Hal Smith — Ep 127 — This is Oklahoma Podcast

4 min readFeb 17, 2020

For episode 127 of the This is Oklahoma Podcast. Presented by The Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Telling Oklahoma’s Story Through Its People Since 1927. I sat down with Hospitality entrepreneur and Oklahoma Hall of Famer Hal Smith. Hal has quite the resume, but most of all he loves people and loves serving them. He has 94 restaurants that span across the flavor spectrum. But one thing I learned from our hour together was that he’s always staying fresh and up to date. Constantly surrounding himself with the younger generation to keep his mind in tune for potential new concepts or updating his current ones.

Hal grew up in Ardmore Oklahoma, worked in his parent’s restaurant from a very young age busting tables, collecting plates and cleaning dishes. After graduating high school he continued to work in the industry to pay for university at OU. While at OU, he thought he wanted to be a lawyer and began to study for the LSAT. One day his mother asked him, “are you going to have fun being a lawyer?” His reply determined his future. Hal replied, “no I enjoy the restaurant business.” With that conversation he dove into the hospitality industry.

This is where the story gets interesting, Hal works hard, becomes a manager and then opens up a few restaurants. One day and meets the head of Steak & Ale, a concept he’d used as an example when opening his restaurant he worked for. That man was Norman Brinker a man who would later be a lifetime mentor for Hal. At the time he was very impressed with Hal’s work and told him that if he ever wanted a job to reach out. Later that year Hal drove to Dallas to see if that job offer was legit, it was. They went on to do great things together and Hal started to open up restaurants all across the country for Steak & Ale. In the interview Hal tells a great story about opening up a restaurant in Detroit during the disco era. Changing the layout of the restaurant to cater to more dance and nightlife than day time restaurant sales. Norm shows up one day unannounced to see why Hal’s liquor sales are some of the highest in the country. That night Norm, a straight laced businessman is bouncing on the dance floor with his daughter. Hal couldn’t believe his eyes.

As the years passed Hal’s career grew in to positions of leadership, through trial and error with his mentor Norm’s guidance. Norm would see great potential in Hal and eventually handed Hal the position of CEO at age 33! An age that was unheard of for a leadership position back then. Norm moved on to take Chili’s around the world and over the years brought Hal in to run Chili’s for a period of time before he decided to come back to Norman and open up his own business. He put in the work, paid his dues and now it was time to open his own concepts in Oklahoma.

Hal assembled a team of old friends and colleagues his career to launch Hal Smith Restaurants in Oklahoma. Hal prides himself on being surrounded by younger people to stay fresh. His son and daughter have the bug too, they love food. His son is the best cook in the family and founder of The Garage Burgers and his daughter is currently opening up a second Organic Squeeze location in Norman. It truly is a family business. Hal has a huge passion for his family. Through some tough times and rough patches in his career he fought for his marriage and changed his career to keep it going.

At the end of the interview I didn’t have much to say, I was blown away by Hal’s story. I was wrapping up after an hour and asked Hal one more question. This one question led to another 20mins. Hal loves to share his stories. For the one question I discovered Hal has a huge passion for music. He loves to sing and play guitar. He’s sung with Toby Keith and Vince Gill. He shares a great story about seeing Elvis live at the fair grounds in OKC. I’ll leave it at that because it’s a great story you need to listen to it.

I am extremely thankful to have had this time with Hal. He truly loves people and loves to keep his mind fresh so that his restaurants stay at the top of peoples lists. Constantly evolving to serve the people and provide the experience they deserve.

This episode is presented by The Oklahoma Hall Of Fame. Telling Oklahoma’s Story Through Its People Since 1927. Follow them on social media @oklahomahof and online at www.oklahomahof.com

Episode 127 can be found on iTunes, Spotify and all other podcast platforms.

Thanks for reading. Here’s a list of Hal’s restaurants. Neighborhood Jam is definitely a breakfast spot you should check out.

Mike

Hal Smith — Ep 127 — This is Oklahoma Podcast

Written by This Is Oklahoma Podcast

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