B U S I N E SS
BY:LINDSAY CUOMO
Up Their Alley Social Butterfly Starts Catering Enterprise at Sooner Bowling Center
M
andy Haws has always prided herself on doing the unexpected. Over her 16 years managing the family owned Sooner Bowling Center, Haws has embraced the unconventional. In fact, she was honored last year for her pioneering strategies by the Bowling Proprietors Association of America. “I have a little sign in my office that says that the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is a little extra effort,” Haws said. In a continued effort to modernize the bowling center, Haws has completed a long list of improvements, including cosmetic changes as well as a variety of technological changes. The most recent upgrades were focused in their kitchen. “I have had a kitchen renovation on my to-do list for some time,” Haws
88 | March 2020
said. “We have always been doing our best, but we needed it.”
From this renovation, a new idea took shape. Haws decided to partner with Liz Barfield, a fellow Norman businesswoman, to open Social Butterfly Catering. The catering operation is based within the newly renovated kitchen inside Sooner Bowling.
Barfield and Haws saw an untapped opportunity in the Norman community. They analyzed the market and saw a place to merge their talents. “We decided that we could serve businesses and nonprofit organizations during their small to mid-size events with good, fresh food and good service,” Haws said.
“It’s been a process, but it just made sense to go beyond our four walls,” Haws said. “It was a natural progression for us.”
The two women have compiled a unique menu of “fresh food with a flare,” describing their style as “comfortably elegant.”
Barfield has been in the hospitality business for many years and she sees food as a way to bring people together.
“I come from a Southern background with a strong connection to cooking. It runs in my family,” Barfield said. “We’re using family recipes with locally-sourced, fresh ingredients to make great flavor combinations.”
“I love serving people. It makes me smile from ear to ear to see people happy,” she said.
“Because we like to be able to answer the question of where we got it, Inter-
