Dining With Denise Neil

Get a preview of Denise Neil’s book profiling Wichita’s best long-gone restaurants

I’ve been working on a pretty exciting project for more than a year, and on Wednesday, I will finally be able to share some details.

My new book, titled “Classic Restaurants of Wichita,” will be published this August by Arcadia Publishing’s The History Press (the same group that put out Joe Stumpe’s book “Wicked Wichita” back in 2018.)

The book, which will feature close to 100 images, offers profiles of Wichita’s gone-but-never-forgotten restaurants, starting in the 1870s when Wichita was founded and spanning all the way to the late 1980s with the addition of places like of Pasta Mill, Willie C’s, Amarillo Grill and more.

The Wichita Public Library asked me to speak about the book during an online installment of its Senior Wednesday program, and anyone can tune in. I’ll be giving the talk via Zoom, and I’ll share several of the photos from the book as well as an overview of what I’ve included in its pages.

And I’ve included a lot. The book includes profiles of more than 100 Wichita restaurants, and I focused on the favorites people have named over and over again since I started writing about restaurants in Wichita more than 21 years ago: places like Innes Tea Room, Hickory House, Albert’s, Abe’s, Elizabeth’s, Lazy-R, Chateau Briand, The Looking Glass, Dr. Redbird’s Medicinal Inn, Fife and Drum and many, many more.

My talk starts at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12.

I hope to see you then, and I’ll be sharing more details about “Classic Restaurants of Wichita” as the publication date gets closer.

This story was originally published May 10, 2021 at 2:19 PM.

Denise Neil
The Wichita Eagle
Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.
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