Meet the Black chefs, owners and influencers helping shape Wichita’s dining scene

Wichita has a rich history of Black entrepreneurs who helped build the city’s dining scene through its early years.

Longtimers still remember 1950s barbecue institutions like Jerome Adams’ Adams Barbecue and Mathilda Dunbar’s Auntie Sweet’s Bar-B-Que. Rudy Nicholson’s Rudy’s BBQ was a staple from the mid-1960s until it closed in 2001. And Bill Reaves left his mark on Wichita not only with his Bill’s Le Gourmet — a destination for fans of live jazz and flaming Steak Diane — but also by passing his love of fine dining onto his son, Anthony Card, who became a popular Wichita chef in his own right.

But the food and drink scene in present-day Wichita is being bolstered by a whole new generation of Black foodies and business owners, from a Kansas winemaker known for her drive to offer “wine-ucation” to a football star turned entrepreneur following his own father into the food business.

Wichita is home to a teenage chef-turned-philanthropist who feeds the homeless and dreams of opening his own barbecue shack. A pair of female vegan cooks promoting a new way of eating. An energetic food truck owner driven to create a space where not only his business can thrive but where other businesses can thrive, too.

To close out Black History Month, we’re profiling some of the Black Wichitans who are influencing the local dining scene and, like their predecessors, paving the way for future Black entrepreneurs.

Preston Darnell: The Chef

Age: 40

Known for: Leading the kitchen at west Wichita fine dining restaurant The Sweet Spot as executive chef

Wichita native Preston Darnell grew up cooking. His grandma taught him to make biscuits at a young age, and because his mom worked, he often prepared family meals.

When he was 15, he got his first restaurant job at the once-popular Garden Cafe in Brittany Center, 2120 N. Woodlawn, and a seed was planted. Later in high school, he moved to Ohio and attended high school there. When a recruiter from a culinary school came to visit, Darnell raised his hand.

He’d always dreamed of being a scientist, but his grades weren’t the best. Cooking, he realized, was a science of its own.

“I was like, ‘Well, if I can’t do the science part, I can do culinary,” he said. “It’s food science. There’s a lot of ratios and formulas you have to understand.”

Now, two decades later, Darnell is the executive chef at The Sweet Spot, a fine dining restaurant that opened at 8448 W. Central in June of 2018. It’s his first head chef job, Darnell said, and he’s been there since opening day, collaborating on the creation of the menu and adding his special touch.

Darnell, who graduated from Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, has had a long career in restaurants. He returned to Wichita in the early 2000s to work for the Toubia family’s Latour restaurant group, where he worked for 13 years, much of that time spent handling the company’s food service account at Cessna. Over the years, he’s worked in local restaurants including The Olive Tree, Piccadilly, The Lakeside Club, The Shadow and YaYa’s Eurobistro.

Darnell said he grew up admiring chefs he saw on television and learned about in school. One of his favorites when he was young was Justin Wilson, a Cajun cook who hosted cooking shows on PBS. He was also fascinated by the story of James Hemings, a Thomas Jefferson slave who was also an accomplished Paris-trained chef.

His cooking style, Darnell says, is sometimes quirky, and he likes to combine flavors from French, Cajun and American cuisines. Though he runs a tight crew — these days, it’s just him, a line cook and the owner working in the restaurant’s open kitchen — he’s grown into his role as the head chef and enjoys circulating in the dining room when he can.

“I like to go out and talk to the customers and see how everything was,” he said. “It’s good to put a face to who you’re feeding. It’s a service.”

Gregory Cole: The Veteran

Age: 64

Known for: Owning Little Bits cookie company, working as a culinary instructor for Butler Community College’s Culinary Arts program, serving as a consultant for many Black food entrepreneurs

It’s a good thing that one of Gregory Cole’s areas of expertise is time management, because the man has a lot to manage.

Cole teaches at two local colleges, leads management seminars for corporate companies, owns a catering business, is a sought-after restaurant consultant and also is about to make his stage debut in the cast of “Canaan,” which runs April 1-3 at the Crown Uptown Theatre.

In his free time, he owns a cookie business — Little Bits — which he founded 12 years ago. Cole’s tiny cookies — made with a secret seven-spice recipe inspired by German peppernuts — are sold by the bag at the Kansas Grown Farmers Market and at local stores like Green Acres and The Spice Merchant, and they’re big in the diabetic community.

“This was supposed to be a hobby, but look what happened,” he said. “This is not a hobby anymore. This is a profitable venture.”

