One family helped build Wichita’s restaurant scene, and it’s celebrating 40 years in business
When Antoine Toubia opened his first restaurant in Wichita in 1979, almost no one had ever tried hummus, and people weren’t accustomed to eating salmon that didn’t come from a can.
His sister Joumana, who helped him at his Olive Tree restaurant at 540 S. Oliver, couldn’t get suppliers to bring her garlic. She went to four different Safeway grocery stores before realizing that she wasn’t going to find plain yogurt in Wichita.
Fulfilling their dream of introducing Wichita to the fresh, seasonal recipes they’d enjoyed growing up in Beirut, Lebanon, was going to take some work, they realized.
These were the earliest days of a business that over the next four decades would in many ways set the pace for dining out in Wichita. This year, Latour Management — the company Antoine formed when his restaurant empire started to grow — is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its origins in Wichita. Though Antoine died of cancer in 1996 at age 47, three of his siblings are still running Latour, which today consists of a big catering business, two restaurants and several cafes within other businesses.
They’re also putting together a series of specials and events designed to celebrate the anniversary, starting with a big brunch on Sunday, Oct. 27, that will feature stations serving favorite dishes from Latour restaurants that have come and gone, including Cafe Chantilly, Piccadilly, Olive Tree and Chelsea’s.
The celebration will continue with the introduction of a new menu at Two Olives on Nov. 1, and Latour owners are planning “Throwback Thursday” specials and other anniversary events to continue throughout the next year.
Meat-and-potatoes town
Wichita’s modern dining scene owes much to an immigrant from Beirut, who was born in 1948 and attended culinary school there before deciding to try his luck in the United States.
Antoine Toubia, the second of seven siblings raised by a mother who was a renowned home cook and hostess, first arrived in the United States in 1970 and worked in New York restaurants for a couple of years before moving to Kansas City in 1972 then Wichita in 1973. He got a job as a chef at Wichita’s Crestview Country Club.
It was there he started introducing Wichita, a proud meat-and-potatoes town, to things like veal and gourmet sauces. He decided to strike out on his own, and in 1979, he took over a building at Kellogg and Oliver that had been home to a restaurant called Bills Le Gourmet.
By then, much of his family had followed him to the United States, including his parents and his younger siblings, sisters Joumana and Randa and brother, Naji. They all worked together remodeling the space that would become the first Olive Tree, Joumana remembers.
“My father hand wrote the first menu,” she said, and she still has it.
Olive Tree expanded Wichitans’ palettes even more, giving them access to fresh-made quiches, crepes and lamb. But a fire a little more than a year after opening day forced Antoine to move Olive Tree to 7335 E. Kellogg, where the Red Roof Plus motel sits today.
Antoine’s entrepreneurial spirit was growing, though, and in 1983, he took over a French bakery called Bagatelle, looking it as a way to supply his restaurant with fresh-baked bread and add a cafe to his collection. He persuaded his brother, Naji, to run it, and he still does today, along with his wife, Claire, and daughter, Yvette.
About the same time, he opened Cafe Chantilly at 6921 E. Kellogg, a restaurant that is still often referenced as one Wichitans miss the most, even though it closed in 1993. It continued pushing Wichita diners out of their comfort zones with a menu that focused on fresh grilled fish and upscale pastas.
Antoine began to earn food service contracts at places like Wichita State University and Wesley Medical Center, and in September of 1987, he moved the Olive Tree to 29th and Rock Road, which is where Two Olives operates today. It was a fine dining restaurant, and he opened a more casual sister restaurant that he called Chelsea’s right next door. Though much of the 1990s, those were the restaurants in Wichita.
He founded Latour Management in 1988, and he continued collecting food service contracts at places like Koch Industries and Larksfield Place. In 1989, he opened a market and deli he called Piccadilly at 7728 E. Central, and its eclectic menu helped it become one of Wichita’s most popular eateries.
Cafe Chantilly closed in August of 1993, but Latour continued to grow. At its height, the company had 450 employees working in its many restaurants and fulfilling its roster of food service contracts.
But by 1995, Antoine was ill. He battled cancer of the esophagus for a year before dying at home on July 16, 1996.
Latour today
With Antoine gone, the management of the company he built fell to his siblings and his grown sons, who ran Latour together for about a decade, opening Piccadilly Express and Cafe Latour in downtown Wichita plus a Piccadilly West at 21st and Ridge in 1999. Antoine’s eldest son, Ryan, managed the west side Piccadilly during some of its 5-year run.
