It’s going to be a busy week for restaurant openings in Wichita. Here’s what’s coming:
It’s going to be a busy week for new restaurant openings in Wichita as several long-awaited eateries open their doors all at once.
Here’s a list of the new places Wichita can check out starting this week:
Green Olive Family BBQ, 4520 E. 47th St. South: The Mediterranean restaurant that operated for five years at 6600 W. Central has moved to a bigger space, and opening day is today. (Monday, July 26.) Owner Maisam Sakhi has taken over the old Jezebel’s space that two years ago was briefly home to a barbecue buffet restaurant called The Barbe-Q-Pit. He plans to serve the Mediterranean specialties his customers had come to know at his west-side restaurant — like shawarma, hummus and Mediterranean pizza — but will also have barbecue on the menu. He’s hoping to draw customers from nearby Spirit AeroSystems. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Birria tj 664, 803 N. West St.: Back in February, the popular Tacos tj 664 relocated to its bigger space at 1014 N. West St., leaving behind the former Sonic building where it first opened in early 2020. But the owners kept the old space, saying they would eventually open another restaurant that specialized in birria. Finally, after several delays caused by an inability to find staff, that restaurant opens today (Monday, July 26.) The owners are planning a “soft opening” for the first week so employees can practice, and the grand opening will be on Aug. 2. Hours will be 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. You can see the whole menu below.
Torchy’s Tacos, 2901 North Maize Road: Wichita’s second Torchy’s will open on Wednesday on the west side, right next to HomeGrown. Unlike the east-side Torchy’s, which opened last September at 21st and Rock, this one will have a drive-through, but it will offer the same menu of tacos, queso, breakfast tacos and adult beverages. On opening day, the first 100 people through the door will get a special T-shirt that will entitle them to a free half order of queso and chips with any taco purchase for a year.
HTeaO, 1280 N. Tyler: Friday is opening day for this new tea shop, part of a Texas-based chain that offers 24 flavors of iced tea that people can mix and match and top with fresh fruit. The shop doesn’t have a food menu, though it will sell healthy snacks. It also doesn’t offer dine-in: People can get their tea either at the drive-through or go inside and make their concoctions themselves. The shop also sells bags of its crunch-worthy ice. It’ll open at noon on opening day and then its hours will be 7 a.m. to 9:05 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 9:05 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 9:05 p.m. on Sundays. Those hours will remain until Sept. 1, when the store will begin closing an hour earlier.
Opened last week
Two other new restaurants just opened their doors last week:
Los Cunados, 4559 N. Woodlawn, Bel Aire: Owners of this restaurant first announced at the beginning of the year their plans to open a new Mexican restaurant in the former Bob & Luigi’s space in Bel Aire. Fernando Aguirre, who also owns Playa Azul restaurant in Augusta, partnered with his brother-in-law, Hector Onate, on the restaurant. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sundays.
Social Tap, 4510 E. 19th St.: This new bar and food hall opened at Wichita State University’s Braeburn Square development on Friday. So far, it has one restaurant concept inside, a pizza place called Sungrano, but it will add a burger restaurant called Wheatlys soon. It has 52 taps for beer, wine and cocktails and a big patio on the backside.
... and one closing
Bocco Deli, 3010 E. Central: Dana Best shocked customers last week when she announced that her deli, which had been temporarily closed, would not reopen “due to circumstances beyond our control.” She said she could not elaborate and did not respond to a message asking about the closure. Nathan Toubia opened the deli in 2010 and sold it to Tate in 2014.
Birria tj 664 menu
This story was originally published July 26, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
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