WATONGA – An Oklahoma City barbecue chain that operates a restaurant at Roman Nose State Park is under scrutiny over its seemingly generous contract with the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is reportedly looking into the state’s agreement with Swadley’s Bar-B-Q, which has operated Foggy Bottom Kitchen restaurants at Roman Nose and other state parks since 2020. The contracts included state money for renovations, management fees, and an agreement to reimburse Swadley’s for its losses at the parks.
The Legislative Office for Fiscal Transparency released a report last week that found a “significant growth in expenditures” since the contracts were signed, even though restaurants were not even in the top 10 of visitors’ most important park amenities in a 2017 poll.
Since 2020 the state has paid Swadley’s more than $13 million to operate the restaurants.
Foggy Bottom restaurants opened at Roman Nose, Lake Murray, Sequoyah and Beavers Bend parks in 2020, with Robbers Cave and Quartz Mountain locations coming in 2021. Work has been suspended at a planned Little Sahara location.
According to a 2020 lease agreement reviewed by the Watonga Republican, the state paid the Roman Nose Swadley’s a $5,518 monthly management fee to cover the restaurants’ cost for a statewide manager, vehicle and travel costs for the statewide manager, accounting services, corporate overhead, and executive management. The management fees at Beavers Bend and Lake Murray were much higher.
Those management fees were raised across the board in an amended lease agreement when the two additional restaurants opened in 2021, according to reports, bumping the Roman Nose fees to $8,000.
In addition to the management fees, the original lease says the state will reimburse Swadley’s up to $1 million to cover its losses. If the restaurant were to ever profit, it would pay the first $100,000 to the state as a royalty and then keep a percentage of its profits above that number.
However, The Oklahoman reports that the tourism department actually reimbursed Swadley’s $2.1 million to offset losses in 2021.
Overall, Roman Nose has been among the least costly Foggy Bottom locations that Swadley’s has opened. For instance, Swadley’s was set to be reimbursed nearly $100,000 to remodel its Roman Nose location, according to the contract; but Beavers Bend received more than three times that amount and the Robbers Cave remodel was budgeted for more than $740,000.
Reports indicate the remodel costs ran well over initial projections.
With the promise of having losses covered, some Oklahoma lawmakers have questioned why Swadley’s was the only company to bid on the restaurant project. But tourism department director Jerry Winchester, who appeared before the Legislative Office for Fiscal Transparency Oversight Committee on Thursday and before the Tourism and Recreation Advisory Committee on Friday, said his department approached 25 possible operators and had trouble finding any willing to operate restaurants in such remote locations.
He defended his department’s conduct and said the Foggy Bottom expenditures have been a necessary part of a broader rebrand of Oklahoma State Parks.
The Foggy Bottom manager at Roman Nose could not be reached for comment Tuesday; the restaurant is open Wednesday through Saturday.