The revival of this classic Wichita restaurant was short-lived
The revival of the Town & Country restaurant at 4702 W. Kellogg was short-lived.
The restaurant, which first opened in Wichita in 1957, has been closed for at least a month, and the owners who took it over and reopened it last October don’t intend to reopen it this time, said Troy Farha, the NAI Martens agent who leased the building last year.
He met with the owners on Wednesday, and they confirmed that they won’t be reopening, Farha said. He will be relisting the property in the next few weeks and is ready to talk with anyone who might be interested in leasing the space.
I reached out to the most recent operators of the restaurant but did not hear back. In recent weeks, they’d advertised on Facebook for cooks and promised to reopen soon, but that never happened. The windows at the restaurant are now covered with brown paper, and the parking lot is empty.
In the posts, the owners said they closed initially because they were having trouble hiring staff.
Town & Country’s longtime owner, Larry Conover — the son of founder Jay Conover — died in March 2020 of throat cancer. The COVID-19 pandemic hit almost immediately after that, and the restaurant remained closed for months. Then, late last summer, the building got a new coat of gray paint, and a new Town & Country Facebook page appeared.
One of the owners appeared to be Hussein Alkasasy, who is one member of a group of partners that includes brothers Raed Mansour and Ehab Mansour and that over the last several years had taken over several Wichita restaurants and bars. They’ve run Heroes Sports Bar & Grill in Old Town since 2017, and in 2018, they opened 6 Degrees in the old The Bullpen space at 222 N. Washington. That same year, they bought and reopened The Chalet at 3030 N. Penstemon, but it was closed by October.
The original Town & Country reopened in late October 2020 with a similar menu, but reviews were mixed. Customers said the new owners never did get the old mesquite grill going again.
Meanwhile, the other Town & Country — officially called Town & Country Classic — is still open at 10510 W. Southwest Blvd. It was opened last July by Billy Wood, a longtime customer and retired gas company worker who, with the Conover family’s blessing, decided he would take over Town & Country and run it in Larry’s honor. But he could not reach an agreement with the landlords on the longtime building on West Kellogg, so he found a new spot at K-42 and Maize Road.
Farha said that anyone who wants to discuss leasing the space on West Kellogg can contact him at 316-262-0000, extension 104.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 3:48 PM.
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