Time Machine (w/sides)

Walking into a Billy Sims Barbecue has a definite time machine feel to it. The decor is football-themed, as befits the Heisman-winning running back who played at the University of Oklahoma in the late 1970s, and the pictures are filled with coaches who wear red Sansabelt, flared leg slacks of some mysterious artificial fiber, display serious sideburns and sport plain white running shoes decorated with a single red swoosh. They also do not wear visors, but prefer to squint manfully into the sun.

Players in the photos, including Sims and fellow Sooners Joe Washington and a couple of Selmon brothers, wear awesome natural hairdos that probably had Earth, Wind and Fire drooling with envy and, when smushed under a helmet, offered better protection than any headgear worn up until very recent scientific advances.

TVs display OU games from the 1970s and early 80s glory years, notable for some of the sports jackets worn by broadcasters that are of the hang-glider lapel style, done in plaids that would shame a peacock and are probably best not seen in modern HD format by viewers not wearing welder's masks. These games are textbooks in the famed wishbone offense, and fans of the forward pass will likely be disappointed unless one team is down by 40 or up by 50, at which time this unreliable modern innovation may be used for the entertainment of the walk-ons allowed to run it.

The barbecue is good, and can be properly consumed in an atmosphere well-seasoned with the scent of mesquite and a delicate haze visible upon entering.

The only real question, one supposes, is why it has taken Sims so long to open a shop in Norman, after stores in Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa, Duncan and Edmond. I suspect a Longhorn plot.