Food costs are too high for this Wichita buffet restaurant to remain open, owner says
Buffet restaurants, says Ourr’s Family Dining owner Hien Ly, are not the business to be in when food costs spike.
Because of that, said Ly — who in 2015 opened Ourr’s in the former Furr’s Cafeteria space at 1606 S. Georgetown in Wichita — he has closed the buffet restaurant. Its last day in business was Sunday.
Ly said that prices on many of his most popular items, including chicken and fish, have recently doubled in price. And customers wasted so much food, he said, he couldn’t keep going.
He may eventually use the space for another concept, Ly said, like a cafeteria or an event venue. But if he does do something new, it won’t be until next year at the earliest.
Ly — a practical business owner who named his business Ourr’s so that he could reuse the existing Furr’s sign and change just one letter — said that saying goodbye to his longtime customers on Sunday was difficult.
“Some of them got tears in their eyes,” he said. “It made me feel so bad, I got tears in my eyes.”
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