Kansas City has Restaurant Week. We have Taste of Wichita, and it returns this weekend
Taste of Wichita was a new event in 2020 — designed by Junior League of Wichita to resemble Kansas City’s popular restaurant week.
It went over well, especially considering that Wichita was in the middle of a pandemic that affected how restaurants operated and how people dined out. Now, the Junior League is giving it another go.
The second installment of Taste of Wichita launches on Friday and runs through Oct. 10. During that period, a list of participating restaurants will be offering special menus priced at either $15 or $30. Participants are encouraged to check out as many of the menus as possible, and a percentage of each sale will go to support Junior League of Wichita.
The goal, as it was last year, organizers say, is to get Wichitans into local restaurants they may not have had the inclination or cash to try before. Haley Graeff, one of the co-chairs of the event, said she went last year and discovered new places to eat.
“Because of Taste of Wichita, I’ve been able to go to a couple of restaurants I’d kind of eyeballed but hadn’t committed to going to,” she said.
Last year, organizers got 14 restaurants signed up to participate. They have 12 on the 2021 roster so far and hope to have a few more on board before Friday.
The restaurants that have committed to the event make up a diverse list that includes a fancy steakhouse, a couple of bars and a favorite local diner. They are: 6S Steakhouse, The Artichoke Sandwichbar, The Belmont, Bonefish Grill, Doo-Dah Diner, Georges French Bistro, The Greens at Terradyne, Newport Grill, Prost, The Rusty Nail, Vora and Wine Dive.
Each restaurant was given the freedom to create whatever kind of menu it wanted, and a few even threw in take-and-bake options. This year,the restaurants also were allowed to include adult beverages on their menus.
Prost, the German restaurant at 2721 E. Central, is offering a $30 a person dinner that includes six 2-ounce samples of German beer plus deep fried sauerkraut balls and German style meatloaf. Its also offering a half-dozen bierocks to go for $25. Meanwhile, Doo-Dah Diner is offering chicken and noodles for $15 or take-and-bake chicken and noodles for $12 to $29.
Newport Grill and Bonefish Grill are both offering $15 lunch menus and $30 dinner menus. The Rusty Nail, a bar at 1155 S. Washington, has a $15 option available at lunch or dinner that features an appetizer of pretzel balls served with beer cheese and a chicken sandwich with choice of side.
People can check out all the menus at tasteofwichita.org/restaurants. To participate, diners should check the website to see whether menus are offered at lunch or dinner at their restaurant of choice and then go there and ask for the Taste of Wichita menu. No tickets are required. Participants also will be able to get the food either for dine-in or curbside pickup at most of the restaurants.
Taste of Wichita was dreamed up last year as a replacement for Holiday Galleria, a shopping event that for 16 years had drawn big crowds to Century II in early October and was the group’s biggest fundraiser. The Junior League decided not to do the event last year to keep big crowds from gathering during COVID-19 and opted not to do it this year, either.
Graeff said she did not know when Holiday Galleria might return but that the Junior League is committed to continuing Taste of Wichita for years to come.
“We’d really like to see this blossom within the next few years and become just as big as Kansas City’s restaurant week event,” she said.
For more information on Taste of Wichita, visit tasteofwichita.org.
.jpg)