Chef Jeremy Wade shares the menu, vision for his soon-to-open Wichita Italian restaurant

He has a space. He has walls with new paint. He has a scrubbed-down kitchen.

Soon, he’ll have cement and landscaping on a giant outdoor patio that will eventually seat 140.

Most important, he has a menu, and it’s full of Italian dishes both familiar and unique that are made with his own Wichita-approved flair.

Now, all Jeremy Wade really needs is a liquor license and a dish-washing machine — something that’s become oddly difficult to find during the pandemic — and he’ll be ready to open his first solo restaurant — Napoli Italian Eatery, which is taking over the former Fetch Bistro space at 7718 E. 37th St. North.

Wade has even circled a potential opening day on the calendar: Saturday, Oct. 19 is what he’s aiming for.

Late last month, I told you about Wade’s plans to open his first restaurant, which he will run with his fiancee, Courtney Mathews. Despite his long tenure on the Wichita dining scene, which has included stints in places like YaYa’s Eurobistro, Siena Tuscan Steakhouse and Uptown Bistro, this will be the first restaurant that Wade has opened on his own.

As the day draws closer, Wade said, it gets more real.

“It’s terrifying and exciting all at the same time,” he said. “I used to be able to sleep in. But I can’t sleep anymore.”

This week, Wade and Mathews along with the restaurant’s new executive chef Jordan Rickard, offered a tour of the new space, which is almost complete.

It’s come a long way from its days as Fetch Bistro, which closed for good in April 2019, and Wade and his crew have spent the last several weeks removing all of the kitschy decor and unusual kitchen equipment that celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay installed when he remodeled Fetch Bistro in 2017 for the show “24 Hours to Hell and Back.”

The dozens of dog bowls and beds workers found in the restaurant were donated to the Kansas Humane Society, Mathews said. The colorful crates that were hanging from the ceiling were removed, as were the dozens of dog portraits, the giant tennis ball wall display and picnic-style tables.

The dining room got a new coat of paint, new tables, chairs, booths and banquettes as well as some decorative wood touches added to the walls. The dog park Ramsay installed on the east side of the building was torn out by building owner Caro Development, who will turn it into one of Wichita’s largest outdoor dining spaces, complete with glowing lights draped above.

Rickard said that the group wants to make the restaurant feel special but approachable and affordable — the type of place diners would visit a couple of times a week.

“There are plenty of restaurants in Wichita that are kind of dark and austere,” he said. “We’d rather be warm and lively and affordable.”

The menu

When Wade first decided to open his own place, he considered Mediterranean food, he said.

But he knows people love Italian food and decided he could create a menu with dishes that were modern but felt a little rustic.

The menu, a rough draft of which you can see below, will be populated with many different pasta dishes — almost all using pasta that will be made fresh and in-house. Pasta dishes will range from about $12 to $18 and choices include things like House Bucatini made with Wagyu meatballs, Sunday gravy ricotta and arugula as well as Spaghetti Nero, made with crab, bread crumbs, pickled Fresno peppers, lemon and garlic.

The pizzas will be 12-inches and will have a Neapolitan-style crust, Rickard said. There’s not enough room in the kitchen for a brick pizza oven, but the chefs have perfected their cook times to create pizzas that are chewy with crispy bottoms. Toppings include things like clams, fig and prosciutto, shrimp and sausage.

All of the entrees will be below $30, he said, and customers will be able to choose from dishes like Veal Piccata, Chicken Marsala, Eggplant Parmesan and Mushroom Risotto. The menu also offers two types of lasagna — one with red sauce and a white version with rosemary bechamel. There’s also a half chicken, a Pork Chop Milanese, a steak, and a salmon dish.

The full bar will have several wines on tap, both red and white, and the restaurant also will serve a signature Limoncello Tito’s martini on tap as well as Prosecco and a seasonal sangria. There will be bottle service.

The menu includes some unique appetizers, including a bruschetta board, as well as salads and soup, and there will be a few desserts like tiramisu and gelato.

“We’re trying to do nods to the dishes that people expect but also put our flair in it, and to introduce and educate people on some dishes they may not have heard of but are going to be their favorites,” said Rickard, who helped Wade develop the menu.

Perfect location

Wade said he’s come close to opening his own restaurant once before.

Back in 2008, when he left Uptown Bistro, he had a partner and a plan, but at the last minute, he had a change of heart.

“I got skittish,” he said. “I was young, and I don’t think I was ready. Ever since then, I’ve just never found the right deal.”

He was working at YaYa’s earlier this year when he noticed the Bob & Luigi’s space that’s in his neighborhood and had been vacant since that restaurant closed in December. He asked to take a look, thinking he’d open a pizza and sub shop that he and Courtney could run, just the two of them. But the renovation would have cost too much, he said.

That’s when his real estate agent showed him the Fetch space, and he fell in love with it, he said. It was just the right size, and the massive patio was exactly what he thought he needed in the age of COVID-19, when demand for outdoor dining has increased.

Though other restaurants that have occupied the old Fetch space haven’t been able to survive, including Fetch and Pacific Coast Pizza, Wade said that he’s encouraged by the neighborhoods that are sprawling out around the strip center. Plus, he said, there are very few other sit-down restaurants nearby.

When he was thinking of opening the restaurant, he said, he made a post in the NextDoor app for Bel Aire, asking if anyone would be interested in an Italian place in the neighborhood.

“My phone just blew up for three days,” he said.

The restaurant will be carryout friendly and will encourage online to-go orders for people who don’t feel comfortable dining in.

It’ll serve just dinner for the first couple of months, though Wade said he hopes to add lunch in December and an a la carte Sunday brunch in January.

He’s also planning something special for the 65 and over crowd, who will be able to visit for “early bird” hours from 3 to 5 p.m. and choose from a pared down, lower-price combo menu.

I’ll keep you posted as Napoli Italian Eatery’s opening day draws near.

Napoli Italian Eatery’s planned menu

This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 12:30 PM.

Denise Neil

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6327

Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.