Cole, who was born in Baltimore, says he started living with his grandmother at age 13. He was already interested in baking, having become obsessed with a neighbor girl’s Easy-Bake Oven when he was just 7, but when his grandmother gave him a plastic M-16 rifle, it set him on a path to join the Army. He retired as a first sergeant after 25 years, and ever since, he’s built a career out of cooking and teaching.

His first job out of the Army, Cole remembers, was at El Dorado Correctional Facility, where he led a program training inmates how to work as sous chefs. After that, he ran the training departments for Pizza Hut and Burger King, but eventually he landed in academia. He started teaching for Butler a decade ago, and when John and Lexi Michael left Butler in 2020 to help build a new culinary program at WSU Tech, Cole took over and led the program until he hired his permanent replacement, Chef Luis Pena.

Today, he’s still a culinary instructor for Butler and also teaches Business Education and Training Analysis courses for the school. At Southwestern College in Winfield, he teaches leadership and capstone courses.

He also just moved Little Bits to a new production facility inside a local church and has added a second flavor: a coffee-flavored cookie called Cocoa Mocha, which will land in stores next month. This summer, a third flavor — the citrus-y Tropical Island Bite — will make its debut. And Cole is working on a deal that could soon get his cookies a much higher profile.

But one of his most satisfying ventures, he said, is mentoring locals through starting their own food businesses, which he has done for other black-owned businesses like Wichita Cheesecake Company and Simply Sangria.

He gives those entrepreneurs the game plan that’s worked for him, he says.

“You’ve just got to put your time in and do as much networking as you possibly can and trust that people will tell you what they know,” he said. “Go to work. Be more proactive than reactive. Do your research. Know your competitors. Know how to do time management, and know how to manage yourself. Those are things that are all critical to having an effective minority-owned business.”

Jennifer McDonald: The Wine-ucator

Age: 39

Known for: Opening Jenny Dawn Cellars, an “urban winery” in downtown Wichita that is about to double its footprint

Jennifer McDonald liked to drink wine, so years ago, she decided to try making it. She ordered some wine kits and did some experimenting in her basement.

But when she first started talking about producing wine on a large scale in Wichita, she admits, she got a few strange looks.

“Everyone was like, ‘Who is this crazy woman and why is she trying to make wine here in the city?’” she said with a laugh.

Today, McDonald is the owner of a growing “urban winery” in downtown Wichita — Jenny Dawn Cellars at 703 E. Douglas — and she’s become a bit of an expert in entrepreneurship along the way.

She opened her winery in November 2019 in an airy, light-filled spot at the Union Station. (Though its address is Douglas, the winery is actually in the southern most part of Union Station’s “express building,” which faces Mead Street near Waterman.)

Despite opening her doors just months before the COVID-19 pandemic set in, McDonald’s winery has grown and thrived. She’s about to take over a second 1,500 square-foot-space next door that will allow her to keep her tasting room, which also serves food, consistently open Tuesdays through Saturdays. At the moment, McDonald often has to close the tasting room to the public so she can use the space for private events, wine dinners and her “wineucation” classes.

“What we realized is that even in a pandemic, we ran out of seating and we ran out of wine,” she said. “We’re doubling our space and doubling our case volume.”

McDonald, who last year made 14 different wines onsite using grapes and juices both imported from California and sourced in Kansas, now sells her wine from the winery, online and in liquor stores in Kansas and in southern Nebraska. In March, she plans to bottle 2,100 gallons to prepare for her re-grand opening and introduction of her new space in April.

Building her business over the last several years, McDonald said, has convinced her that Wichita is a good place for minority-owned businesses. She found so many resources, and through them, she found her longtime mentor, her social media and branding consultants, her attorney, bank and her accountant. She especially credits the Create Campaign, a local nonprofit that supports minority entrepreneurs, and Pipeline Entrepreneurs, a group that provides mentors for fledgling business owners across the Midwest.

“Wichita is a phenomenal place to start a business, especially a minority because there are so many resources,” she said. “There are a lot of people out there in the community who are just there to support you.”

Parrishon Hardgraves and Kandy Burnett: The Vegan Crew

Ages: Both 34

Known for: Hardgraves is the owner of about-to-launch vegan food truck Sol Food. Burnett helps Hardgraves and is also in the process of launching her own cold-pressed juice business, Juice 101.

Over the past several years, veganism has taken hold in Wichita, and vegan cooks have gone into business for themselves. Coincidentally, several of these cooks are both female and Black.

