Despite delays, the reinvention of this 1960s-era Wichita supper club is almost complete
It was 10 months ago that Eric Peabody shared his plans to revive his grandfather’s once-popular Crazy Horse Supper Club at 2539 W. Pawnee — and to bring back many of the delicacies that were once favorites there, including alligator tail.
At the time, he thought he’d have it open in a couple of months.
Obviously, that didn’t happen, and I frequently get e-mails and Facebook messages wondering if Peabody’s plans are still on.
I caught up with him last week and he says that he’s getting closer to being ready to open the doors to the restaurant, which originally opened in 1967. It could happen by the end of the year.
“We’re crossing our fingers for that,” he said.
The hold up, he said, is that once he got started on the project, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to afford to hire contractors, who he said wanted “ridiculous amounts of money.” He decided he would have to do most of the remodel himself, and he’s had to fit it in after he finishes his regular job as a crew chief at Cessna.
So far, he said, he’s redone the entire bar has stripped the walls of all its wood paneling, replacing it with sheet rock.
When he gets the doors reopened he said, he’ll likely be serving about 70 percent of the original menu.
Dining with Denise readers aren’t the only ones wondering about the delay, he said. He has people walk up to the doors while he’s working, and he’s getting lots of Facebook messages.
Peabody’s grandfather Sam Peabody and his wife, Ramona, originally opened Crazy Horse Supper Club in 1967 and Eric Peabody said he has memories of spending time there as a kid.
Sam Peabody died in 1994 and left the restaurant to his daughters, one of whom was Peabody’s aunt. She ran it for eight years before selling it to her brother-in-law.
In 2004, new owners turned it into a Nascar-themed sports bar called Crazy Horse Sports Bar & Grill, and they got rid of most of the delicacies on the menu. That business was short-lived, though, and a bar called Geezer’s operated there in 2009 followed by Vinny’s Sports Bar & Grill in 2011. Riverside Cafe took over the spot in 2013 and left in the summer of 2017. That’s when Peabody and his sister, Jennifer Lawler, started plotting to bring it back.
I’ll let you know when the siblings are ready to open the restaurant.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 10:40 AM.
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