Tulsa’s FarmBar is a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant.
It comes a year after chef and co-owner Lisa Becklund was a James Beard finalist for Outstanding Chef. She was previously a semifinalist in 2020 and 2023.
“I had very little to do with this,” Becklund posted Wednesday on social media. “The team at FarmBar gets all the credit. They are an amazing team, and I could not be more happy and proud of them.”
Voted on by 600-plus culinary professionals, the annual awards are considered the Academy Awards of the food world.
FarmBar opened in 2020 at 1740 S. Boston Ave. after Becklund and co-owner Linda Ford had built a successful farm-to-table experience at their Living Kitchen Farm & Bar in Depew. Living Kitchen, which opened in 2007, also earned a semifinalist nod four years ago.
FarmBar is known for its multi-course tasting menu and 5-course prix fixe menu that infuse ingredients from their farm and other local farms.
Becklund and Ford also own Italian restaurant il Seme, 15 W. 5th St., and specialty grocery/restaurant Cow & Cabbage, 1325 E. 15th St., Suite 107.
Jenks High School alum Rachel Cope, who operates 84 Hospitality Group out of Oklahoma City, is a semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur. In Tulsa, 84 Hospitality operates two Empire Slice Houses at 417 N. Main St. and 1502 E. 11th St.
Finalists for this year’s James Beard Awards will be named March 31, with winners announced June 15.
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