Later Bye
Words by Jeff Simpson / Photos by Charlie Neuenschwander
In true Southern fashion, the first time I walked into Later Bye co-owner and operator Steven Idlet came out from behind the bar to give me a hug. His six-foot-eleven tower of a body enveloped my compact five-foot-seven frame as I stood cheekbone-to-navel. It’s the kind of greeting I’ve grown to expect from Steven, the kind that truly welcomes you, beckons you to sit awhile, drink in hand, and forget about the outside world. It’s the “Cheers” effect, and he comes by it both naturally and through pedigree.
Steven grew up in northwest Arkansas and started bartending 10 years ago at Maxine’s Tap Room in Fayetteville, an exquisite hole-in-the-wall opened by the infamous Marjorie Maxine Miller in 1950. (It’s one of the oldest bars in Arkansas.) Not long after relocating to Oklahoma City, he found his way to the Farmer’s Market District. “My wife and I moved down here in 2021, and I heard about this new bar, Palo Santo,” Steven says. “We went and had food and drinks, and it was one of the best bars I had been to in a long time. It was our date night spot for the first six months we lived here.”
Over time, Steven became acquainted with the Palo staff and met one of the co-owners, Bailey Butler. “I was leaving one night, and I asked her if they were hiring, and she said: ‘You wanna start tomorrow?’ I didn’t start the next day, but we exchanged information, and a couple of weeks later I was working behind the bar.”
At Palo, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary, Steven refined his already sharp skills under the guidance of Bailey and her husband, Brian Butler. It was fertile ground — after all, Palo upped the ante on not only cocktails and bar food in OKC, but also hospitality. It’s no surprise it’s widely considered one of the best cocktail bars in the state.
Over the next couple of years, between the busy nights and post-shift drinks, the Butlers started thinking about their next concept, and Steven joined the conversation. While mulling everything over, fortune came calling. Jonathan Dodson, founding partner and CEO of Pivot Project, who owns both the Harvey Bakery building and the Palo Santo building, called Brian up and said he had a cool little spot, and asked if they wanted to do something different and fun.
Dodson showed them a tiny rectangle of a room behind Harvey Bakery — a former micro-office suite that on paper boasted 890 square feet, but lost 24 feet once properly measured. Brian and Bailey said yes … and then immediately worried about the staffing issues that plague every bar and restaurant on the planet. They knew from their time running bars in L.A. that when you secure that coveted draft pick and develop them into a great leader, they inevitably get poached and go to work for someone else. So the Butlers decided to make Steven an official partner with a 30% ownership stake.
The deal struck, Steven and Brian spent the next several months doing much of the buildout themselves. Toiling as contractors and concrete men by day, slinging drinks and serving food by night. As stars aligned and the plumbing came together, they drilled down on the specifics of the concept. Dodson, again, would prove instrumental. He not only suggested the space, but also inadvertently christened the bar. “Jonathan is always so busy,” Brian says. “He’ll be in a meeting with you and suddenly say: ‘I gotta go. Later, bye.’ Since Jonathan put this deal together we thought let’s just call it ‘Later Bye.’ It’s perfect. It’s like going on a little vacation.”
Steven and Brian also knew they wanted to create something focused and refined, something self-contained. If Palo is the agave-heavy juggernaut that feels like a latter-day cantina, Later Bye is the microcosmic aperitivo bar that was born out of the salty, sun-bleached shores of the Mediterranean. Its red walls whose hue falls somewhere between scarlet and crimson are embellished by vertical wood slats that double as acoustic paneling. A framed likeness of Edward G. Robinson presides over a backbar adorned with angled mirrors, giving guests a more panoramic view, and a solid black walnut bar top that runs nearly the length of the room. It’s sleek and streamlined, as if Frank Lloyd Wright designed a basement speakeasy. With only 31 seats and no standing room, Later Bye embodies the quaint, candlelit bars of New York. It’s a place where you can sit alone with a book, catch up with a couple of old friends, or have intimate date-night conversations.
The drinks and food both fall under the umbrella category of apéritif, derived from the Latin verb aperire, meaning “to open.” It’s a setting to usher in the twilight hour between day and night, a place to wake your palate with light drinks and decadent snacks. One of the first things Steven and Brian bonded over was their mutual love of fortified wines (vermouth, sherry, Madeira, port), and that love is infused throughout the cocktail list where you’ll find sparkling wine, martinis, amaro sodas, and force-carbonated vermouth sitting center stage. “Here we showcase the simple and delicious things we sometimes used over at Palo, but more so in the background,” Steven says.
Brian echoes this style of drink with the food menu, sourcing high-quality items like conserves and exquisite olive oils before mixing them together, just as he would in his bartending days, into something grand. “This place came to fruition by us deciding to make really, really great cocktails to go with food,” Brian says. “It’s salty, briny fish and meats and cheese; things you would eat in Spain, Portugal, or Italy. We even brine our own anchovies.”
The small space does come with limitations — there’s often a small wait time and parties of six are generally the max — but there’s so much thought and intention behind their desire to accept these limits in favor of the beauty that resides in constraint. “It leaves so much more room for the parts of bartending that create community,” Steven says. “We’re serving things that people are curious about. They have time to ask questions and we have time to explain why we do certain things, and that creates a real experience.”
In my subsequent visits I find myself thinking about what Flannery O’Connor allegedly said about story endings, that they should feel surprising yet inevitable. Later Bye feels like something you’ve been missing without quite knowing what it was until it arrives. Its name functions like a circular loop, serving as both greeting and farewell, hello and goodbye, but as you sign the bill and say goodnight you leave with the warm sense that perhaps part of you never really left.
Later Bye, 301 NW 13th Street, Suite 101, (405) 768-3208, laterbyeokc.com, @laterbyeokc
