The Meat & Cheese Show Is High-End Retail By Day, Fine Dining Speakeasy By Night

For a guy who writes about burgers as much as I do, I’m pretty keen on foods not served in foil, too. I can tell if an oyster is from the East, West, or Mud Coast of the U.S. I once described a wine at a tasting as having notes of “trench foot”—to the embarrassment of my then-partner and the delight of the sommelier, who said I was correct, although “gamey” was the preferred term. I’ve shed tears over a tlayuda in a Oaxacan graveyard, sampled Camembert while standing next to the cows that produced it in Normandy, and tried whale in Bergen (I feel bad about that one). I get misty-eyed remembering what was lost when Lowood burned down.

So I was primed for the low-brow-named Meat & Cheese Show’s high-brow “Night in Spain” wine dinner—part of their Friday Supper Club series—which blew my mid-brow ass away. 

This spot, which occupies a tiny space on 11th Street just east of Peoria, is a high-end retail shop by day and, more recently, a Michelin-seeking speakeasy by night. Its branding is mid-century modern, with atomic age aesthetics and a TV screen logo that can only be described as Ren & Stimpian. You might be surprised to find that serious food (far more wide-ranging than the “meat and cheese” in the name) is happening in this Jetsons-esque environment. But owners and chefs Joel Bein and Amanda Simcoe are here to mess with all your expectations about what belongs where—and who belongs at the fine dining table.  

Bein is the inventive force behind RUB, a BBQ food truck launched in 2014, known for bold flavors and its signature Cuban sandwich. Though RUB is meat-forward, Bein has also made a name for himself in vegan cuisine, winning multiple Ripple Invitationals, Best Vegan Private Dining in Tulsa’s Vegan Chef Challenge, and The Culinary Brilliance Award. (“I’ve also won some seconds and thirds,” Bein admitted, “but we don’t talk about that.”) 

Where Bein is the Meat, Simcoe is unmistakably the Cheese. Known locally and Instagrammically as the “Cheese Wench” since her days at D’Novo Lean Gourmet, her moniker is buttressed with formal training in San Francisco and years spent cheese-hunting across Europe. Returning to Tulsa with plans to open a shop, Simcoe called Bein, a frequent collaborator from past catering gigs, to pitch the idea of a specialty market. “I got a bottle of cab and an idea, get over here,” she told him. 

With Simcoe’s encyclopedic cheese knowledge and Bein’s praetorian command of proteins, the concept came together quickly, and in 2021 The Meat & Cheese Show was born. It started as just a market, but soon evolved into a full-fledged food operation, complete with catering, a vintage Airstream cocktail bar, and regular dinner gatherings at the shop where Bein and Simcoe serve multiple themed courses with wine pairings and stories as rich as what’s on the table. 

The pair became business partners through charity dinners and private meals in patrons’ homes, but their nighttime transformation into a fine dining establishment was a dream they’ve just now been able to realize with consistency. The road here has been marbled with frustrations—including a pandemic, a surgery, and a derecho—but we’ll chew on that fat after we eat.