Wichita restaurant hires new chef, takes another pass at getting its food menu right
Ever since he moved his Reverie Coffee Roasters to its fancy big new space at 2202 E. Douglas, Andrew Gough has had a complicated relationship with food.
He opened a year ago with a full-time chef and plans to operate as a full-service restaurant with hot breakfast and lunch items. But it didn’t take him long to determine that his customers, used to ordering from the counter, weren’t into it.
He decided to eliminate table service, pare down the food menu to basic soups, sandwiches and salads, and direct his focus back to coffee, the backbone of the business. In the meantime, his chef got a new job.
Now, Gough said, he’s settled on a plan that falls somewhere in the middle. He’s hired a new chef — Patrick Regan — and this week, he introduced a new menu that offers a variety of hot sandwiches, ranging from a Cuban to a smoked brisket. He’s also added a couple of hearty breakfast sandwiches.
“When we simplified our menu, we maybe simplified it too much, and we never really rebounded,” Gough said. “It took us longer than we expected to get where we are today.”
The new menu, which was introduced on Wednesday, took about six weeks to develop, he said, and it includes some coffee-infused touches. For example, the pork on the Cuban sandwich is cooked with an espresso rub.
Gough also is working on his breakfast service. In addition to his big new breakfast sandwiches, he also has frittatas in the morning.
Food still will be ordered at the counter along with coffee, and the bakery still has muffins, cookies, scones and pastries.
Here’s the full menu:
This story was originally published February 22, 2019 at 5:01 AM.
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