The longtime manager of an established Wichita restaurant is opening his own place
The Cowboy is closed, but soon, its former space will be filled with mariachi.
A little less than a year ago, Armando Michel and a couple of partners opened a Mexican restaurant called El Vaquero, which translates to “The Cowboy,” in a cavernous building at 1320 E. Central. They operated it until December.
Now, Michel — who owns the building — says that he’s found someone new to run it, and it will reopen soon with a new name and menu.
The new restaurant, which should be ready sometime later this month, will be called El Mariachi Mexican Restaurant. Its owner is Chris Martinez, who has lots of experience running Mexican restaurants in Wichita.
Martinez won’t be running El Mariachi, though, because he already has a full-time job. He’s the manager for La Hacienda, the Mexican restaurant at 5905 W. Kellogg, and he’s been with the owner of that business for seven years. He also co-owns with his brother-in-law El Azteka, a restaurant that has been earning buzz since it opened a little more than a year ago at 111. N. Main in Haysville.
El Mariachi will be the first restaurant Martinez owns by himself, but he doesn’t want to give up his day job, so his father, Pedro Najara, will run the place.
The menu will have many of the items El Vaquero did, including burritos, tacos and quesadillas, Martinez said. But he plans to add some more inventive creations, including things like seafood molcajetes. He also plans to have a mariachi band perform every Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
El Mariachi will serve both lunch and dinner and will serve beer and a couple of flavors of micheladas.
Martinez said he’s in the process of remodeling the restaurant and hopes to have it open later this month. I’ll keep you posted on an opening date.
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 5:01 AM.
.jpg)