Longtime Wichita restaurant reopens with new owners but much of the previous staff
The original Town & Country at 4702 W. Kellogg reopened on Tuesday, and although it has new owners, many members of the staff who once worked for Larry Conover are back.
This means that Wichita now has two versions of Town & Country to choose from: this one and the restaurant called Town & Country Classic that longtime customer Billy Wood opened in July at 10510 W. Southwest Blvd.
The one in the original building on West Kellogg, though, is now owned by Hussein Alkasasy, a local businessman who is among a group of partners that includes brothers Raed Mansour and Ehab Mansour. Over the last several years, the group has taken over several Wichita restaurants and bars, including Heroes Sports Bar & Grill in Old Town. In 2018, they also opened 6 Degrees in the old The Bullpen space at 222 N. Washington.
The menu at the reopened restaurant is mostly the same as before Town & Country closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff members say, although some of the steaks customers remember aren’t available just yet. Several of the staff members, though, including Lori the cook, Pat, Donna, Mary, Laura and Kendra, have returned.
The hours are 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily.
Jay Conover originally opened the restaurant in 1957, passing it on to his son, Larry, when he died in 1980. Larry died in March at age 73 after a battle with throat cancer.
With the Conover 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 West Kellogg, so he found a new spot at K-42 and Maize Road and opened Town & Country Classic in July.
Once Wood made the decision to leave the original building, it was listed for lease, and the new partners picked it up. Though they don’t have any connection to the original owners, Larry’s brother Mike Conover said in September, the Conover family didn’t have any claim to the Town & Country name.
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I peeked in on Tuesday afternoon, and although there’s a new coat of gray paint on the outside of the building, the interior appears mostly unchanged.
As I looked around, I overheard the cashier ring up an older man wearing a mask.
“Was everything okay for you today?” she asked him.
“Yes it was,” he said. “And I sure am glad you’re back.”
The new Town & Country offers delivery via UberEats, DoorDash, Postmates and GrubHub. It can be reached by calling 316-358-7592.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 1:10 PM.
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