ENID—The origins of Café Volare on the first floor of Independence Tower near downtown Enid began well before the brunch restaurant opened its doors to the public in January 2023.
Independence Tower is one of Enid’s most iconic buildings. Built in 1930 by oil and gas tycoon Laurence Youngblood at 302 N. Independence as the Youngblood Hotel, this 15-story, 300-room luxurious hotel famously hosted distinguished guests over six decades including U.S. Presidents Harry Truman and Richard Nixon.
Ames native Harold Hamm bought the building in 1992 as office space for his company Continental Resources and renamed the place Continental Resources North since he also owned the building across the street, too, known as Continental Resources South.
During this time, restauranteur Marilyn Bell operated a café called Marilyn K’s in the hotel’s restaurant space near the front entrance on Maple Street beginning in 1996.
However, upon announcement that Continental Resources planned to turn the café into a cafeteria for employees and close it to the public, Bell opted to retire.
Marilyn K’s shut its doors for good in October 2008, and many of its employees accepted positions at the newly opened café Barnstormers at Enid’s Woodring Regional Airport in early 2009.
Less than three years later, Continental Resources—now one of the largest oil and natural gas producers in the world—relocated its headquarters to Oklahoma City in 2012. The building then became Hiland Tower as it was now home to another of Hamm’s companies called Hiland Partners.
Hamm sold Hiland Partners to Kinder Morgan in 2015 with Hiland’s employees moving to bigger metropolitans so Continental Management, which manages housekeeping and maintenance for tower’s tenants, felt it was time for another name change. Hamm recommended Independence Tower so the name has remained as such.
Time to fly
In 2022, a hospitality company operating local coffee and food establishments since 2014 called The Flying Machine Group felt that Enid was missing out on the brunch experience that other big cities had.
“We wanted to fill a gap in the market,” said The Flying Machine Group CEO Nick Jackson, who is in charge of acquisitions. He and other entrepreneurs in the group—his wife and designer Maggie Jackson; coffee guru and group founder Chad Eastin; and bookkeeper Lauren Keller—also really wanted to showcase the talents of their resident chef Hesston Swenn.
Swenn previously was the chef at the now-defunct Panevino Wine & Tapas Bar in downtown Enid and operates a food service called Catapult Cuisine through the group that creates carefully prepared and ready-to-go meals for DaVinci’s Coffeehouses (also owned by the group along with Vitruvian Coffee Roasters) and Back Nine Sports Lounge.
The Flying Machine Group soft launched Café Volare in December 2022 with Swenn at the helm in the kitchen. The name stems from the theme they’re carrying through all their Enid-based businesses—anything inspired by Leonardo DaVinci and his inventions.
“Volare” in Italian means to fly or to go quickly. Jackson said the thought was Café Volare is “where brunch takes flight.”
The group wanted to pay homage to the hotel’s heritage and designed the café with an art deco vibe, using old photographs to mimic the original furnishings used in the Youngblood Hotel restaurant. The floors are the same and the chairs match the design from 100 years ago.
The bar was handcrafted from timber and a brass pipe bed. The bar back, purchased from Dead People’s Stuff (an architectural salvage store in Oklahoma City), allegedly was used on the set of “Killers of the Flower Moon” that was filmed in Osage County.
Dish up an experience
Café Volare general manager Jolaine Aguilar said Swenn developed a full menu of “sammys” (sandwiches) and “bennys” (egg benedicts) that are available for both breakfast and lunch, hence brunch anytime customers want it. There is even a continental breakfast as a nod to Continental Resources.
The most popular items—all made from scratch—include the Nashville hot chicken and waffles, the avocado toast, and the steak frites. Each month the café also offers a specialty coffee, cocktail, breakfast item, and lunch item for customers to try something new; those items could potentially make the permanent menu if it’s well received, Aguilar said.
However, the menu is already stacked with plenty of choices.
Aguilar is proud of the consistency they offer and the quality of food, service, and presentation Swenn does with the dishes.
“The dishes really do speak for themselves,” Jackson added. “You will find something you can’t get anywhere else.”
Obviously Enid has recognized what Café Volare is, he pointed out, because Enid News & Eagle and Enid Monthly have both awarded the restaurant “Best Breakfast or Brunch Spot” since they opened, and the café has a loyal customer base.
Their goal, Jackson said during an ETown interview last summer, was to create synergy and health for every business under the umbrella company known as The Flying Machine Group; it also means gift cards from any of the businesses are universal, thus they can be used at any of the businesses.
So patrons who buy gift cards at DaVinci’s can also use them at The Flamingo Lounge (which they acquired in 2023) or Café Volare. The group hopes to launch its next venture, Pronto Fast Italian, this summer in the former Port Lugano on South Van Buren that is now a DaVinci’s location being reimagined. Menu items will include paninis, alfredo, and flatbreads.
“Treat yourself to the getaway experience,” Jackson said, with Aguilar adding, “Come to us for brunch and then hit up the shops downtown.”
Café Volare, 302 N. Independence, Enid, is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Follow on Facebook.com/CafeVolareEnid. Call (580) 297-3568, but please note if they are busy serving customers, especially on the weekends, they may not answer. Reservations are strongly recommended but not required; book at OpenTable.com with a direct link that can be found on their Facebook page.
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See the article and photos in full-color in the July-August 2026 edition of ETown: etownmagazine-cnhi.newsmemory.com