There’s a chalkboard above the bar at Sidecar that lists maybe eight beers, most of them Oklahoma drafts, and the prices top out around six dollars. That detail alone tells you what kind of place this is before you’ve ordered anything.
Sidecar sits on NW 10th in Midtown, a short walk from the busier stretch of restaurants that get all the attention. The building is compact and a little worn around the edges — a dark wood bar, some high-tops, a covered patio out back that fills up fast on warm evenings. Nothing here is trying to impress you, which is probably why people keep coming back.
The menu is short and changes based on what the kitchen feels like doing. That sounds precious, but it isn’t — this is a bar that happens to cook seriously good food. The burger is the thing most regulars will point you toward first: a double smash on a brioche bun, American cheese, pickles, and a sauce that doesn’t have a clever name on the menu. It runs around twelve or thirteen dollars and arrives on a paper-lined tray. Order a side of the fries. You won’t regret it.
Beyond the burger, you might find fried chicken sandwiches, deviled eggs done with something unexpected on top, or a rotating special that leans on whatever’s seasonal. The kitchen has obvious training — Sidecar is loosely connected to the Ludivine family of restaurants — but it doesn’t announce that fact every chance it gets. If you didn’t already know, you’d just think someone back there actually cares about food, which is the best possible way to find out.
The beer list skews toward local. COOP, Anthem, and Painted Sky tend to rotate through, plus a couple of national options for people who want them. Cocktails are minimal but made correctly. The bartenders are the kind who remember what you ordered last time without making a thing of it.
Weeknights are mellow enough that you can get a seat at the bar and hear the person next to you. Friday and Saturday nights are a different story — the patio fills up by eight, the inside gets loud, and the kitchen occasionally runs out of the special before ten. If you’re coming on a weekend, showing up around six or six-thirty gets you ahead of the rush. There’s no reservation system, and the place is small enough that waiting twenty minutes on a busy night is a realistic possibility.
The neighborhood around NW 10th has changed a fair amount in the last decade, with enough new construction and rebranded concepts that it can feel slightly anonymous. Sidecar doesn’t feel like that. It feels like a place that has regulars who live nearby, who walk over on Tuesday evenings because the burger is good and the beer is cold and nobody is going to make them feel underdressed or out of step.
Parking is street-level on 10th or the surrounding blocks, usually easy to find before eight. Cash is accepted but cards work fine. Expect to spend somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five dollars a person depending on how many rounds you’re in for. It’s not a destination you plan a whole night around — it’s the kind of bar you tell someone about after you’ve already been three times.
