Tellers in Oklahoma City: Italian Dining with Cocktail Focus in Uptown

Tellers is a dinner-focused Italian restaurant and craft cocktail bar located in Oklahoma City's Uptown neighborhood, where pasta and wine sit alongside an ambitious spirits program that often overshadows the food in regular conversation among locals.

What Tellers Actually Is

Tellers operates as a sit-down restaurant with a significant bar component, not a quick casual spot. The space accommodates roughly 80 to 100 diners across a single room with high ceilings and exposed brick, giving it an urban warehouse feel rather than the checkered-tablecloth treatment many Italian restaurants in the region default to. The restaurant opened in the mid-2010s and has remained a consistent draw for the Uptown crowd, particularly for date nights and celebratory dinners. It is quieter and more deliberately paced than Cattlemen's Steakhouse and more alcohol-forward than Il Secondo, the two most frequently named comparisons for upscale dining in Oklahoma City.

Menu, Specialties, and Pricing

Tellers builds its menu around Northern Italian traditions, with pastas that change seasonally. Signature dishes have included tagliatelle with wild boar ragù, pappardelle with duck, and handmade ravioli filled with ricotta and seasonal vegetables. Entrees typically range from $24 to $42, depending on protein and preparation. Pizzas run $14 to $18 for individual pies. The wine list is substantial, organized by region, with bottles starting around $35 and climbing steeply into collector territory; by-the-glass pours cost $8 to $16. The cocktail program is the stated obsession of ownership, with house drinks priced at $12 to $15 and drawing on Italian aperitivo culture as much as classic American templates. Food-wise, Tellers does not offer a traditional happy hour discount, and the kitchen does not accommodate substitutions readily, so menu items arrive as conceived.

How Tellers Compares to Other Italian Options

Oklahoma City's Italian restaurant landscape splits into casual-to-family (Abuelo's and local pizza chains) and upscale-occasion (Il Secondo, Tellers, and Cattlemen's as a secondary draw). Il Secondo, also in Uptown, emphasizes Southern Italian seafood and red-sauce depth, with mains in the $28 to $38 range and a quieter, more reserved tone. Tellers leans Northern, drier, lighter, and surrounds its food with craft cocktails and wine enthusiasm in a way Il Secondo does not. If you want Italian fine dining in Oklahoma City, these two are the only contenders; choose Tellers for cocktail culture and younger energy, and Il Secondo for seafood specificity and a more formal atmosphere.

Who Tellers Suits and Who It Does Not

Tellers works well for dates, business dinners, and small celebrations where alcohol is part of the outing. It rewards diners who enjoy reading a wine list or trying unfamiliar spirits. It does not suit families with small children (no kids menu, noise level), people seeking high-volume output at low cost, or anyone ordering by restriction or strong substitution needs. Tellers also fills after 8 p.m. on weekends; arriving before 7:30 p.m. or booking ahead is practical.

What a First Visit Involves

Expect to be seated promptly if you arrive before peak hours; the host will offer wine or cocktail menus immediately alongside food. The bartender or server will likely engage you on what you drink and how adventurous you are willing to be. Appetizers (crostini, burrata, cured meats) run $9 to $16 and arrive within 10 to 15 minutes. Pasta courses follow, then mains if ordered separately. Desserts include house-made tiramisu and rotating seasonal builds, typically $8 to $10. Dinner from first drink to last course usually spans two hours.

Hours, Parking, and Logistics

Tellers is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday. Parking is available on the street in Uptown or in nearby lots; the restaurant does not have dedicated parking. The space is wheelchair accessible. Reservations can be made through OpenTable or by phone; walk-ins are taken when space allows but are not guaranteed during evening service. Credit cards are accepted; there is no cash-only requirement.

Tellers holds a clear niche in Oklahoma City dining: it is the city's most cocktail-literate Italian restaurant, and the only one where the spirits program genuinely rivals the food in reputation and execution. That dual competence is rare enough locally to merit a visit.