Thanks to Lebanese emigrating from Greater Syria to Bristow, our town holds an annual festival that celebrates one piece of their culture – a culinary tradition of eating tabouleh (many spell it “tabouli”), a Mediterranean fresh salad.Vendors selling services and wares, two Express Clydesdale horses and two camels, a Kid’s Zone and belly dancers and other performers provided fun entertainment on five city blocks of Main Street (Route 66) that circled around that central theme.This year’s Tabouleh Fest on May 10 th brought 5,000 people, according to Chapman Shields, the Assistant Planner to Stacey Shields, his mother and Lead Planner.
The Noon Lions Club (and host for the event), St. Joseph Alter Society, Bristow Fraternal Order of Police, Burnin LUV BBQ and 1st Christian Church sold a variety of Middle Eastern food in some form (tabouleh and tabouleh paste, cabbage rolls, Manakeesh, Mujadara, hummus, Labneh Balls, and baklava) and tried to keep up with customer demand.“Hat’s off to the chef!” exclaimed Anna Burford of Tulsa. “The cabbage rolls are delicious,” she said of the $15 dinner plate from the Noon Lions Club. Emily Keleher, her friend, agreed. “It is very traditional in its taste.”
The Abrahams, Shamas, Korkames, Macsas and Horany (Hamburger King restaurant) and David and Nellie Slyman (Slyman’s Grocery Store) and other families who came from Greater Syria, primarily in the late 1800s-early 1900s, were key to growing Bristow’s commerce. Their descendants thrive in Bristow.Tom Korkames is a thirdgeneration Lebanese descendant who owns/operates Pro Tech Termite; Pest Services in Bristow. His forefathers immigrated from Lebanon in the early 1900s,entered the United States through Ellis Island, moved to Arkansas and then to Bristow because the family wanted to live in a Lebanese community. Paul and Tina Korkames owned the Famous Chile plant…