It was struggling before the pandemic. Now, a 46-year-old Wichita restaurant is for sale
A longtime family-run Mexican restaurant in Wichita is up for sale.
On Saturday, a for-sale sign went up in front of Chico’s Restaurant, 4407 W. Maple, a business with a 46-year history in Wichita.
But the restaurant will continue to operate with limited hours until it sells, said owner Lupita Cordova Fernandez.
“It might take a couple of weeks. It might take a couple of years,” Fernandez said. “We don’t know how long we’re going to work.”
Fernandez, who spoke candidly about the restaurant’s financial struggles last summer, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the business.
She and her father, Arnoldo Fernandez — who co-founded Chico’s in 1974 and who still cooks every day — were doing pretty well with carryout business during the shutdowns this spring, she said.
They reopened for dine-in in early May, but with their shortened hours — instituted in an effort to keep the staff safe during the pandemic — and the fact that social distancing prevents them from seating to full capacity, it’s been hard to keep up.
The decision was not an easy one to make, Fernandez said.
“This is his dream,” Fernandez said of her 74-year-old father, who lost his wife, Clara, last year. “He’s been so upset.”
The first Chico’s opened in 1974 when newlyweds Arnoldo an Clara Fernandez along with Clara’s parents, Magdalena and Francisco Rizo, went in together on a tiny shingled building at the corner of Douglas and West Street.
A second Chico’s opened at Kellogg and Oliver in 1989 but closed in 1995 when it got in the way of Kellogg construction.
Then, a decade later, the family was forced to give up the West Street restaurant to make way for construction. They built their big new $1.2 million building in 2007 near the Towne West mall.
But in the years since the new building opened, Towne West has suffered financially and lost tenants. Traffic in the area dried up, Lupita said.
Last year, a devoted customer started a GoFundMe campaign to hep the restaurant pay its delinquent property taxes and stay open. It raised $14,000 of its $75,000 goal, and the family used it to pay a year’s worth property tax.
Both the building and the land it sits on are for sale, said Fernandez, who took over running her family’s restaurant in 1999.
She’s keeping the trademarked Chico’s name, though, she said. She and her father haven’t given up on the idea that they could eventually still serve his famous chili verde and other specialties, even if the restaurant sells.
“If we can get the restaurant sold and paid off, he might think about getting something small like we used to have on Douglas or even a food truck,” she said.
For now, Chico’s hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays for lunch and 5 to 7 p.m. Fridays for dinner.
This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 11:43 AM.
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