New partnership means Wichita will soon have its first brewery with a barbecue menu
Thanks to a Facebook matchmaker, Wichita will soon have its first brewery with a barbecue menu.
Santiago Munoz is about to open a relocated and expanded version of The Angry Elephant barbecue restaurant, which has been closed since October. He’s taking over the vacant restaurant side at Augustino Brewing Company, the brewery that Augustine and Bianca Iacopelli originally opened in late 2017. The new space will offer an expanded menu and also will serve Iacopelli’s beers.
“We’re looking to be a major player in the game coming in,” Munoz said. “There’s no place in town that has barbecue and craft beer.”
On Dec. 17, Munoz will unlock the doors for a “soft opening,” which will feature a barbecue-only menu for lunch, offered either to-go or ordered from the counter. In the evening, he’ll switch to a full-service restaurant and add serve some new signature items along with his traditional barbecue, including buttermilk fried chicken, barbecue pizzas, brisket burritos and more.
During the soft opening, he’ll offer about 25 different menu items, he said. He’ll introduce the full menu during the grand opening on Dec. 20.
Starting this Friday, Munoz will also begin providing food for the brewery side of the business. The tap room won’t serve barbecue but will have its own bar food menu with items like burgers and sandwiches.
The deal was brokered after a fan of both businesses stepped in.
Munoz had long been looking for a new spot for The Angry Elephant, which drew a good crowd of aircraft workers at lunch but was dead in the evenings. Over the summer, he had switched the restaurant to lunch only but by October, he decided he had to let the space go.
He announced in October that he was closing the restaurant temporarily.
“It was a good place to start, but I wasn’t going to spend another year there,” Munoz said.
Meanwhile, the Iacopellis had long been looking for a tenant for the restaurant side of their massive space for about a year. Though they originally opened with a full-service restaurant, they soon realized it was too much and that Augustine wanted to focus solely on making beer. They’ve been running the business as a tap room only since October of last year but had announced that they wanted to find someone to take over the restaurant side.
When The Angry Elephant closed, the customer sent a Facebook message to Augustine Iacopelli suggesting that he contact Munoz, and he did.
The two businesses will operate as separate but cooperating entities, the owners said.
Starting on Dec. 17, The Angry Elephant will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and from 5 to 9 p.m. for dinner Tuesdays through Sundays.
Eventually, Munoz said, he’s planning to start a Sunday “blues brunch.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 9:20 AM.
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