Wichita’s first-ever Wendy’s has been demolished. Here’s what’s happening on the site now
Back in 1975, Wichita franchisee Larry Fleming opened the city’s first Wendy’s restaurant at 160 S. Rock Road. The chain had been founded just six years earlier — in 1969 — when Dave Thomas opened his first restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. At the time, Fleming’s Wendy’s was one of only about 300 in existence.
Now, 46 years later, Wichita’s first Wendy’s has been scraped off the face of the earth. But for those who love Frosty, chili and Baconators, there’s good news: A new Wendy’s is being built on the site.
Emily O’Neill, the marketing coordinator for Cotti Foods — which bought Fleming’s 38 Wendy’s restaurants in Kansas, Tulsa and Amarillo, Texas, in 2017 — says that the Wendy’s is undergoing a “complete remodel” and should be open toward the end of March. Though the old brick building was completely demolished and the site scraped, a new structure has started going up in recent weeks.
Cotti Foods, which is based in California and owns 51 Wendy’s restaurants across the Midwest, has been upgrading Wichita’s Wendy’s restaurants for the past couple of years. They opened a new one at 37th and Ridge Road in May 2020, and they also remodeled the Wendy’s at 2120 N. Woodlawn as well as one in Andover.
I’ll keep you posted on an opening day for the new Wendy’s.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 12:29 PM.
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