Owners of Wichita's only Cajun restaurant planning a new concept for the west side

Members of the Granger family, founders of Da Cajun Shak at 6249 E. 21st St., have long wanted to expand their business to Wichita's west side.

And now that they're finally ready to do so, they're going in a slightly different culinary direction.

Chris Granger, who opened Wichita's only Cajun restaurant in 2005, said his wife, Patty, and son Tim have signed a lease on a west-side space. It's on West 13th Street, he said, though he can't give the exact address yet. But the family plans to have the new restaurant ready by the end of July or early August.

They'll call it Da Chicken Shak & More, and it will be an order-at-the-counter place that focuses on chicken tenders. It'll also serve all the fried Cajun specialties people love at Da Cajun Shak, including fried alligator, fried shrimp and fried crawfish.

"It just won't have any of the gumbo or etouffee or any of that kind of stuff," he said.

The family was inspired by the recent chicken tender trend that has chicken places opening up all over town, Chris said.

"People love our chicken tenders, and there are so many chicken places opening up," he said. "We can do it as good or better than anybody else, so we decided let's do it."

The inside of the new space will seat 25 to 30 people, Chris said, and it will have a pickup window. It will also sign up with the new delivery services in town.

This story was originally published May 21, 2018 at 5:58 AM with the headline "Owners of Wichita's only Cajun restaurant planning a new concept for the west side."