About-to-open bar, restaurant might have the best outdoor space in the area, owners say
.jpg "The 2,500-square-foot deck on the back of the new Old School Tap House & Social in Kechi is suspended over a creek.")
A new restaurant and tap house is about to open in a little town just a short drive from Wichita, and its owners say it will offer one of the best outdoor drinking and dining spaces in the area.
Danny Smith and Dave Messmore, partners who both work full time in construction, are the owners of Old School Tap House & Social, which is set to open Feb. 2 at 210 E. Kechi Road in Kechi.
The business, set up in two old portable classroom buildings that most recently held Logan Western Supply, is just a 10-mile drive from downtown Wichita and is not far from Kechi attraction Karg Art Glass. It sits just down the block from antique stores like Junk in the Trunk Emporium Antiques and The Vintage Rhinestone, which Smith’s wife owns.
It’ll offer a large selection of craft beers, including from local favorites like Hopping Gnome Brewing Company and River City Brewing Co., and will also offer a few well drinks as well as wine, sangria and margaritas. It’ll also have a food menu focused on panini sandwiches and flat breads. Also served will be wraps, salads and dips — “anything you can cook without a flat top grill or a fryer,” Smith said.
But the real draw of the place will be its large back deck, a 2,500-square-foot structure that Smith and Messmore built suspended over a creek bed. It’ll seat about 75 people, who’ll feel like they’re in a secluded forest getaway.
The new deck, which envelops several existing trees, has glowing lights strung above it, and the owners say it might be the best outdoor drinking space in the area, right up there with Nortons Brewing Company in downtown Wichita.
“There’s nothing like it around,” Smith said.
The two will try a self-serve concept with the bar, one that’s worked for friends who have similar businesses in Oklahoma City, Smith said. Old School, which can seat about 65 people indoors, will employ bartenders and bar backs, but there won’t be servers. People will order their drinks at the bar and retrieve them themselves.
Food can be ordered via a QR code from inside, but people will have to walk to a separate structure outside to pick it up. That structure also will have a drive-through window accessible to people who just want to get food to go.
The owners want people to interact at the new bar, so it won’t have televisions mounted inside. But there will be some tabletop games customers can play.
“We want people to socialize, to put the phones in their pockets,” Smith said.
The business also will have a section that people can rent for their own functions, like birthday parties and off-site work meetings.
Smith said that he and his partner are hoping to draw people from all over, including Wichita.
“It’ll have a small-town vibe,” he said. “The demographic we’re looking for is that 35 to 55-year-old that doesn’t want to go downtown, not the party crowd that wants to get drunk.”
Starting on Feb. 2, Old School Tap House & Social will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. It’ll be closed on Mondays.
This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 4:14 PM.
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