Muskogee Phoenix

Harmony House has been named a 2009 HOT 100 Winner for "Best Place for Lunch" by the Muskogee Phoenix.



Muskogee Heads for Harmony House

Scores of diners frequent Harmony House Eatery & Bakery, located in a 1914 Muskogee, Oklahoma, home, where three generations of women serve some of the tastiest lunches and sweetest cookies in the city.

"I've had Hot Chicken Salad since I was a kid. It was an old family recipe," says Beth Beckham. She, mom Judy Cockrell, and grandmother Ethel Dexter scurry around in white aprons, all cooking, serving, and cashiering in the 85-seat restaurant.

On Tuesdays most diners choose the Hot Chicken Salad ($6.95). It's made with chicken breasts, cheddar cheese, celery, sliced almonds, croutons, and mayonnaise.

Customers often select Beth's grilled Chicken Sandwich, served in the pocket bread ($5.95). The bread isn't traditional pocket bread, "but a rolled dough," Beth Says.

The dough recipe comes from Southern Living, one of many from this magazine that the restaurant serves. The recipes Ethel and Judy have collected over the years form the basis for their cooking today. From this repertoire, the three f them create 11 luncheon specials and soups made daily.

Beth and Judy went into business together in 1990. Beth was living in Tulsa, but she wanted her children to grow up in Muskogee. "Mom was baking out of her home for clients," Beth recalls. "We had traveled to Eureka Springs together and thought we'd like to do a restaurant of the sort they have there. My mother and grandmother ran a restaurant when I was little, and we had lots of recipies they used."

Many Muskogeeans begin their day with a yawn and a treat from Harmony House. They show up early for cinnamon rolls, cinnamon bow knots, and a dozen or so cookies to take to work. Some of the favorite sweets include chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, lemon crinkle, oatmeal rasin, chocolate crinkle, and peanut butter cookies. They also pick up pies, cakes, and yeast breads. A few hours later, many of those cookie customers return for lunch.

Gary D. Ford