Six months after owner dies, something strange is happening with Town & Country restaurant
Something mysterious is happening with the old Town & Country building on West Kellogg, and it appears the result will be two different Town & Country restaurants with two different owners — none of them members of the original family that opened the business in 1957 and ran it until earlier this year.
But at this point, the story has more strange twists and turns than definitive answers.
Here’s what we do know: Recently, a new coat of gray paint was applied to the building at 4702 W. Kellogg where Larry Conover — the son of founder Jay Conover — had run the restaurant since his father died in 1980. Jay founded the restaurant, which was attached to the old Town & Country Lodge, in 1957.
Then in March — just before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold — Larry died of throat cancer at age 73. The restaurant closed at the start of the pandemic and never reopened.
With the family’s blessing, longtime customer and retired gas company worker Billy Wood decided that he would take over Town & Country and run it in Larry’s honor. But he could not reach an agreement with the landlords on the longtime building on West Kellogg, so he found a new spot at K-42 and Maize Road and opened Town & Country Classic in July. Several of the old Town & Country employees, including one of the main cooks, joined the staff at the new place, though others opted not to.
Then, about two weeks ago, a new Town and Country Wichita Facebook page popped up. It features a photo of the Town & Country sign on the West Kellogg building and indicates that the restaurant will be reopening. It’s advertising for cooks and waiters.
“The original Town & Country is one of the oldest family style restaurants in Wichita, Kansas,” reads the “about” section of the new Facebook page. “It is located on West Kellogg. Town & Country has been around since 1958. We serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, We offer dine in, take out, and catering.”
Troy Farha, the NAI Martens agent who listed the building after Wood opted not to remain, said this week that it has been leased and that the new lessees are hoping to open a restaurant there in the next month or two. He said they were not yet ready to talk about it publicly or to be identified.
The phone number listed on the new Facebook page does not work, and two messages sent to the page were opened but not answered.
In the comments section of a post on the new page, though, someone asks when the restaurant will reopen. Hussein Alkasasy replies and says it will be three weeks to a month. He also encourages the person to have his wife, an original Town & Country employee, apply for a job via Facebook.
Alkasasy is among a group of partners that includes brothers Raed Mansour and Ehab Mansour that over the last several years has taken over several Wichita restaurants and bars.
They’ve run Heroes Sports Bar & Grill in Old Town since 2017, and in 2018, they opened 6 Degrees in the old The Bullpen space at 222 N. Washington.
That same year, they bought and reopened The Chalet at 3030 N. Penstemon, but it was closed by October.
Last year, they announced plans to open a new pizza restaurant they’d call Alibi Old Town in the space at 919 E. Douglas where the bar Peerless had closed, and they even hung a sign. But that restaurant never materialized, and a different group eventually opened a new version of Peerless in the space.
Wood, who opened Town & Country Classic, said this week he did not know who was trying to reopen the original space on West Kellogg but that they had been contacting his employees and offering them jobs.
When he was taking over Town & Country earlier this year, he said, lawyers could not agree on who owned the Town & Country name, pointing out that there were other restaurants with that name all over the country — and even a car made by Chrysler with that name.
He said he’s new to the restaurant business and isn’t sure what to make of all of it.
“I guess it’s every man for himself,” he said. “I don’t know.”
Mike Conover, Larry’s brother and founder Jay’s son, said that he also did not know the people leasing the old building. He knew that a pair of brothers had approached Larry before he died about taking the restaurant over, but he’d never heard what happened after that.
He said Town & Country was the name of the motor lodge that the restaurant was attached to, so he’s not sure the family has a claim to it, either.
Mike Conover said he’d also like to know who is taking over the old building and using the name.
“Everybody right now is flying the dark because nobody really knows exactly what happened,” he said.
I’ve sent a message to Alkasasy and will update this post if I hear back.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 12:21 PM.
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