A Wichita Asian restaurant has closed after almost 25 years in business
An Asian restaurant that’s operated in the basement level of the Garvey Center, 220 W. Douglas, for nearly 25 years has closed.
Kyoto Garden opened in the late 1990s in the Garvey Center’s Kiva Building, which is the below-ground area that also has Papa John’s, Perfect Plate, Shear Voltage Salon and several conference rooms. On Friday, its owner notified the Garvey Center that it would close at the end of business, said Larry Weber, the center’s property manager.
“We have been discussing for quite a while how she could continue in these pandemic times,” Weber said. “She truly has been hurt with the drop in sales.”
Boyle, who is the restaurant’s third owner, has had it for about three years, she said this week. She feels like she was kicked out of the space when Weber told her that her lease would not be renewed. She said she’s “lost everything.”
She’s not sure if she’ll open the restaurant elsewhere. Her mother has been an employee at Kyoto Garden since it first opened, she said.
Weber said there’s a new plan for part of the space. In about two weeks, it will be filled with a “micro market” area set up by a company called Mahaska. The self-service market, which will be open only to the Garvey Center’s apartment residents and business tenants, allows people to pick up snacks, beverages and prepackaged salads and sandwiches and pay with a card at an electronic kiosk.
The micro market will take over the Kyoto Gardens dining space, Weber said. He’s not planning to fill the kitchen part of the business.
Kyoto Garden appears to have opened in 1997, and its original owners were Chong and Chue Choe. They sold the restaurant in the early 2000s and opened Hot Stone Korean Grill.
The restaurant was a draw for people who worked in the Garvey Center and nearby for years. But the pandemic has slashed the number of people working in the offices at the center, Weber said.
I’ll update this post if I hear back from Boyle.
This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 12:36 PM.
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