DRUMRIGHT, October 10, 2015—Take a little romance, add some fried bologna, throw in a splash of locally-made wine and you’ll have the makings for the National Bologna Day festivities happening in Drumright, Oklahoma on Saturday the twenty-fourth of October this year.
Area happenings on October 24 will include a free public book signing from 1 – 3 pm at the Tidewater Winery [https://www.tidewaterwinery.com] where New York Times and USA Today bestselling contemporary romance author Cat Johnson will be available to meet fans of her Oklahoma Nights series, which features the town of Drumright, and local businesses Joseph’s Fine Foods and the Tidewater Winery.
Joseph’s Fine Foods [https://josephsfinefoods] will be celebrating the day with specials featuring, of course, their signature smoked Fried Bologna Sandwich as well some fun surprises for customers coming in that day.
Just next door to Joseph’s, the historic Tidewater Winery will be hosting a Haunted Costume Party with karaoke and a ghost hunt from 7 – 10. Tickets are available online. [https://squareup.com/market/TideWaterWinery/tidewater-winery-s-haunted-costume-party]
Why all this fanfare to celebrate the humblest of meats? You might not know this, but October 24th is National Bologna Day. This annual event probably passes unnoticed for most people, as do many of the other holidays listed by the National Day Calendar website [https://nationaldaycalendar.com] such as National Pierogi Day, National Frappe Day, and National Moldy Cheese Day.
National Bologna Day is not ignored in one small town in Oklahoma. In fact, it’s celebrated annually and on August 10 of this year, it was made official in Drumright with a proclamation signed by Mayor Deborah Bright.
How did bologna come to be lauded in small town Oklahoma? The story is as spicy as Joseph’s Signature Smoke Sauce. One day a romance writer in New York decided to have her fictional characters eat at a real Oklahoma restaurant. Author Cat Johnson had noticed that morning that one of her new Twitter followers listed Drumright, Oklahoma as her location and had the URL for a restaurant in her Twitter bio.
A few clicks of a mouse later, and Johnson was immersed in the fare listed on Joseph’s Fine Food’s online menu. One dish stuck out as particularly intriguing to this born and bred New Yorker—the fried bologna sandwich. It was the perfect item to feature in her “fish out of water” story about a female English professor from New York who finds her new job at Oklahoma State University as challenging as the bull-riding cowboy who wants her to try fried bologna for the first time.
Johnson contacted Jamey Martin, owner of Joseph’s Fine Foods in Drumright, and informed him the restaurant and their signature sandwich would feature in a, shall we say steamy scene in her romance novel, One Night with a Cowboy (Kensington Publishing). That launched a joint marketing campaign with the unlikely combination of books and bologna as the focus and led to the restaurant becoming a destination for Johnson’s romance fans.
That was in 2011. Four years later, the cross-country collaboration and friendship continues and has expanded. When it came time for the author to pen the second and third books in the Oklahoma Nights series, she continued to use Joseph’s Fine Food and their smoked bologna in the stories as her hero’s favorites. And when Johnson needed her fictional couple to go on another date in a later book, she chose the Tidewater Winery as the location, thereby bringing the local historic landmark into the Oklahoma Nights family.
“I’m looking forward to eating my first Fried Bologna Sandwich at Joseph’s, and of course, to indulging in some of Tidewater’s local wine,” says Johnson who, much like her book’s heroine, has never been to Oklahoma.
Find more information about the October 24 event at:
Tidewater Winery
https://www.tidewaterwinery.com/events.html
54560 West Highway 16
Drumright, OK 74030
OPEN: Fri Noon–6, Sat 10-6, Sun Noon-6
Ph: (918) 352-4900
Joseph’s Fine Foods
https://www.josephsfinefoods.com/
54580 W. Highway 16
Drumright, OK 74030
OPEN: Tues-Sat 11am -9pm
Ph: (800) 729-2123
Email: E-mail: [email protected]
Cat Johnson
Email: [email protected]
