Historic Wichita restaurant closed since June fire still has not reopened. What gives?

It was mid June when an early-morning fire at Riverside Cafe, 739 W. 13th St., damaged a back storage room and took out the building’s electricity.

At the time, owner Paul Cohlmia said he thought he’d have the restaurant reopened within two or three weeks.

Now, nearly seven months have passed, and the restaurant is still not open. Its fans are starting to wonder what’s going on.

I recently caught up with Cohlmia, who said that the repairs he initially thought would be simple quickly became much more complex. When a plumber came in to do work, he discovered that the lines under the restaurant were leaking and would need to be repaired. And the city wants him to tear up concrete in the back of the restaurant and to also install concrete gutters, he said.

“Every time we do something, something else happens,” he said.

He’s optimistic that the restaurant can reopen sometime this month, though. In the meantime, customers are frequently stopping by to check up on the neighborhood cafe, which is one of the oldest still-operating restaurant spaces in Wichita. It opened as West-Urn Cafe in 1946 and has also operated over the years as Ed’s Cafe and Dick and Jayne’s.

While they wait, Cohlmia said, regulars have been finding their way to the other Riverside Cafes in the area: at 9125 W. Central and at 824 N. Baltimore in Derby.

“We miss them all,” he said.

I’ll let you know when a re-opening date is finalized.

This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 11:14 AM.

Denise Neil

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6327

Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.