Want to try the new restaurant in the east-side Logan’s spot? You’ll need a reservation

A new restaurant is opening on Friday in the old Logan’s Roadhouse building near Towne East at Kellogg and Rock.

But if you stop in, you’ll quickly notice that the new tenant isn’t really anything like Logan’s, the steakhouse chain whose east-side restaurant closed at the start of the pandemic and never reopened.

In fact, you shouldn’t just stop in if you want to be sure to get a seat at Chef Stan Lerner’s new Chef’s Table Roadhouse, 353 S. Rock Road. That’s not how he plans to do business there.

Lerner, a California transplant who’s run Chef’s Table at 815 Main St. in Winfield since 2013, plans a different approach for his first Wichita restaurant, one that local diners aren’t familiar with but that Lerner insists they’ll like when they give it a chance.

He’s planning to operate Chef’s Table Roadhouse on a reservation-only system, and he’ll start taking reservations for the rest of the year starting today.

Lerner said he has a couple of reasons for the setup. One is that he wants diners to feel confident that visiting his restaurant will be a safe experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the cavernous restaurant has space for 290 diners, for now he plans to operate at 10 percent capacity and take reservations for only about 30 people an hour. He and his staff have divided the restaurant into three sections, and they plan to have about 10 people in a section at any given time.

The approach will keep people from crowding together while they wait to be seated.

“We really have no plan for anyone to ever wait,” he said. “Even the reservations will be staggered every 15 minutes.”

Secondly, Lerner said, he likes a slower pace as a chef. Each meal he serves is meticulously planned, he said, and he and his staff want to be able to give each plate their full attention. That can’t happen when they’re cranking food out of the kitchen.

Though he wants customers to try the reservation approach, he said, if someone does just stop by, his staff members will do what they can to get them a seat. But he can’t guarantee it will happen.

“It’s a chef’s table, so it’s a very exacting type of cooking,” he said. “To be as good as we can, reservations are enormously helpful. We’re basically planning every dinner as its own experience.”

A simple menu

To start off, Lerner is offering a small menu that includes three entree options — grilled steak, barbecue chicken or salmon. Each entree is served with veggies and potatoes.

There are also several starters, including onion rings, fried okra, mozzarella sticks and a deep-fried cauliflower, whose recipe Lerner discovered when he was working at Hays House Restaurant in Council Grove.

The menu also lists a daily soup, a side salad and three desserts, including a decadent house-made ice-cream sandwich with big chewy brownies encasing a mint chocolate chip ice cream center.

Lerner said that he’ll also offer daily specials — things like meatloaf or fish tacos or beef stew — that will supplement the menu.

Chef’s Table Roadhouse will have one other unusual feature.

Lerner has designated one large, round table with seating for 10 at the front of the restaurant as his chef’s table. Diners who want an extra-special experience can reserve it for parties of anywhere from two to 10. Lerner will accept only one reservation for the table each night.

Those diners will pay $69 apiece for a set five-course meal that Lerner will create himself and that will include entrees, desserts, appetizers and ingredients not listed on the regular menu.

The restaurant will be open from 4 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and will feature a full bar, though Lerner won’t serve alcohol during the first week. He anticipates having the bar ready on Oct. 9.

He said he hopes Wichita will give his system a try, even though it’s unusual. He promises an experience worth the time it takes to make a reservation.

“It just allows us to do things on a much more personalized level,” he said. “There’s literally a thousand restaurants you could just walk into, but if you know a day in advance you’re going for a big night out and you want the best steak in Wichita, just call us in advance. It’s worth the phone call.”

To make a reservation or to place a carryout order, call 316-260-6122.

Chef’s Table Roadhouse menu

This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 11:29 AM.

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.