Owner of Tally’s Good Food Cafe says he’s not closing

Tally's Good Food Cafe, Tulsa

Apparently Tulsa popped with rumors that Tally’s Good Food Cafe — a fixture for locals and Route 66 travelers along 11th Street — would close.

Owner Tally Alame says it’s not true. But he’s not happy with his former landlord, according to a report by KRMG radio in Tulsa.

Alame said he wanted to buy from Will Rogers United Methodist Church the tract where his restaurant sits. He’d leased it for nearly three decades. For three years, he made an offer, only to be rebuffed.

“‘If we don’t sell it to you, we’re not going to sell it to anybody else.’ That’s what the United Methodist Church said. But you know what? It was all lie, lie, lie,” Tally told KRMG Monday.

“They preach about God, but really they have no faith, no souls, nothing. They don’t care,” he said, clearly angry that his million-dollar offer for the land fell through.

He says David Sharp of Sharp Development offered $1.1 million, and the church took the offer without giving him a chance to counter.

But he’s met with Sharp, and says the new owner wants Tally’s to stay.

“He does want me to stay on the corner, he doesn’t want me to move out,” Alame said.

The station called Sharp Development for a comment, but didn’t get a reply.

The church, however, did respond to KRMG. Here’s part of the statement:

Tally stated that he was unable to receive a bank loan and therefore wanted the Church to carry the note and mortgage for the property. The Church felt that it could not take that risk just as the bank apparently felt. Tally made several proposals to the Church, the final offer he emphatically stated that it was his final and best offer and  he could not do any better. The Church felt that it could not take that risk just as the bank apparently felt. Tally made several proposals to the Church, the final offer he emphatically stated that it was his final and best offer and  he could not do any better.
Many of the Church members expressed very favorable remarks of Tally; how he is such a good neighbor, a Good Samaritan, how he feeds the poor and offers free meals on holidays. But, the terms over a five-year period was too much of a risk for the Church to take. He repeatedly stated, that his last offer was his best and final offer. His final offer was the offer that was considered by the Church congregation. Unfortunately, the Church congregation in an all-church member vote declined Tally’s final offer.

Tally’s became the de facto restaurant for many Route 66 travelers after the Metro Diner was bought out by the University of Tulsa in 2006 and torn down.

(Nighttime image of Tally’s Good Food Cafe in Tulsa by Sam Paradise via Flickr)

2 thoughts on “Owner of Tally’s Good Food Cafe says he’s not closing

  1. Good lord, he’d been there thirty years, what kind of RISK was that… If he’d failed on the mortgage, they’d get it back.

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