Another abandoned Church’s Chicken building in Wichita gets a new tenant
Another abandoned Church’s Fried Chicken building has a new tenant.
Late last week, Abdul Melhem and his partner Hadi Hadi opened Wichita Chicken in the former Church’s Chicken building at 1305 N. Hillside.
Much like its former tenant, the new restaurant sells fried chicken but also offers spicy and regular chicken tenders, fried catfish, fried shrimp and sides like fried okra, cole slaw, mashed potatoes and jambalaya.
Melhem said that he actually worked at the Church’s that operated in that building. He had moved to California but his partner called and pitched the idea of opening their own chicken restaurant in the spot, so he came back.
They remodeled the restaurant and painted it in a bright color palette of red, blue and yellow. The new restaurant also has a drive through.
So far, Melhem says, his most popular menu items are fried catfish and fried okra.
It isn’t the first chicken restaurant that’s taken over a Church’s building this year. Over the summer, Krispy Krunchy Chicken opened in the former Church’s building at 1302 N. Broadway. It’s part of a Cajun-style chicken chain that operates mainly out of convenience stores across the country.
Both of the new chicken restaurants are right across the street from a Popeyes Chicken. Church’s abandoned the Wichita market back in 2015, but engineer Mike Jizzini brought it back late last year, opening one at 13th and Oliver.
Wichita Chicken’s hours are 9 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 11:35 AM.
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