Jan. 27—ATOKA — Reba McEntire said she wished her parents could see her new southeastern Oklahoma restaurant open.
The country music star told a large crowd of guests invited to Thursday's grand opening of Reba's Place in Atoka that her parents inspired some features of the restaurant and she believes they would enjoy it.
"I just wish mom and daddy were here to see it — they would love it," McEntire said. "They'd be parked right over there all day long and through the night."
The restaurant, at 319 E. Court St. in Atoka, Oklahoma, is a joint partnership between McEntire, The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and the city of Atoka that was first announced in 2021.
Choctaw Nation Senior Executive Officer of Commerce Janie Dillard said the city of Atoka came to the tribe three years ago with the idea for a restaurant in their city.
Dillard said the 50-50 partnership was "a no-brainer" and applauded the country music's start ambition.
"She wants to own and be a part of it," Dillard said.
McEntire — who was born in McAlester, raised in Chockie, and attended Kiowa schools — said the restaurant now gives her an excuse to visit her family members and friends who live around the Atoka area.
"Now we got a meeting place," McEntire said. "And that's what a restaurant is all about. It's a meeting place where people come in and visit and eat."
McEntire said she had some doubts about opening a restaurant when she was first approached with the idea — saying she is more of a "professional restaurant goer."
But after seeing the location and the community come together, she quickly changed her mind.
"I thought 'man, what history, what stories can be told?,'" McEntire said. "Because I'm a singer, but I love to tell stories in my song. It was really neat to be talked into it and I'm so glad they did."
The building where Reba's Place is located is a renovated century-old, three-story building that once housed a Masonic Temple in 13,284 square feet.
A total of 250 patrons can be sat on the first two floors of the building with a mercantile and a library of books that belonged to McEntire's late mother, Jacqueline, on the third floor.
"We wanted to do a library for mama and it didn't work out and we couldn't figure out why it didn't work out," McEntire said. "I tell you, God's got the cutest ways to making things work out."
Restaurant patrons will be greeted with dinnerware, silverware, and other aspects McEntire handpicked.