Pick up ‘Classic Restaurants of Wichita’ book at one of city’s most classic restaurants
Wichita’s oldest restaurant still operating in the same spot where it opened is the Nu-Way at 1406 W. Douglas, which has been in business for 91 years.
That restaurant, which is still serving up the crumbly-is-good loose meat sandwiches that Tom McEvoy first started offering out of the building on July 4, 1930, also figures prominently into my book, “Classic Restaurants of Wichita.”
Now, the Nu-Way management has invited me to set up in the historic restaurant on West Douglas and sign books for a couple of hours. I’ll be there on Tuesday, Sept. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m., and during the signing, that Nu-Way location will be giving away free frosty mugs of root beer.
The book, which was released in early August and has topped the best-seller list at Watermark Books ever since, is a look back at the iconic restaurants that are gone but that locals will never forget — places like the Innes Tea Room, Fife and Drum, Lazy-R, Chateau Briand, Cafe Chantilly and more.
But it also includes a section on the restaurants that have somehow managed to endure for decades and decades — places like Nu-Way, Angelo’s, Connie’s, Scotch & Sirloin, Felipe’s and the like.
The Nu-Way story is one that’s uniquely Wichita’s. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression when McEvoy — a young entrepreneur who invented and patented a steam cooker that produced super tasty “loose meat” — opened a new business on the site of a former potato patch in Wichita.
Nine decades later, the business is now owned by Neal Stong and has three sister restaurants around town. People still love its sandwiches, root beer and onion rings.
I’ll have plenty of books there on Tuesday and hope to meet you over a frosty mug.
Also: I’ll be at Watermark Books at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 19, signing books.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 5:01 AM.
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