Reba McEntire is celebrating the grand opening of her new Reba’s Place venue in Oklahoma with her own headlining concert. The Grand Ole Opry member will perform at the new restaurant, with the performance live-streamed on her Facebook page for fans all over the world to enjoy.
Although Reba’s Place, located in Atoka, will be closed to the public, McEntire is eager to perform in honor of the long-awaited restaurant finally coming to fruition.
Tune in to my Facebook page tomorrow night at 6:45 PM CT for a special livestream celebrating the grand opening of @RebasPlace in Atoka, OK! https://t.co/uWlpeXHfWi Note: Reba’s Place is closed to the public tomorrow, but will be officially open for guests Friday at 11 AM. pic.twitter.com/C4DQQplUWs
— Reba McEntire (@reba) January 25, 2023
McEntire says Reba’s Place will be a much more intimate stage for artists like herself to perform. She also had a hand in picking all of the menu items, including some of her favorite foods.
“It has 15,000 square feet over three floors,” McEntire tells Garden & Gun. “Upstairs is a retail area for merchandise, and downstairs is the restaurant and stage. I wanted to keep the stage small because I don’t want big productions and loud music — I just want people to be able to go there to listen to some music with their neighbors and have something good to eat. For the menu, I had my list of things that had to be on there, like chicken-fried chicken, and pintos and cornbread. And my smashed potatoes that I make with garlic and onion.”
Reba’s Place almost ended before it began. After visiting the building where Reba’s Place now exists, the building was in such bad repair that she and her boyfriend, Rex Linn, had to be evacuated from the second floor via a fire truck.
“It had been a Masonic Temple, but I don’t remember much about it except that it was across the street from the five-and-dime,” the 67-year-old recalls. “It needed a lot of work. When my boyfriend and I first went to look at the space, we got up to the second floor, and then the stairs collapsed behind us. Firefighters had to come with a ladder for us to climb down from an outside window. So the building was pretty much stripped to the bare bones and rebuilt. Don’t worry, the stairs are in good shape now.”
McEntire will kick off her Reba: Live in Concert Arena Tour in March, but she still hopes to perform in Reba’s Place as much as her schedule allows.
“It’s a great excuse for getting to go back home to Oklahoma,” McEntire shares. “The whole thing is just really a family-and-friends-type situation. I’m thrilled to pieces with it all.”
Reba’s Place will officially open on Friday, January 27 at 11:00 AM. More information can be found at RebasPlace.com.