A Greenwich Road restaurant has closed, owner says drive-through is essential in 2022

Normally, restaurant news originating from North Greenwich Road is about openings.

But this news is about a closing.

If you’ve been out to the fast-growing area near Greenwich Road and K-96, you may have noticed that the Chick N Max at 2530 N. Greenwich has been closed for a couple of weeks. That location, which opened in 2018 in a space that had been vacated by Freebirds World Burrito, was the chain’s second in Wichita.

But the lease was up on North Greenwich Road, said Chick N Max spokesman Michael Misetic, and owner Max Sheets has decided since the pandemic that he prefers his restaurants to have drive-throughs, which that store did not. About 65% of the restaurant’s to-go business now comes from drive-through windows, Misetic said.

They’re calling the Chick N Max that is slated to open in the next several weeks at 5510 E. Central the Greenwich Road replacement.

“Ideally, they would like all future restaurants to have a drive through,” Misetic said. “It’s part of the new prototype.”

Until the new Chick N Max restaurant is ready, that leaves just the restaurants at 37th and Maize and at West and Maple.

This is not the first time that Chick N Max has moved a restaurant to gain a drive through. In 2019, Sheets moved his original restaurant at 410 N. Hillside (which had also taken over a Freebirds World Burrito space) to 352 S. West Street, which had a drive-through window.

It might not be a bad time for a chicken purveyor to leave that particular stretch of North Greenwich Road, either. Slim Chickens operates just across the street at 2313 N. Greenwich Road, and Chick Fil A is planning a restaurant right next door at 2400 N. Greenwich Road.

But Sheets said he’s interested in eventually returning to the North Greenwich Road corridor.

“Our return will have to be in the form of a freestanding, drive-through location,” he said.

Chick N Max is a quick-service restaurant that specializes in tenders, wings, sandwiches, fries, chicken and waffles and smoked chicken.

This story was originally published January 24, 2022 at 11:06 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.