Wichita restaurateur — known for local charity work, wine dinners — retires after 40 years
Usually, the manager of a chain restaurant in Wichita doesn’t have a whole lot of latitude and must get clearance from the home office before committing to anything outside of the box.
But Joe Parten — who has been the managing partner at Wichita’s Carrabba’s, 3409 N. Rock Road, for the past 15 years — managed to run that restaurant as though it were locally owned. He was everywhere: putting on big wine dinners, serving food at charity functions and PTO fundraisers all over town, doing cooking demonstrations on local television stations and at local cooking schools.
But now Parten, one of Wichita’s most recognizable restaurateurs, is moving on.
He decided a couple of months ago not to re-up his contract with Carrabba’s, and his last day at the restaurant was Sunday.
Parten, 62, says he’s enjoyed the run but decided it was time to try something new. In 40 years, he said, he’s never had a holiday off. And the challenges of running a restaurant in 2021 have begun to wear on him.
“The restaurant business is not much fun anymore,” said Parten, who like all restaurateurs in town has struggled to hire and keep staff. He said his blood pressure dropped “about 20 points” the day he made the decision to retire.
Parten grew up in El Paso and started his restaurant career at age 21, getting a job as a dishwasher at Furr’s cafeteria. By the end of his first year, he was the restaurant’s general manager.
He moved with Furr’s to Midland, Texas, then to Oklahoma City before being asked to take over the Twin Lakes Furr’s in Wichita in 1988. Five years later, he accepted a job with Hometown Buffet and ran the restaurant on West Central.
By 2006, he was ready to move on, though, and he decided to join the Carrabba’s chain. The restaurant, part of the Bloomin’ Brands chain that also owns Outback Steakhouse and Bonefish Grill, had opened its first Wichita location at K-96 and North Rock Road in 2002. Four years later, Parten was the restaurant’s managing partner.
In the 15 years since, Parten has been an ever-present member of the restaurant community and has made himself available for countless charity events across town. Some years, he said, he would commit to providing food at up to 40 different fundraising events.
“Carrabba’s gave me the best opportunity to get involved in the community and do the things I could for the community,” he said.
A cook and a wine connoisseur, Parten also started his own wine dinner series at the restaurant, and they were popular with his customers — so much so that he had to up them to twice a month shortly after he started them. His biggest dinner, which he put on five years ago, drew 110 people. When he posted on social media earlier this month that he was putting on his last wine dinner, the 63 spots he made available were reserved in under an hour.
The company has sent a new managing partner to Wichita’s Carrabba’s, Parten said, and he’s now looking at what’s next. He’s learning about commercial real estate and also is in talks with a friend to partner on a small catering business. (Though his contract with Carrabba’s means he can’t cook Italian food in town for two years.)
He’d also consider working part time in a local liquor store and putting on small wine tastings.
Parten said he’s loved his time in restaurants in Wichita and enjoyed getting to know his customers, who ranged from people dining out for special occasions to those who would visit three or four times a week.
He’s proud, too, of the work he did there over the past 15 years.
“To start with, we had really the best Italian food in town — high-quality, good flavor, nothing bland,” he said. “We really felt that we were a warm hug type of environment. It felt like a local ‘Cheers.’”
This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 12:39 PM.
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