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Linkhaus developers Robert Eyster and Michael Ramsey are planning to move their hot dog restaurant, which leaves their building near the southwest corner of 37th North and Rock Road available for another business.
"Over the past year we have seen how the market has driven us," Ramsey says of the almost 1-year-old business.
"The market drives, at least in the hot dog-brat market... less of a price point," he says. "The only way that we could capitalize on a smaller price point... is to decrease our overhead."
The 3,500-square-foot, eco-friendly building with a large atrium for a dining room opened last year, but Ramsey says the hot dog and bar business didn't draw people who wanted to stay for hours.
"It really didn't work out as well as what we expected," he says.
They're not abandoning the concept, though.
"We're certainly not dying," Ramsey says.
He hopes to move to a strip center in the area and reduce prices.
Prices will drop at the current space starting April 2, which is when a new menu also will debut. It will include chicken sandwiches, Angus burgers and fries.
"We're adjusting to what the public wants," Ramsey says.
He says a venue other than a restaurant could easily move to the Linkhaus space.
"The whole idea of the Linkhaus was the ability . . . for the concept to be modular, to be movable," Ramsey says. "The building is that way."
There are three areas, which he calls boxes, in the building.
"Within each box you can do something different."
He says the kitchen and bar are movable.
Leisa Lowry and Randy Johnston of J.P. Weigand & Sons are representing Eyster and Ramsey.
Eyster and Ramsey also are still working on their new development in the former Zelman building downtown where they also plan a restaurant, though one operated by someone else.
They're also interested in more Linkhaus restaurants, though not necessarily ones they would run.
"The concept is actually kind of a work-to-own franchise where if you stay with the company and you work your way up, ultimately you should be able to get a store without a big franchise fee," Ramsey says.
"It's a way of us trying to get and keep good people who really have a dream but don't have the financial ability to get into a typical franchise."
Little competition
A third Little Caesars franchise group is opening in Wichita.
Brothers David and Darren Graf , who have Caesars of Oz , are opening a Little Caesars carryout restaurant between the Smashburger and City Bites near 35th and Woodlawn.
They opened their first two franchises in Hutchinson and Newton.
"Basically shine your penny, and corporate notices," David Graf says of why he gets to come to Wichita now.
The Woodlawn site was not his first choice, but he says corporate is careful about letting franchisees open too close to each other.
The nearest other Little Caesars is at Central and Woodlawn.
"We're not right on top of each other," David Graf says. "The demographics are so thick ... we don't think there's going to be a problem or they wouldn't let me go there."
Other Wichita sites are a possibility for the brothers in the future.
There are already six Little Caesars locations in the Wichita area, including Derby.
The Graf brothers also are looking to Andover and El Dorado.
They expect to open on Woodlawn in early May. We'll keep you posted on an opening date.
Barn sale
Looking to get into the restaurant business but not quite up to taking the Linkhaus space?
The Burger Barn is for sale.
Bill and Cheryl Powell own the 22-seat restaurant, though not the building, at Central and Zoo Boulevard. It's been open for 15 months.
Winter was a little slow, Bill Powell says, but otherwise great.
"It's been doing quite well," he says.
Powell says he wants to sell in order be free to help some family members who are ill.
The Burger Barn will remain open until it sells.
"It's too good of a business to be closing," Powell says.
"It won't be on the market long."
You don't say
"I'll take a friend or someone who 'likes' me these days."
—Rep. Mike Pompeo , speaking briefly at the Wichita Aero Club Tuesday on the benefits of Facebook