Among the rising stars are two lifelong friends who both have their own vegan food businesses and both are on the verge of taking the next steps to grow them.

Parrishon Hardgraves and Kandy Burnett grew up together. Their parents were friends and both attended Heights High School.

In 2012, Hardgraves decided she wanted to change her lifestyle and became interested in veganism. A longtime cook and kitchen adventurer, she started experimenting with plant-based versions of her favorite foods, from nachos to tacos to po’ boy sandwiches.

Though Hardgraves also runs a childcare business from her home, in 2020, she started to think about opening a food business. She found a commercial kitchen space for rent in the old Metro-Boulevard High School building on South George Washington, where she has been perfecting her recipes. In March, she’ll officially launch a virtual kitchen that will allow fans to order her vegan dishes for pickup or delivery through third-party vendors like DoorDash.

She already owns a food truck and plans to launch it this summer under the name Sol Food.

Since changing her diet, Hardgraves said, she’s felt better and had more energy and mental clarity, and she wants to share that experience with others in the community. But her goal is to emulate the chef she most admires: Pinky Cole, who owns the successful Slutty Vegan restaurant chain in Atlanta and who found success by making vegan food that also appealed to meat eaters.

“I want to raise curiosity,” Hardgraves said. “I want to open up a dialogue about eating differently. Yeah, you can always have the standard American diet, but let’s try something else. Let’s think about a different way of eating.”

When Hardgraves launches her truck this summer, Burnett will help her run it and will also serve her cold-press juice along with Hardgraves’ food. Burnett, who’s had formal culinary training, also prefers the vegan lifestyle and has big plans for her juice business. (Burnett also is a YouTuber who interviews and highlights Black business owners in Wichita on her channel Kandy B. Poppin.)

Both Hardgraves and Burnett have become in-demand on the vegan scene of late and have been invited to serve food at vegan pop-up events and to lead vegan cooking classes. Both will be leading sessions during a four-part interactive cooking series being put on in March at the Christian Faith Center at 1130 S. Broadway. Burnett’s session is on March 10, when she’ll demonstrate making quinoa-stuffed bell peppers, and Hardgraves’ session on March 24 will focus on breakfast: vegan French toast, sauteed spinach and baked red skin rosemary potatoes. Classes are $35 each or $130 for all four.

Those who want to try the food from Sol Food and the juice from Juice 101 should follow both businesses’ Facebook pages. They’ll be selling food to go Thursdays through Saturdays but will update social media on specifics at the start of March.

Jeran Trotter: The Athlete

Age: 34

Known for: Opening the new Sidelines Sports Bar & Grill, owning the Grizzlies youth sports organization

Jeran Trotter is a Wichita high school football legend: a star running back for the Northwest High School Grizzlies who graduated in 2006 but still holds the team’s single-season rushing record.

He played in college, too, both at Missouri State University and then at Friends, but he was plagued by injuries. Fortunately, he said, he’d listened when his college coaches offered reality checks.

“When you go to college, they tell you that you have to have a backup plan,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys that don’t, and when football ends they start getting into stuff and can’t focus anymore.”

But Trotter had a mind for business and got into real estate young, buying rental houses and eventually commercial properties. Seven years ago, he also started the Grizzlies, an organization of close to 300 kids in kindergarten through eighth grade that’s part of the Greater Wichita Junior Football League.

Now, Trotter is focused on a new passion: a family-friendly sports bar called Sidelines Sports Bar & Grill that he just opened the former Club Boomerang space at 1400 E. First St. He’s filled it with sports memorabilia he’s collected over the years, including jerseys from NFL players and items from local legends like Bryce Brown and Chris Harper. He said he wants the bar, which has a kids menu and a separate area where kids can play video games, to be a place that will inspire his young players and let them know they can achieve great things in sports.

And he’s already about to expand. Trotter is planning to open a second Sidelines inside a bar he bought in Canton, which is in McPherson County.

Trotter said he was inspired to get into the restaurant business by his parents, who were both into cooking and once ran a restaurant called Round Up Barbecue. Edward Trotter, who died last year, knew of his sons’ plans and was advising him on the business.

“He was able to come see it as we were working on it,” Trotter said. “He just didn’t make it to when I opened up. But he gave me a lot of insight. He was definitely a visionary in the bar industry.”

