Paul McCartney sleeps, dines in Oklahoma City

By Gene Triplett

Published: August 7, 2008

Paul McCartney once sang “will you still feed me when I’m 64,” and a Bricktown restaurant obliged him on Tuesday night.

Of course it was a couple of years late, since the former Beatle is now 66, and happens to be taking a cross-country tour of the U.S. on Route 66, doing it up right behind the wheel of a classic 1989 Ford Bronco with his girlfriend, Nancy Shevell, 47, at his side.

On Tuesday the couple made Oklahoma City one of several stops along the iconic “Mother Road,” reportedly staying overnight at the downtown Skirvin Hilton Hotel and dining at Nonna’s Euro-American Ristorante and Bar in Bricktown.

Although the hotel’s management would not confirm or deny having hosted the famous pair due to privacy policies, one of the restaurant’s chefs said a Skirvin staff member called ahead to announce the couple’s impending arrival.

“Let’s see, I think we made him one of our regular salads with our fresh field greens that we grow at Cedar Spring Farms, our homegrown tomatoes and he wanted a slice of avocado on top and we put a hazelnut vinaigrette on top of that,” said John Burruss, catering and banquet manager at Nonna’s. “We have a signature tomato soup we make with those same tomatoes we grow. Then they had spinach quiche, which isn’t on the menu but they requested.”

The couple arrived at the eatery around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and spent about two hours there. McCartney was dressed in a dark sharkskin suit and Shevell was wearing a modest, dark strap dress.

“They were staying at the Skirvin,” Burruss said. “The Skirvin called, asked us what we could do for a vegetarian and we told them several different things, and they called back and said they wanted a quiche. At first we weren’t going to do it. We had about 14 functions that day and I was standing around and I said, ‘Well, I’ll make a quiche.’ And then it turns out it was a good thing I did.”

McCartney and Shevell began their journey from his holiday home in The Hamptons, N.Y. on July 31, picking up Route 66 in Illinois on a vacation trip that will take them all the way to Santa Monica, Calif.

Burruss said the couple was allowed to dine without interruption from restaurant patrons.

“I was shocked about how fairly discreet the whole thing was,” he said. “People did eventually ask, ‘Now, is that Paul McCartney?’ And we were like, ‘Oh, I’m not sure. Is it?’ I mean, we didn’t want to invade his privacy. But eventually I think people did start catching on to who he was.”

And apparently, Burruss’ quiche was a hit with the veteran hitmaker.

“He said they’d come back on their way through again.”

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