One of NewMarket Square’s longest-running restaurants is getting new life with new owners
It’s been quietly chugging along at NewMarket Square for almost 16 years, but during the pandemic, it’s been frequently closed or operating with weekend-only hours.
But that’s all about to change now that Avivo Brick Oven Pizzeria has new owners.
David Hensley, who recently sold his interest in his local uBreakiFix stores, has just purchased the restaurant from Abdul Arif, who bought it in 2014. Hensley is partnering with his daughter and son-in-law, Adrian and Andres Garcia, who now co-own and run the place with the help of Adrian’s half-sister, Micha Still.
The foursome say they’ll run Avivo as a family business and that they want to make it Wichita’s top brick oven pizzeria.
“It’s a staple of New Market Square, and we want to make sure that it stays that way,” Hensley said.
The new owners took over a little more than a week ago, and they’ve already started making changes. Their first order of business was to reinstate full-time hours. Avivo is now open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays through Thursdays and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. It’s closed Mondays for now, but the owners plan to change that once they get more familiar with the business.
All four of the partners have restaurant experience. Andres has worked in restaurant kitchens for the past 15 years and is already coming up with some new pizza ideas. Adrian has worked in restaurants for five years at places like TGI Fridays and Huddle House. And Still has five years of restaurant management experience.
Even Hensely is a longtime restaurant guy who started working when he was 14 and has been at places like Carlos O’Kelly’s, Cracker Barrel and Romano’s Macaroni Grill.
The new operators say they plan to make some menu changes and will start by simplifying Avivo’s offerings. They plan to get rid of panini sandwiches, for example, and move their piadinis, which are pizza rolls, to the appetizer section of the menu. They also plan to introduce a new lineup of drinks.
“We want to get back to the basics and do a few things but do them really great,” Adrian said.
The new owners also plan to give the restaurant a new look. They’ll keep the Italian bistro feel but want it to be more modern, lighter and brighter. Their long-term plans include an extension of the bar along the restaurant’s east wall.
Avivo has a large patio on its west side, and once the weather warms up, the owners plan to start booking live bands to perform outside while people dine.
Hensley, who is launching a career as a professional voice actor, said his goal is to remove himself from the ownership lineup after two or three years and let the next generation run the place for the long term.
“My involvement is mainly to help them launch this thing with my experience as a business owner and to help them get on their feet and make it a long-term investment,” he said. “It’s going to be operated by the same two people who own it.”
Gambino’s franchisee Tony Suellentrop originally opened Avivo in late 2005 with plans to turn it into a franchise. But in 2014, he sold it to Arif, saying that Gambino’s and other demands were taking up too much of his time.
The restaurant was the first that Arif, a local lawyer and developer, took over and started to run locally after taking a break from the restaurant business. Since then, he’s taken over and opened several other local restaurants, including Tight Ends, Passage to India and Huddle House. His nephew, Tariq Azmi, is his partner in several of the ventures.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 1:00 PM.
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