Willie Finley: The Food Truck Facilitator

Age: 39

Known for: His food truck Willie’s Wings and for his about-to-open The Truck Stop: Food Truck Park at Woodlawn and Kellogg

He’s spent the last three years building up business for his own food truck — Willie’s Wings — which he opened three years ago but started dedicating himself to full time last year. But in a couple of days, Willie Finley will launch a second business, one he hopes will help build up the Wichita food truck scene as a whole.

Tuesday is opening day for Finley’s new food truck park at 6315 E. Kellogg. He’s leased a massive empty parking lot from the owner of the adjacent motel, the Starlite Motor Lodge, and he’s hoping to turn it into a seven-days-a-week destination for food truck fans.

So far, he’s signed up five trucks (including his own) but has room for 18. He’s asking truckers to be at the park from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, and his tenants can sign contracts committing to weekends only, Mondays through Fridays only, or seven days a week. (He’s letting trucks park free for the month of March after they put down a deposit.)

Finley, who serves 13 flavors of chicken wings, will make his truck a permanent tenant at the park. He’s also signed up Bongo Fruit Smoothies, Face Stuffers Food Wagon, Busy B’s and Don Nacho’s Catering & Food Trailer and is in talks with a barbecue truck and another taco truck as well.

He says his goal is to create a place where Wichitans know they can always find food truck fare, something that’s been more difficult since the August 2020 closing of the ICT Pop-Up Urban Park at 121 E. Douglas. He also wants to provide fledgling food truckers a place to build their followings.

Finley said he wants the park to always be full and offer different types of cuisine. Since starting with his truck, he said, it’s been disappointing to see that so many Wichita diners prefer to patronize chain restaurants.

“Wichita is a big, booming city,” he said. “It’s growing, but at the same time, the food truck community is growing as well, and they’re not getting that same shine as the regular brick-and-mortar restaurants.”

Javion Napier: The Wunderkind

Age: 16

Known for: His popular J&B Hot Dog Stand, which he started to raise money for the homeless

Someday, he hopes to open his own hole-in-the wall barbecue shack where he can wow customers with his rib-smoking prowess.

But for now, Javion Napier — a 16-year-old sophomore at Wichita South High School — is plenty busy working two restaurant jobs, cooking for his family, running his own hot dog stand to raise money for the homeless and managing his growing celebrity.

Over the past several months, as news of his good deeds spread around town, he’s become recognizable enough that he can’t even shop at Walmart in peace.

“Every time I go, people run up to me and say, ‘Are you the hot dog kid? How do we book you?’” he said. “And I’m just there to shop. I just need a pound of hamburger.”

Javion is the founder and owner of J&B Hot Dog Stand, a business he started out of his driveway near Lincoln and Woodlawn with the goal of raising money to donate to the homeless in Wichita. Last year, the local news heard about his venture and featured him on the air. His reputation and reach has grown since then. (And so has his collection of tools: Javion now has six grills, two smokers, a deep fryer, a bread proofer and a hot box.)

These days, Javion has outgrown his driveway, and when he sets up his hot dog stand, it’s usually in parking lots of local businesses. He’s raised about $8,000 to date, he estimates, grilling and serving hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, polish sausage and more with the help of his mom, aunts, sister and two cousins, who pitch in baked goods, take money and bag up food.

At Thanksgiving, he cooked a big meal for people in need at HumanKind Ministries. And on Saturday, he hosted the J&B Hot Dog Stand Outstanding Wichita Youth Award Ceremony, which honored other inspiring local young people. Napier catered the event, too, preparing a buffet dinner that included ribs, hot dogs, chicken, chili, corn on the cob, green beans and mac and cheese.

His interest in food started, he said, when he was 7 years old and would cook with his father, Jeremy Napier. But when Javion was 10, his father died in a hit-and-run accident. Javion’s interest in food service resumed when he was in seventh grade and started selling lemonade at a nearby car wash to raise money for the less fortunate. Then he moved on to food. His philanthropy took off from there.

Javion now has two part-time jobs cooking in restaurants: One at Deano’s Grill & Tapworks at 9747 E. 21st St. and one at Denny’s.

At home, his garage is stuffed to almost overflowing with everything he needs to pull off big catering jobs, including all those grills and smokers and lots of professional catering equipment. He’s in talks to take on several more high-profile caterings around town, and his smile grows when he talks about it.

“I just like meeting all the different people,” he says.

Brian Miller: The Boss

Age: 57

Known for: Starting Simply Sangria Wine Co. and expanding into Towne East Square

For Brian Miller, much of the joy he gets from his fledgling business — Simply Sangria Wine Co. — is knowing that it’s all his and that he answers only to himself.

