Tanya’s planning a second spot that will allow it to serve during the dinner hour, too
A popular Wichita lunch spot is planning an unusual expansion that its owner says will help it keep up with the way diners’ habits are evolving during COVID-19.
Kelly Rae Leffel, the owner of Tanya’s Soup Kitchen at 1725 E. Douglas, says she is planning to add a second Tanya’s location not far from the current restaurant.
It’ll be set up in two 20-foot shipping containers hooked together in an L-shape that she recently purchased and will be a to-go only operation. The new setup, which she’ll call TSK Satellite Station, is where she’ll send all the various third-party delivery drivers from places like DoorDash and UberEats to pick up orders. It’ll also be open to people who want to get Tanya’s food to go but don’t want to deal with fighting the hustle and bustle of the always busy restaurant.
Most important, Leffel said, it will allow her customers to get Tanya’s soups, sandwiches and salads during the dinner hour, too. During its 17 years in business, Tanya’s has been a lunch-only spot during the week.
Leffel said the addition should be open by late summer or early fall. It will be set up in the back of her husband’s tattoo shop, Hot as Love at Tattoo at 304 S. Laura, which is at the corner of Laura and Waterman.
“It’s adding square footage to the restaurant that I already have rather than having to build up another restaurant,” said Leffel, who owns the lot the tattoo shop sits on. “And it’s just going to really relax us and give us an easier flow in the restaurant.”
The idea was born, Leffel said, out of a need to keep up with the way her customers have been dining since the pandemic started. To-go orders have boomed, she said, and her dining room just doesn’t have the space to crowd in people eating, people waiting to order, people picking up to-go orders and delivery drivers retrieving food.
The new location will give her the ability to contract with all of the delivery services in town and get more food out the door. It’ll also give her the ability to serve people over the weekday dinner hour, which many customers have said they want.
The satellite location will get its soup from the main Tanya’s kitchen but will be set up with the equipment needed to keep soup warm or to mix up a batch of tomato bisque if it runs out. It’ll also have a full line needed to assemble Tanya’s many popular sandwiches and salads. (Though diners can get food to go from the satellite, if they prefer to pick orders up at the restaurant on Douglas, that’ll still be an option, too, Leffel said.)
On the end of one of the containers, Leffel said, she’ll install a big window so people can see the employees inside preparing their food. Customers and delivery drivers will pick orders up from another sliding window.
Leffel said her goal is to redevelop the corner where the TSK Satellite Station will be set up. Her plan is to paint the containers in fun colors with the Tanya’s Soup Kitchen logo, and she envisions building a little patio deck where people can dine outside and play lawn games during nice weather. She also imagines collaborating with her future neighbor at Waterman and Laura, Art House 310, for some First Friday events.
I’ll keep you posted on Leffel’s progress.
This story was originally published May 4, 2021 at 12:30 PM.
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