Taste Of Oklahoma: Tulsa Chef Brings Farm-To-Table Cafe To Downtown

A Tulsa chef is bringing her years of experience cooking across the country to a cozy cafe north of Downtown.

Prism Cafe’s purpose is to use as many farm-to-table ingredients as possible— while keeping the menu laid back and delicious.

“I was very charmed by Tulsa. I gave it a month," said Aimee Hunter.

As Aimee Hunter celebrates one year of her Heights neighborhood cafe at Denver and Latimer being open, she said Tulsa called her to plant her roots– and her food.

“We planted a garden so a month became spring, and spring became summer,” she said.

Aimee named her restaurant Prism Cafe as a nod to the full spectrum of color and flavor. She wants her customers to eat the rainbow, with ingredients that are homegrown.

“There's a local quality to every dish.”

Aimee fell in love with gardening and cooking at a young age.

She went to culinary school in Texas— then moved to the mountains and worked in national park kitchens in Colorado and Wyoming. She's cooked for private clients in New York City and LA, and even worked on a sheep ranch. Each dish she made was inspired by her trips to the farmer’s market, sourcing what was fresh and in season.

“It was a world of difference and magical to work with ingredients of that nature," she said.

During the pandemic, she visited a friend in Tulsa, and the city felt right.

“LA and the bigger cities get exhausting at some point," she said. "It's nice to come to a place that still has a lot to offer.”

Aimee wants people who eat at Prism to enjoy farm-to-table ingredients in a way that feels approachable.

“We do classic sandwiches because everyone in the world loves a good sandwich.”

Lead Cook Maxx Wood met Aimee during their time together in a neighborhood community garden. He is prepping for the week ahead, and sealing up important ingredients he’ll stow in the fridge.

"We get the local micro greens which are nice," he said.

Maxx slices up the ciabatta and gives it a toast before spreading it with homemade aioli. He thinly slices apples and red onion, adds brie, those microgreens, and then a balsamic glaze, before the sandwich gets a slice. He likes the sandwiches to look as beautiful as they taste.

"You want people to say 'ooh yeah, there's my sandwich.'"

The melted brie apple sandwich is simple and simply incredible.

It was crunchy, soft, sweet, and tangy. You wouldn’t even notice it’s vegetarian.

The other sandwich we tried was the Evan.

Maxx spreads the aioli and melts havarti and adds turkey, and toppings on an everything bagel.

The fizzy ginger lemonade is the perfect accompaniment to the sandwiches.

Ginger gets chopped, then blitzed. Aimee adds maple syrup, and the ginger juice to ice, then tops everything with Topo Chico.

It was sweet and bubbly and I couldn’t put it down.

If that wasn't enough, Prism Cafe’s baker Randi Scott makes fresh pastries for the cafe.

She made cranberry orange and chocolate oatmeal cookies, and now she’s stirring together ingredients for her date pecan banana bread.

Baking makes her feel at home.

“It’s really satisfying and therapeutic and nostalgic for me," she said.

Aimee said Prism Cafe has been getting the word out to her community by hosting special dinner parties.

"We are looking for ways to invite them in."

She hopes more people will know about their mission and pull up a seat in the colorful cafe, because there is something for everyone, and everyone is welcome. Now the restaurant is expanding to dinner service and will serve breakfast at Origin Coffee which is being built across the street. A heads up: Latimer Street in front of Prism is fully under construction, but the restaurant is still open!

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