Miller, who has held a number of jobs over the years, started making sangria — an alcoholic punch that features wine mixed with fruit and spices — in his free time several years ago. He’d serve his concoctions at family gatherings, and his relatives would rave about it. His son and niece kept encouraging him to consider bottling and selling it.

Finally, he did, and he started taking bottles of his sangria to the Old Town Farm & Art Market, eventually becoming one of its most recognizable and popular vendors, offering free samples of sangria every Saturday morning. And he’d always sell out.

In March 2019, Miller opened a storefront at 243 N. Cleveland, inviting sangria fans to stop in for a sample or to pick up bottles of their favorites. Miller now sells four varieties of sangria and six different table wines.

But recently, his business has started to take off. Miller, who estimates he makes 60 to 100 cases of sangria a month, in November opened in the food court of Towne East Square. There, he not only offers samples to mall shoppers and sells bottles to go but he also now serves pizza, salads and charcuterie. The addition of the business has given the main food court area in the mall a pizza option that had been lacking ever since Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen closed

Later this year, Miller also plans to expand his original storefront at 243 N. Cleveland. He’s taken over 1,200 square feet of the strip center space that opened up next door, and he’s adding a dining room, restrooms and an expanded production area. Once it’s complete, he’ll start opening there for lunch Tuesdays through Saturdays and offer a different special each day, likely tacos on Tuesdays, Italian fare on Wednesdays, burgers on Thursdays and pizza on Fridays and Saturdays.

He’s also fielded interest about expanding his mall concept to other markets.

In the meantime, customers can frequently find Miller in his mall business, wearing his Bluetooth headset in his ear. When he’s not on the phone dealing with orders, he’s talking to customers and offering them samples of his product.

His main goal as his business grows: “To make as much damn sangria as possible,” he says with a laugh.

Launching his business hasn’t always been easy, but he’s determined to make it an even bigger success. Recently, he’s started partnerships with other food businesses in town and has bonded with fellow Black business owners Mark and Grace Daniels of Wichita Cheesecake Co. Miller sells their cheesecake at the mall, and the two businesses are working on other partnerships for the future.

“It’s been very up and down, very unpredictable and very scary,” Miller says of building the business. “But overall, I think it’s fulfilling because it’s yours. I don’t have to answer to someone else about what I want to do. I get the autonomy of being able to make the decisions.”

Grace and Mark Daniels: The Baker and The Businessman

Ages: Mark is 58, Grace is 52

Known for: Starting the Wichita Cheesecake Company, which expanded into an Old Town storefront in August

No, they’re not Cheesecake Factory, even though their name causes confusion they must regularly clear up. But Grace and Mark Daniels have over the last several years built a big enough following to be able to move their Wichita Cheesecake Company into a prime brick-and-mortar spot in the middle of Wichita’s hopping Old Town district.

The couple started their business years ago, making cheesecakes for weddings and other special events. The cakes Grace baked were so popular the couple got serious about expanding the business in 2017, and they were a big hit when they sold cheesecakes by the slice at Botanica’s Tuesdays by the Terrace concert series over the summer of 2018.

They next expanded into one of the canopies at Union Station, where they sold cheesecakes whole and by the slice from April of 2019 until they moved into the old Scooter’s space at Douglas and Rock Island in August. The business has continued to grow there, said Mark Daniels. They’re about to add pizza to their menu in an attempt to draw in a lunch crowd, and they’re now supplying cheesecake to restaurants, coffee shops and venues all over town, including Reverie Coffee Roasters, Ray’s Food Express, Alzavino Wine Tavern, Fish & More and Mosley Street Melodrama. They’re also about to start shipping their cheesecakes.

Building the business has been rewarding but also challenging, said Mark Daniels. Although Wichita has many programs to help boost minority-owned businesses — and the Daniels took advantage of all of them — putting those lessons into practice and finding information on how to keep their business growing has been tougher.

“Access to dollars and access to funds and all of those things are important, and sometimes you don’t see those opportunities as a small business and as a black-owned business,” he said. “It can be hard sometimes — finding funding and finding someone to see your vision.”

The couple has learned along the way, he said, but he’d like to see more organizations that help businesses find relevant information and help once they’ve opened the doors and are starting to grow.

“There’s room for more,” he said. “There should be more ways to be inclusive and for business owners to know about more things.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2022 at 5:00 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.