.

Learn more about the Mother Road Market.

Learn more about the LTFF.

Today’s local music selection is Letters by Casii Stephan. Listen to the track on Spotify here. Visit Casii’s website here.