Rachel Cope, founder and CEO of 84 Hospitality Group, got her start in restaurant ownership by losing a contest. It’s something she still talks about with some incredulity. The year was 2013, and Oklahoma City’s mini-Portlandia, AKA the Plaza District, was just donning its beanie, growing a lumberjack beard and lacing up its Red Wings. An early investor in the area, Steve Mason, guided in part by the vision developer Aimee Ahpeatone had for the district, was in possession of a former laundromat awaiting transformation, so a pitch contest was held for budding business owners, sort of like “Shark Tank.”

Fun fact about Cope: she is incredibly competitive. Fiercely. Hates to lose. She played shortstop for years, including in college at Oklahoma City University, a career which culminated in an NAIA national softball championship her senior year. Of the Plaza District contest she says, “You were seeing everything from flower shops to laundromats to an arcade to all these different restaurants, and I decided that I was going to make a business plan and pitch that.” 

Cope had, by this time, been working in the hospitality biz for years, spending time at the Deep Fork Group, and as she puts it, “Everywhere on Western [Avenue]. I was at VZDs, I was at Café Nova, at Deep Fork and at the Wedge.” Long-time Oklahoma Cityans will remember these old favorites — alas, none remain. 

As Cope was working her way through the Oklahoma City restaurant scene, she met a woman who opened her eyes to what a restaurant could be. Maybe even should be. Elena Farrar, who had helped found OKC’s Elemental Coffee, with its exceptional food and warm vibe, was a mentor for Cope. Of meeting Farrar, Cope says, “That was the first time I got to see someone who played the music that they felt like fit the guests and made decisions on behalf of the guest.”

But back to the Plaza District competition: Cope teamed up with a chef friend of hers, saying, “I want to put an idea in for this … what are you good at cooking?” Eastern European, he told her. Pierogies. Things like that. “We pitch this idea, they interview us. We don’t win. Go figure.” The loss stung.

“So I took off to Austin about two weeks after the contest ended, and I went to a pizza place called Home Slice on South Congress, before South Congress is what it is now. It was pretty cool and still kind of low-key then. But I sat there and I was like, damn it … this neighborhood is what I think the Plaza is going to be, and we should have done pizza,” she says. Cope came back to OKC and told her friend, essentially, to buckle up — because she had a new plan.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to Cope and company, Mason and Ahpeatone had been unable to strike a deal with the contest winners. So they called Cope. “They told me, ‘We think you have the experience running restaurants and that you have the knowledge, but do you have any other ideas?’ And I just said pizza.” Never mind that Cope didn’t know how to make pizza. 

The pressure was on. She had 30 days to prepare a menu for tasting. “It didn’t go that great. The appetizers and salads and things were fine, but the pizza itself was terrible. We didn’t know what we were doing. We were making dough in a small Kitchen-Aid mixer in my rent house and not letting it proof … it was just hard and not pliable when we were trying to stretch it.” They were given 60 days to figure it out and try again. 

Photos by Chelsey Cope

Cope panicked, but then her competitive spirit kicked in. “I start researching pizza schools, and I found one in San Francisco called Tony Gemignani’s International School of Pizza,” she says, which had an upcoming class on American and New York style pizza. “It was a week long. My parents took money out of their stock market account and sent me to San Fran. I didn’t grow up in a wealthy family, so giving me 10 grand was all the extra cash they had at the time.” She returned home with the distinction of being the first woman in Oklahoma certified in making pizza in that style. “It changed everything.”

That was the beginning of Empire Slice House, and Cope’s culinary empire. She’s repaid her parents many times over. Her company created and now operates a clever collection of restaurants in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, including Empire Slice House, with locations in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Edmond and Stillwater; Goro Ramen in OKC’s Paseo Arts District; two Burger Punks, both in Oklahoma City; and most recently Elisabetta, Cope’s first finer dining concept.   

The new restaurant’s name is the Italian version of Cope’s middle name, Elizabeth. Its location, at NW 73rd St. and Western Ave., will be familiar to many. Over the years the building has housed coffee shops and multiple restaurants like Louie’s and, way back in the day, TerraLuna. For Cope, though, it was about a vibe. “It had sat vacant for over a year. I just kept driving past it. Almost every space we’ve ever had has come from me driving by and feeling something.”

Elisabetta is Cope’s first collab with Excelsior Hospitality, an Austin-based restaurant consultancy. They’ve helped develop Elisabetta’s menu, working with Cope’s local team. She also brought Chris Pardo Design in on the interior design, a company which has created truly beautiful hotels, villas and restaurants across the United States and beyond. 

In an interview with EatingOKC, Elisabetta is described as a “slowed-down, upscale casual dining experience with traditional Italian fare, a robust wine list and full bar set in an elegant space,” and describing it as her first “grown-up restaurant.” As Cope enters her 40s, she jokes, “We can’t eat pizza and cheeseburgers every day anymore.” 

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