Vacant for more than a year, an east Wichita restaurant space finally has a new tenant
You might remember the sad story of Beijing Bistro, the east-side restaurant that operated for 14 years at 11309 E. Kellogg. It closed in January 2019, eight months after the untimely death of its attentive owner, Andy Liao.
The space sat empty for a year and a half, but now, it has a new tenant.
A little more than a week ago, a new business, called El Rincon Mexican Restaurant, opened in the space. It sits on the corner of a small strip center, and El Rincon translates to “the corner” in Spanish.
It’s owned by Ricardo Ortiz and two partners — Carlos Palomares and Aldo Torres. Torres also owns Candiles Mexican Restaurant in Augusta.
“We all worked together, and we finally decided that we didn’t want to keep working for anyone else. We wanted to do our own thing,” Ortiz said. “It’s always been a dream to own a business.”
The restaurant has an eight-page menu filled with standard Mexican fare like burritos, enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas and nachos. There are lots of seafood options, meals for kids, and a special lunch menu.
They’re waiting on some equipment for the bar, so there’s no alcohol yet. But the restaurant will have a full bar, Ortiz said.
You can see part of the menu below or view the whole thing on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Ortiz said that so far, customers have been impressed by the salsa.
“Our salsa is made a little different,” he said. “We tried a lot of the other restaurants’ salsas, and ours stands out from the rest.”
The owners decided they wanted to open a restaurant just as the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold, Ortiz said, so it hasn’t been an easy path to opening day. But people are discovering the place as they drive past it on their way to the Walmart at 11411 E. Kellogg.
He said that El Rincon is “taking all the necessary precautions” during the coronavirus pandemic and that employees are wearing masks.
The hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays.
El Rincon menu
Here’s one page of the eight-page El Rincon menu. To view the whole thing, visit the restaurant’s Facebook page.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 10:31 AM.
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