A popular east Wichita burger restaurant is closed, but it’s only temporary
If you try to visit the Five Guys burger restaurant on North Rock Road today — or any time over the next month — you’ll be greeted with locked doors.
But don’t worry, east-side burger fans. The closing of the restaurant is only temporary.
Jeff Miller, who with his brother, Jay, brought the Five Guys chain to Wichita, said that the home office requires its franchisees to “refresh” their restaurants every 10 years. And even though it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, Five Guys has been in the Wichita market for 10 years.
The first of three Wichita Five Guys restaurants opened in NewMarket Square, 2616 N. Maize Road, in February 2010. The east-side restaurant at 2929 N. Rock Road followed later that year, and downtown opened in late 2011 at 1025 E. Douglas.
That means that the brothers’ stores are due for their tune-ups, and they’ll start with Rock Road. It’s closed as of today and will not reopen for about a month, Jay Miller said.
While it’s closed, the restaurant will be getting new tables and chairs, new graphics and a new Coca-Cola Freestyle machine. It’ll also get set up to start serving milkshakes. The downtown store added shakes in January 2019, but the other two had yet to follow suit.
The restaurants won’t look radically different, Jeff Miller said.
“They’ll look new and updated, but they’ll still be red and white tile with stainless steel kitchens,” he said.
The NewMarket Square update is a bit behind schedule, but it will happen next, followed by downtown, Jeff Miller said.
When their turns come, those restaurants will each also close for several weeks.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 2:20 PM.
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