Angry Elephant replacement will open soon with menu for two types of diners
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When Santiago Munoz decided to expand his Angry Elephant barbecue restaurant and open a second location on Wichita’s south side last summer, he left his original Angry Elephant at Central and Tyler in the care of his cousin, Angel Ponce.
Now, both Angry Elephant restaurants are gone, having closed in January. But Ponce — who worked at The Angry Elephant with Munoz for five years and developed the recipes there— says he has taken over the lease for the building at 756 N. Tyler Road, and he’s going to try a new concept there.
Lito’s — which was named for Ponce’s young son — was inspired by his wife, Jennifer Maldonado, a longtime vegan.
“Every time we go eat somewhere, she eats salad or she just doesn’t eat at all,” Ponce said. “And when I go with her, I don’t eat either because I don’t eat vegan food.”
The couple came up with an idea for a restaurant whose menu offers vegan versions of the same items on the regular menu, and Maldonado wrote the menu. It was important to the couple that the kitchen use two different fryers and two different grills for vegan and non-vegan menu items.
The menu will feature, for example, burgers and fries as well as a black-bean burger and fries. Non-vegans will be able to order tacos filled with traditional al pastor, chicken, carne asada, and ground beef and potatoes, while vegan diners can get theirs with jackfruit and portobello mushrooms.
“This is a place that both of us can go eat out, where we can really sit down and have a hearty meal,” Ponce said.
Lito’s menu also will include some of the recipes made popular at The Angry Elephant. One of them will be an appetizer called Smack Fries, which features diced up buffalo chicken tenders on a bed of cheese fries topped with Ranch dressing. The menu will also include a vegan version of that dish that substitutes buffalo cauliflower for the chicken. Ponce also plans to bring back Angry Elephant’s decadent milkshake menu.
Eventually, he said, he’ll buy a smoker and start selling barbecue items by the pound on the weekends. Barbecue won’t be on the regular menu, though.
Ponce will use the north end of the space, where previous tenant Augustino Brewing Company had its tap room, as a bar area for Lito’s, though he likely won’t have his liquor license until July. The south end of the space is the dining room, which he’s repainted from red and tan to blue and gray.
For now, The Angry Elephant sign is still on the building, but Ponce said his new Lito’s sign is on the way.
Once open, the restaurant’s hours will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. It will be closed on Mondays.
Ponce said that he feels like there’s a demand for vegan food on the west side of Wichita, and he hopes that Lito’s also draws non-vegans who miss some of the recipes he developed for The Angry Elephant.
“Like our slogan says, we have ‘a Lito bit of everything for everyone,’” he said.
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