Popular Wichita burger restaurant moving to a new spot, adding a pandemic-friendly perk
Wichita restaurant fans often get excited when they see heavy equipment clearing space for new construction in a developing part of town, and they’re eternally hopeful that it means a new restaurant is on the way.
In the case of the northwest corner of 37th Street North and Maize Road, they’re getting part of their wish. A restaurant is in fact about to be built on that site, but it’s not new to Wichita.
The local franchisees of Five Guys Burgers and Fries have decided to move their restaurant now operating at 2616 N. Maize Road to a new building that crews are about to start putting up on the 37th and Maize Road site. The Maize Road Five Guys, one of three that Jeff and Jay Miller own in Wichita, was their first. It opened in February 2010.
They’ve decided to make the move for two reasons, Jay Miller said. One is that they couldn’t negotiate a deal they were happy with when trying to renew their lease on their current spot, which has never really had the space they wanted, he said.
The other is that new construction will allow them to introduce a new feature — one that only one other Five Guys “in the whole world” has, Jay Miller said: a drive-up window.
It’s not a drive-through in the traditional sense, he said, but like Chipotle’s “Chipotlane,” it’s a drive-up window that allows people who have pre-ordered to pick up their food without getting out of the car.
Jay Miller said he’d been pushing the Five Guys home office to allow him to put in a drive-through for years, but they wouldn’t go for it. Now that another restaurant has cleared the way for the drive-up window, Wichita got approval, too.
The pandemic has demonstrated exactly how much customers want that perk, he said.
“It’ll replace curbside and all of that and make it easier on the customer and ourselves,” he said.
Though there’s no set timeline, Miller said he hopes the new building will be ready by summer. The goal is to close the west-side restaurant for only a week or two while they make the move.
The new restaurant will be larger than the current space, Miller said, with about the same amount of square footage that the downtown Five Guys at 1025 E. Douglas has. When it makes the move, it will add milkshakes to the menu — something the other two Five Guys have done over the past two years.
Although the brothers would love to add drive-up windows to the downtown restaurant and to the recently updated restaurant at 2929 N. Rock Road, it’s just not possible with the way the properties are situated.
But they’re looking forward to trying the new concept on the west side, they said. I’ll keep you posted on their progress.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 9:44 AM.
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