Two Wichita restaurants with two different types of cuisine are merging into one
Two restaurant-owner friends with two very different restaurants have decided to team up and share a space.
Omar’s Kitchen, the Mediterranean restaurant that opened in March at 2801 W. Central, has just absorbed The Light Dry Bar and Grill, which closed earlier this month at 1051 N. Broadway.
From now on, the restaurant will be called Omar’s Kitchen with The Light. It will continue to serve the Mediterranean buffet and other specialties that Omar’s customers have come to expect, but it’ll add on the items that The Light’s customers liked, including a burger, meatloaf, homemade pie and nonalcoholic cocktails.
The unusual partnership is based on a friendship that developed more than a year ago between Omar’s Kitchen owner Ranya Taha and The Light founder Laura Broyles. When Broyles’ restaurant closed, Taha reached out to her to see if she could help. That’s when the plan of partnering was formed.
“We are going to pair our Middle Eastern culture with her all-American culture to have something special that shows Wichita’s diversity and how people can live and work in peace together,” Taha said.
Both restaurant owners have faced hard times during the past year, Taha said. Her Petra Mediterranean Restaurant at at 6140 E. 21st St. burned down in an arson fire in November 2017. Then, Broyles was not able to draw a big enough customer base to sustain The Light, which she opened in a remodeled Burger King on North Broadway as a place for recovering alcoholics to enjoy some nightlife — and as a way to support her nonprofit, which helps women who are trying to reenter society after stints in prison.
Broyles will be running the combined restaurant and said she also will try to schedule the type of live entertainment she had at The Light. In addition, she’ll serve all types of coffee drinks.
The money she raises at the restaurant will go toward The New Life Reentry program, and she’ll employ some of the women she serves.
“It was a wonderful opportunity that came along like a miracle,” Broyles said.
The restaurant’s hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
This story was originally published December 18, 2018 at 5:01 AM.
.jpg)