But the siblings and the sons had a falling out in 2006, when Antoine’s five sons, who owned 45 percent of Latour, sued his siblings, who had 55 percent interest in the company. They had decided they couldn’t work together, and the sons wanted to cash out their shares and move on.
In the years since, Joumana, Ranya and Naji have run Latour. They opened another restaurant, the still-running The Muse cafe inside the Wichita Art Museum, in 2007. They also do all the catering for the museum.
Bun in the years following, the business grew smaller and less certain. In 2009, Chelsea’s and Olive Tree Bistro were evicted from their space at Comotara center, 29th and Rock. The landlords said they weren’t getting the rent. The Toubias said the building was in disrepair.
Then, in 2015, the siblings decided that the massive building at Central and Rock where the original Piccadilly had operated for 26 years years was too big, and the landlord had new plans for the space. (It was eventually demolished and Sprouts Market was built on the site.) They closed the restaurant and moved out in September of that year.
A year later, in 2016, the siblings decided to move back into the building at 29th and Rock that they’d left seven years earlier. They opened Two Olives, a chef-driven cafe in the spirit of Piccadilly, in the former Chelsea’s space and resumed offering their catering company’s Sunday brunches in the banquet space next door.
Today, the siblings say, they’ve fallen into a nice, stable rhythm. Naji’s son, Joseph — who started as a busser at Chelsea’s when he was 14 — also is involved and is in charge of business operations for Latour, which now is made up of Two Olives, Bagatelle, The Muse, Olive Tree Catering and a cafe inside the Kansas Heart Hospital. It also provides catering for the Hotel at Old Town.
Today, the company employees between 125 and 150 people, depending on the season.
It’s been a ride, Joumana said, and not always an easy one. She still tears up when she talks about her late brother.
She’s proud of how her family changed the way Wichita dined out, and she’s proud of how many people who worked for Latour restaurants earlier in their careers went on to open their own Wichita eateries. The list includes Wichita favorites like Sabor, Cafe Bel Ami, La Galette, Bella Luna Cafe, N&J Cafe and more. Scott Redler, the co-founder of the Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers chain, also worked as a manager and vice president for Latour early in his restaurant career.
Joumana still loves her job, she says, and she still loves working with her siblings. The most satisfying thing about the family business turning 40, she said, is realizing that what’s trendy in 2019 — eating seasonally, locally and healthily — is what her family first introduced to the city in the 1970s.
“When we came here, almost everything was fast or ultra processed,” she said. “I feel like the pendulum is swinging back now.”
Latour’s Birthday Brunch
When: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Oct. 27
Price: $26 for adults, $23 for seniors, $10 for ages 5-12, free for 4 and under
Reservations: Encouraged by calling 316-636-1100
Where: Two Olives, 2949 N. Rock Road
Food: The brunch will feature several tasting stations representing some of the favorite Latour restaurants that that have come and gone over the past four decades. And each of those stations will serve dishes from the past that customers have missed. Here’s a look at some of the dishes that will be available.
Piccadilly:
Pasta Toss – In memory of Pasta Night
Pizza station
Olive Tree
Bistro bread and tapenade
Grilled halloumi and tomato salad
Seared ahi tuna
Goat cheese ravioli
Chelsea’s
Cheese twists
Caesar salad
Seafood gumbo
Prime rib station
Café Chantilly
Shrimp Chantilly
Chicken wild rice salad
Cashew curry chicken salad
Desserts
White Chocolate Mousse
Chocolate Sac with mousse and berries
Chocolate Euphorium
Charlotte Cake
Apple Diplomat with fresh local apples
Throwback Thursdays: The restaurant also will be featuring “throwback” dishes from its former restaurants on Thursdays throughout the coming year. Dishes to watch for: Piccadilly’s Portuguese Pot Roast, Olive Tree’s Filet of Beef Henry IV, Olive Tree’s Chicken Oscar.
New menu: Two Olives will be offering a new menu starting Nov. 1. One side will offer regular courses, and the other side will list lots of small plates and tapas. The new menu will include the return of two often requested dishes from Latour’s past: Chelsea’s Sweet Pepper Bacon Burger and Olive Three’s Wild Mushroom Soup en Croute.
This story was originally published October 18, 2019 at 5:01 AM.
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