Hammett House

Hammett House was founded in 1969 by the Reed family — Claremore-area residents who recognized the opportunity to operate a sit-down family restaurant directly across from the Will Rogers Memorial Museum. The museum had been drawing visitors steadily since opening in 1938, but the Claremore restaurant scene in the 1960s was sparse and museum visitors often left town without a meal stop. The Reeds purchased a small commercial lot on Will Rogers Boulevard, built the original restaurant building, and opened Hammett House in 1969 with a menu focused on Southern comfort food at modest prices.

The restaurant's name comes from the Hammett family — Claremore residents whose connection to the founding involves a family relationship and a partnership arrangement that has been quietly maintained across the decades. The Reed family has been the operational ownership since opening; the Hammett name has been retained for continuity and as a recognition of the founding partnership. The signature recipes — particularly the yeast rolls and the lemon pecan pie — date to the founding and have been kept essentially unchanged across more than five decades of operation.

The Reed family has continuously operated the restaurant since 1969. The founding generation passed operational responsibility to their children in the 1990s and 2000s; subsequent family members continue to be involved in day-to-day operations. Staff continuity is notable — many servers and kitchen team members have worked at Hammett House for 20-30+ years, and the consistent staff is part of the restaurant's reliable identity. The dining room is genuinely family-run in a way that has become uncommon in 21st-century American restaurants.

The yeast rolls are the single item that defines Hammett House more than any other. Fresh-baked dinner rolls — about 2.5 inches across, golden-brown on top, soft and slightly sweet inside — are brought to every table in a small basket as soon as guests are seated. The rolls are accompanied by a small dish of apple butter (the restaurant's house-made spiced apple preserve) that is the standard partner for the rolls. Guests are not asked whether they want rolls; the rolls arrive automatically, and they are refilled throughout the meal as guests request more.

The rolls are baked in-house multiple times each day to maintain freshness — typically at opening, again mid-afternoon between lunch and dinner service, and a final batch in the early evening. The recipe is a yeast-leavened dinner roll with a slight sweetness; the dough is mixed in-house from scratch ingredients rather than from a commercial mix. Most guests eat 3-6 rolls during a typical visit, and the rolls regularly become the most-remembered element of a Hammett House dinner.

The apple butter is also house-made, prepared in batches and stored in the restaurant's kitchen. The spice profile is classic American apple butter — cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, a slight clove note — with a balance that pairs cleanly with the yeast rolls without overwhelming them. Bottles of the apple butter are available for purchase at the cashier station, and many regular customers take bottles home as gifts. The roll-and-apple-butter combination has been served identically across more than five decades and is the restaurant's most consistent ambassador.

Chicken fried steak is the Oklahoma comfort-food standard and Hammett House's most-ordered entree. The Hammett House preparation uses a hand-pounded beef cutlet (typically a tenderized round steak), a buttermilk batter applied just before frying, and a peppered cream gravy made fresh on the kitchen line. The result is genuinely good — the batter stays crispy rather than going soggy, the meat retains tenderness rather than overcooking, and the gravy has actual peppered flavor rather than the bland cream-of-mushroom approximation that lesser kitchens default to. Served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable side, the chicken fried steak is the meal that most Hammett House regulars order most often.

Country ham — pan-fried center-cut slices of cured ham served with red-eye gravy — is a traditional Southern preparation that Hammett House executes well. Other notable entrees include fried chicken (white meat and dark meat options, with both batter-fried and Southern-style options on different days), meatloaf (a Wednesday and Saturday special), fried catfish (Friday special, served with hush puppies and coleslaw), and a daily blue-plate lunch special that rotates through the Southern comfort-food repertoire. Sides are extensive and Southern-style: mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, fried okra, green beans cooked with bacon, collard greens, sweet potato casserole, and cornbread are among the regular offerings.

Lemon pecan pie is the dessert that visitors talk about. The pie combines a traditional pecan pie base with a lemon undertone — house-made filling with brown sugar, butter, eggs, pecans, and lemon juice — baked in a flaky butter crust. The result is distinctive: less sweet than a standard pecan pie, with a citrus brightness that cuts the richness. Other desserts include traditional pecan pie, chocolate pecan pie, coconut cream pie, banana cream pie, and a daily rotating fruit cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Coffee and pie is the standard Hammett House afternoon stop for many Claremore regulars.

Hammett House is open daily from 11am to 9pm — seven days a week, year-round, with limited closures only for major holidays (Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day). Lunch service runs 11am to 3pm with sandwiches, salads, and lighter entrees alongside the full menu; dinner service from 4pm onward emphasizes the full entree menu. Breakfast items are available all day for guests who want country ham and eggs or biscuits and gravy at lunch or dinner. The restaurant does not take dinner reservations — seating is first-come, first-served — but waits are typically 15-30 minutes at busy times rather than longer.

Per-person spend is modest. A typical lunch entree with a drink runs $12 to $18; a typical dinner entree with sides and dessert runs $18 to $28. The bottomless yeast rolls and apple butter are included with every meal at no additional charge. Family-style group dinners and Sunday family meals are popular and remain affordable; a family of four can have a substantial dinner with dessert for $80 to $100 including tip. The modest pricing is part of the restaurant's identity and reflects the Reed family's commitment to keeping Hammett House accessible to Claremore residents as much as to museum visitors.

The pairing with the Will Rogers Memorial Museum is the defining Hammett House visit pattern. The natural plan: arrive at the Will Rogers museum at 10am for a 90-minute visit, walk or drive 1 minute across Will Rogers Boulevard to Hammett House for an 11:30am or noon lunch (yeast rolls, chicken fried steak, lemon pecan pie), then continue to the J.M. Davis Arms Museum 5 minutes north for a 1:30pm visit. The three-stop Claremore itinerary fits comfortably into a half-day from Tulsa or as a stop on a longer Route 66 day. Tulsa is 30 minutes west via I-44; Catoosa and the Blue Whale are 15 minutes west.