Historic Wichita burger restaurant has new owners again, but they won’t sell burgers
Jack’s North Hi Carryout has another new set of owners, but it doesn’t sound like they plan to sell burgers.
Instead, the old Jack’s building at 603 W. 13th St. — which many Riverside residents have noted just got a new coat of bright orange paint — appears poised to become a new doughnut shop.
I’ve been trying to reach the new owners ever since former Jack’s owner, Armin Ghoddoussi, confirmed that he’d sold the shop, which originally opened across from North High School as a burger stand in 1951. He’s passed their number along, but so far, I haven’t been able to reach them.
But late on Tuesday evening, longtime Riverside resident Lisa Aguilera, was driving past the shop and saw people working on it. She stopped and asked what they were planning, and they told her they were going to operate the building as a doughnut shop. That matches what the former owner shared with me.
She said when she pulled up, the owners were gathered around the historic Jack’s neon sign, looking up at it. She asked them if they planned to keep the sign, and they said they’d just been discussing it and had decided they would. But they might change the part that says “hamburgers” to say “donuts,” they told her.
They added that they weren’t sure exactly what they would call the new business but said their shop was in no way related to the other near-Riverside doughnut business that recently opened — The Donut Palace at 1235 N. Broadway.
I’ll continue trying to reach the owners to get more details.
A man named Jack Robards originally opened Jack’s North Hi Carryout in 1951, selling burgers for a quarter and Cokes for a nickel. In its recent life, the building has opened and closed repeatedly as new owners take over.
Ghoddoussi, the most recent owner, reopened the space in 2019 but closed it in September, citing slowed business because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 9:04 AM.
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