Wichita restaurant known for its home cooking is closing after 31 years
It was July 18, 1988, when JR and Vickie Shurtz decided to take the years of experience they’d gained working in Wichita restaurants and venture out on their own.
They opened Family Cafe at 2849 N. Broadway, and for decades, they fed home-style meals like chicken and noodles, roast beef dinners and chicken fried steaks to their dedicated group of customers.
But today, the couple will close their restaurant for good. They’ll keep serving until noon or until the food runs out, whichever comes first.
“My husband turned 70 this month, and we’re just tired,” Vickie said. “There’s so many new rules and regulations that we cannot keep up.”
JR got his start in the restaurant business when he was 14. At one point he washed dishes at Don’s Restaurant, which closed in 2014 after 45 years in business. He worked his way up to cook and learned how to bake pies.
He and his wife have run Family Cafe themselves since the beginning — he in the kitchen and she in the dining room.
In the beginning, their restaurant was packed with workers on their lunch breaks from nearby manufacturing plants. Family Cafe was known as the “home of the 30 minute lunch,” and Vickie prided herself on being able to get her customers in and out quickly.
“Years ago in our heyday, there were all kinds of factories and plants up here,” she said. “We had standing room only at lunchtime. If you were a single at a four top, you had company.”
The restaurant has operated in the same place for its duration, though in 2010, the original Family Cafe building was torn down and replaced with a new one about 50 feet to the south, allowing for more parking.
In recent years, most of Family Cafe’s customers have been those “last stragglers who have eaten with us forever,” Vickie said.
“We met some wonderful, interesting people — and some crazy ones. I’m really gonna miss the people”
Vickie said the couple now has plans to relax and enjoy retirement. They have a motor home, and they know where they’re taking it.
“We’re going to the lake,” she said.
This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 9:38 AM.
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