NoName is a good one when it comes to beef
Wynnewood ranch’s relationship with local restaurants pushing two decades
Long before “Food Inc.” and Whole Foods Market spurred nationwide interest in farm-to-table concepts, Wynnewood’s NoName Ranch forged a partnership with a local chef that still bears fruit even as the locavore movement ebbs.
Local produce and livestock is more available to consumers now than ever; however, this market and plenty of others across the country have seen a winnowing of purveyors and facilitators of local goods.
You won’t find any fraying of the partnership and friendship forged between chef Kurt Fleischfresser and Wynnewood Rancher Bruce Buechner in 2001.
That’s when the two tallest drinks of water at a beef forum at Oklahoma State University had their first conversation, leading to a 17-year relationship that still keeps two local restaurants in quality, local beef.
Whether it’s a gourmet burger at Irma’s Burger Shack or a tomahawk chop rib-eye high above the city at Vast, NoName beef is a signature of Fleischfresser’s menus.
The celebrated chef’s explanation is simple: “It tastes like beef.”
Breed of kings
In the smallish amphitheater of the Oklahoma National Stockyards, cattle are ushered in and out of a holding pen before bidders from across the country starting at 8 a.m. every Monday.
Seated in the dimly lit gathering of cattlemen, Bruce Buechner (pronounced Beekner) explains how cattle of all shapes, sizes and feeding
programs are purchased by feed lots from across the country, looking to fill niches within their livestock inventory. It’s lots like these that supply the majority of the beef American consume, he explains.
That means the beef on a given table can come from animals of various origins.
That’s not how things work at NoName Ranch. Starting about 7 a.m. every morning, the family begins the daily routine they must follow to ensure their Pinzgauer cattle live up to the reputation of the breed.
Now in their 70s, Bruce and his wife, Joan, operate one of the country’s few operations raising purebred Pinzgauer cattle from Salzburg, Austria.
The auburn cattle, known for deep flavor despite being lean, feed on native unfertilized prairie hay and drink spring water.
“We aren’t certified organic only because the certification process would make our beef too expensive,” Buechner explained. “We don’t use any steroids, antibiotics, pesticides, or chemicals of any kind. Our animals eat the grass God grows in Garvin County and a little grain for finishing.”
Nothing is shipped, frozen or left behind with a wholesaler either. Beef goes from the ranch to a packing plant in Oklahoma City to the people who eat it.
“It’s just really pure beef,” Bruce Buechner said.
Lord, lead the way
Life wasn’t always Pinzgauers alone on the rolling prairie lands of NoName Ranch. The Buechners started selling their beef directly to private customers nearly 27 years ago, but then their main source of income came from the equine business.
Back then, the Buechners, along with their daughter, Dawn Burden, would buy and sell thoroughbreds in Kentucky and made a good living for many years. They also trained mules for extra income.
Tragedy changed the course of the ranch in May 1995. Shortly after a tornado damaged four outbuildings on the ranch, Dawn’s son, Chad, was killed in a freak accident during the cleanup. Hauling off debris in a pickup with a couple of friends, a broken tie-rod threw them from the road. Chad Buechner was killed instantly six months before his 16th birthday.
In the difficult year that followed, the Buechners decided to concentrate on cattle. But even then, they didn’t follow their typical protocol. “It was at that time that we didn’t know whether we wanted to continue or not,” Bruce Buechner said. “It was the only time we’ve ever auctioned cattle at the Oklahoma National Stockyards.”
Not only had their grandson admired the Pinzgauers, but they were looking to simplify their operation. So, they sold their horses. “When we decided to quit the horse business and go to the cattle business, it was like starting all over again,” Joan Buechner said.
Bruce Buechner added: “It was really scary, but we had faith in God.”
Restaurant-to-ranch
You’ll have to forgive chef Kurt Fleischfresser if he laughs when you mention the local movement of the last decade because his own personal local movement is going on 35 years.
On the other hand, he’s not unhappy how much easier it’s become for him to source locally raised ingredients because for years his local mission was fraught with peril.
“I’ve tried so many local farms and ranches, had all these agreements with different people — really nice people. Made a lot of friends,” Fleischfresser said. “I used so many local producers over the years, but almost all of them eventually couldn’t keep up with demand.”
At the forum back in 2001, Buechner spoke in his Pennsylvania Dutch accent about what he and his family refer to as the “breed of royalty” that hails from Salzburg, Austria. Buechner spoke with such authority and passion, Fleischfresser was anxious to sample the samples prepared.
That came by way of dinner in Wynnewood later that year.
“Do you remember what we had?” Buechner asked Fleischfresser.
“Chuck roast,” Fleischfresser said without hesitation.
“We wanted to show the quality of the Pinzgauer by serving one of its cheapest cuts,” Buechner said.
“It was delicious,” Fleischfresser recalled. “It just melted in your mouth. What I loved about it most, is the same thing I love about it today: It’s beefiness. NoName beef tastes the way beef is supposed to taste. It has great texture, but it has that pure beef flavor.”
Ranch-to-table(s)
On a recent afternoon, Buechner spent the back half of a day in the city dropping by Irma’s Burger Shack and Vast, the two places in town he knows without question he can get a quality hunk of beef cooked properly.
When ordering a burger at Irma’s, he asks for it rare. Same with the steak he sampled at Vast. “They know just how I like it,” Buechner said between bites of his burger.
The rancher’s lunch wouldn’t have been possible that day if he hadn’t offered the owners some free advice sometime in 2002.
That was about the time Fleischfresser was realizing he had one very big problem with the beef he loved so much he agreed to serve it at The Coach House and The Metro.
“We quickly realized that for every eight tenderloins, we had 350 pounds of hamburger,” Fleischfresser said.
But Buechner had a fix.
“I told them to open a burger joint!” Buechner said.
The original Irma’s Burger Shack, 1035 NW 63, opened in October 2003, featuring the NoName beef burger.
“As soon as we opened, it was crazy busy,” said Irma’s managing partner Linda Lee, who was born in Wynnewood.
A second Irma’s opened in 2008 in the Plaza Court building. After 10 years, its future is uncertain as property values have skyrocketed in Midtown. Lee said she has a lease through the end of July and re-upping seems unlikely now, but opined how selling enough NoName Burgers could bolster its position. About a year ago, both Irma’s locations went exclusively to NoName beef after offering it side-by-side against a standard patty for many years.
“We finally decided to go with what distinguishes Irma’s from other places,” co-owner Chris Lower said.
NoName beef is also prominent on the menu at Vast, which has been the case since Fleischfresser was named Chief of Culinary Operations for the Devon Tower concept in 2015.
Executive chef Kevin Lee and his crew serve it various ways, but no more nobly or deliciously than the bone-in rib-eye.
“That tomahawk chop is hard to beat,” Lee said. “We sell a lot of them.”
Music to the ears of those who continue to rise with the sun, tending the herd.