Home›Places›Oklahoma City, OK›VZD's Restaurant & Bar
Historic place

VZD's Restaurant & Bar

4200 N Western Ave, Oklahoma City, OK

A Western Avenue music bar that Chad Bleakley ran for 24 years. The Tax Commission shut it in 2014 and it closed for good in September 2023.

📅 1976–2023🏛️ BarClosed
Open on the mapSlide back to 1976

The story

VZD's was a restaurant, bar and live music club at 4200 N. Western Ave. The Oklahoma Gazette said the owner would have celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2016, which points to a 1976 opening. Chad Bleakley owned it for 24 years and revived it as a venue for up-and-coming acts. The article names the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, the Reverb Brothers and Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and says it favored jazz, blues, rockabilly and alternative rock that were less welcome elsewhere in the city.

It closed on a Monday in November 2014 when the Oklahoma Tax Commission shut it. Bleakley also cited a statewide smoking ban that exempted bars and casinos, a building accessibility lawsuit with over $100,000 in legal fees, and his health. A later AOL piece says it was a popular Western Avenue mainstay that closed in September. Chef Timothy Abell planned to open Raven in the space.

What's There Now

Raven, a coffee shop and restaurant planned by Chef Timothy Abell; opening was not confirmed.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The Oklahoma Tax Commission closed it in November 2014.
The Gazette named the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More among its bands.
Chef Timothy Abell planned a restaurant called Raven for the space.

Nearby history

Belle Isle Power Plant (OG&E)

50 Penn Pl · 1.7 km away
OG&E's art deco plant ran as a standby until 1980 and was imploded in January 1999 for retail space.

Tower Theatre

425 NW 23rd St · 2.5 km away
A Streamline Moderne movie house with a pipe organ that went adult in 1989, closed in 2000, and came back as a music ven

Jamil's Steakhouse

4910 N Lincoln Blvd · 2.5 km away
A Lebanese steakhouse in an early-1930s house that was once a dance hall and speakeasy, with glass salvaged from the Hot

Blue Note Lounge

2408 N Robinson Ave · 2.6 km away
A Route 66 lounge whose neon sign went up in 1961 and which the state historical society calls one of the city's oldest

Dolores Restaurant

33 NE 23rd St · 2.9 km away
Ralph and Amanda Stephens named this drive-in for their daughter in 1930. Duncan Hines recommended it in 1941, and it cl

Chicken in the Rough (first restaurant)

2429 N Lincoln Blvd · 3.4 km away
The Osbornes opened a nine-stool drive-in on Route 66 in 1936. It grew to seat 1,100 before the state capitol complex to

Know something about VZD's Restaurant & Bar? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?

Add it on the map
Sourceshttps://www.okgazette.com/arts-culture/classic-music-bar-food-venue-vzds-closes-2963992/