The glory of Spaghetti Mizithra and more details about Wichita’s Old Spaghetti Factory

A new word is about to enter Wichita’s dining lexicon.

Mizithra.

That’s the name of the cheese that is the star of The Old Spaghetti Factory’s most famous and most popular dish — Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter Spaghetti — and it’s one we will no doubt be repeating when the Portland-based restaurant chain opens its 43rd restaurant at the Waterfront this summer.

We reported on Friday news that the Italian chain was taking over the space at the Waterfront vacated by Fox and Hound in 2016. On Monday, I was able to talk to a spokesperson for the Portland-based restaurant chain about why it chose Wichita, what its construction time line looks like and what specifically Wichita diners have to look forward to.

Ryan Durrett, who is director of marketing for the chain, said that the restaurant should be ready to go sometime this summer. They’re hoping for a late June opening, but it could run into July, he said.

The restaurant will seat 365 people and will employ about 100. It will have two banquet rooms, and the dining room will feature the chain’s signature trolley car, fitted with tables and chairs where diners can sit and eat.

Now, wait, Wichita diners are saying to themselves. Didn’t downtown Wichita used to have an Old Spaghetti Factory with a trolley car in the dining room?

Let’s quickly untangle the spaghetti confusion. The restaurant that formerly operated in the four-story building downtown at 619 E. William was called Spaghetti Works, which was the name for the Kansas franchise of the Spaghetti Warehouse chain. The Old Spaghetti Factory chain was founded in 1969 in Portland by Guss Dussin. (It just celebrated its 50th anniversary.) Spaghetti Warehouse was an imitator that came along in 1972. It operated in Wichita from 1993 to 2004.

At the moment, developers are turning the old Spaghetti Works building into apartments and they’re putting up buildings that will hold offices, restaurants and retail in front of the building, where Naftzger Park used to be. They’re calling the new area Spaghetti Works District, even though there’s no spaghetti there anymore.

The spaghetti will now be at the Waterfront, the development at 13th and Webb that also has P.F. Chang’s, Red Robin, Bonefish Grill and Abeulo’s.

And The Old Spaghetti Factory has spaghetti that’s hard to forget, Durrett said. The dish referenced above — Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter Spaghetti — is so famous, that you can find several copycat recipes online.

“It’s a dish that our founder’s mom used to make for him as a boy,” Durrett said. “It’s a family recipe that we still use to this day. It’s a game changer.”

The restaurant also is known for its three-course meals, a deal that offers an entree with fresh bread, choice of soup or salad, entree of choice and a scoop of spumoni ice cream for dessert.

The Old Spaghetti Factory’s decision to expand into Wichita came down to location, Durrett said. The chain has two restaurants in the St. Louis area and one in the Denver area.

“We looked at markets where we felt like we could build a following and connect with the community,” Durrett said. “Kansas was an area that we really wanted to focus on, and Wichita in particular because of the opportunity with the building and the location.”

I’ll keep you posted as construction continues — and when the trolley car pulls into town.