Uptown 23rd's Rebuild Moved Into the Off-Season. Here's What That Means for a Night Out

The roadwork on NW 23rd Street between Western and Broadway follows the shops' busy seasons as much as the engineering. One shop owner asked for a delay through her summer rush and got it. Another closed for a week in July so crews could finish faster. Moves like those pushed some of the most disruptive work into the months ahead, so fall and the holidays are when the small businesses on the corridor feel the work most.

Tower Theatre's calendar is full over those same months, and the first rebuilt blocks are already open. If you've been taking Classen or 36th to get around the cones since January, here's a look at how the street is coming along and why a visit now counts.

A Construction Schedule Built Around Ice Cream Season

The project costs $9.3 million and is paid for by an Association of Central Oklahoma Governments grant and the City's 2017 bond program. Construction started January 12, 2026, and the City estimates about 18 months for the whole job. Rudy Construction Co. is the contractor, and the City of Oklahoma City and ODOT are partners on the project.

The scheduling has bent to fit the street. In June, Angela Muir, founder of Boom Town Creamery at 605 NW 23rd, told KOCO that her block was due to be torn up but crews held off. She had told them June and July are her busiest months. "So, they adjusted and are going to swing back around to us this fall," she said.

Kathryn Mathis owns Big Truck Tacos and Pizzeria Gusto, and she went the other way. In the same KOCO report, she said Big Truck Tacos would close June 29 through July 5 to give the construction company "full access to our property to get 'er done as fast as possible." News 9 reported that staff used that week for deep cleaning and painting, and that the restaurant planned to reopen July 6. Back in March, Mathis told KOCO that the construction company had been meeting with Pizzeria Gusto every month to lessen the impact.

Mathis put the stakes plainly in that March KOCO story: "We are little, and we are local, and we don't have the deep pockets that some of the chains have to get us through this time." That was in spring, when the work was mostly in front of other blocks. The work has been moving down the street since.

Where the Work Stood at the City's Last Update

The City posts monthly updates on its Vision OKC project page, and the August bulletin, sent August 13, is the most recent one listed. Here's how that bulletin broke the corridor down, with completed work and the four-week look-ahead it projected for late summer:

The east end has carried the work the longest. The City said NW/NE 23rd would narrow to one lane each way between Robinson and Broadway starting Monday, Feb. 23, and expected those closures to last several weeks. On October 12, News 9 still listed that stretch at one lane in each direction for the streetscape work. In August, The Oklahoman reported that City officials still believe the NW 23rd project could be finished in 2027.

Side-street closures change from week to week. To check before you head out, sign up for the City's project emails, and the district keeps a parking map on its site.

What the Finished Blocks Are Building Toward

The middle of the corridor will change the most. The center median is coming out. The four blocks between Lee and Harvey that had a median have 11 sidewalk trees today, and the City's plan puts 76 trees along those sidewalks when the work is done. From Western to Broadway, the plan calls for 141 street trees: 116 new shade trees plus 25 existing sidewalk trees that will stay. Crossings will be shorter, sidewalks wider and lighting better, and a new waterline is going in between Western and Lee.

The Uptown 23rd District Association adds a few items the City summary doesn't mention: new bus stops, a traffic signal at Hudson Avenue, drought-resistant landscaping and ADA-compliant sidewalks. The old median trees didn't go to a landfill either. The association, Rudy Construction and the Oklahoma City Zoo arranged to donate them for animal enrichment.

Some of that is already done. By June, News 9 reported that work outside Basil Mediterranean Cafe had wrapped up and crews had moved farther west toward Boom Town Creamery. Halen Biggs of OK Runner told the station, "It'll be cool just to have a little bit more foot‑friendly place."

Who's Open Along the Corridor

"This street is owned by independent small businesses," Mathis told News 9 in June. The station reported that owners across the district have been sharing information and pointing customers toward ways to keep supporting nearby shops. These are the businesses named in this year's construction coverage:

• Basil Mediterranean Cafe, 211 NW 23rd St.
• OK Runner, 519 NW 23rd St., Suite 104
• Big Truck Tacos, 530 NW 23rd St.
• Boom Town Creamery, 605 NW 23rd St., whose block was pushed to this fall
• Pizzeria Gusto, 2415 N. Walker Ave.
• Uptown Jerky, 2418 N. Robinson Ave.

There's also a change inside Bungalow 23. Chino's Mexicano at 733 NW 23rd St. closed in late August after opening in October 2025, according to an October 7 roundup in The Oklahoman. The same report said Chick-N-Beer, which closed in January, plans to come back in that space as CNB Kitchen with a smaller menu that still includes its double-fried wings. As of mid-October, the CNB Kitchen site still says "Comin this Fall 2026" and promises Korean-style double-fried wings and bowls, but it gives no opening date.

A Tower Theatre Calendar That Runs Through the Work

Tower Theatre sits at 425 NW 23rd St., in the middle of the district, and its late-fall listings go right through the stretch of construction that was put off until now.

The theater sits in the 400 block, so dinner before a show is a short walk away, though a walk that's changing. Basil is a couple of blocks east and Big Truck Tacos and Boom Town Creamery are a block or two west, so a show night puts you on the blocks where the work has been. Pizzeria Gusto on Walker and Uptown Jerky on Robinson sit just off 23rd, where side-street closures have come and gone all year. Showtimes and lineups can change, so check the Tower Theatre calendar before you buy tickets.

If you live near Uptown and want to talk through how a rebuilt NW 23rd, with its wider sidewalks and new signal at Hudson, might affect your block, Robin Wilson - OK is glad to share what I'm seeing on the ground. Let's Connect.