Kwik Shop at Kellogg & West is closed and the windows are all boarded up. What happened?
The scene at 656 S. West St. is pretty dramatic: The usually busy new Kwik Shop, which opened only three years ago at Kellogg and West Street, is closed. Its pumps are empty, and the windows along the front of the store are all boarded up.
Now, many regulars are wondering what happened and are questioning whether the Kwik Shop — and the Taco John’s and Cinnabon restaurants housed inside of it — will ever reopen.
Here’s what happened to the businesses: At 3:22 a.m. on April 11 — a Tuesday — fire crews arrived at the Kwik Shop and found heavy smoke coming from multiple areas of the building, said Wichita Fire Department Battalion Chief Jose Ocadiz.
Crews extinguished the fire and found that it was mostly contained to the utility room, but that meant that the power to the building was affected. After investigating, they discovered that the fire had been intentionally set. They haven’t found the person responsible yet, but the fire is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.
“Right now, they’re following up on some leads,” Ocadiz said.
On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for EG America, which bought Wichita’s Kwik Shop stores from Kroger in 2018, shared a statement from the company.
Though it sounds like the Kwik Shop along with its restaurants will reopen, there’s no indication when.
“We are working with the insurance adjusters and engineers to determine the extent of the damage,” the statement said. “We will be closed for an undetermined period of time at this point.”
In the meantime, Wichita is left with no access to Taco John’s. The restaurant that opened inside the Kwik Shop in February 2020 is the only one in town.
Cinnabon fans, however, can get a fix at Wichita’s four Schlotzsky’s restaurants, which have Cinnabon products on their menus.
This story was originally published April 19, 2023 at 3:53 PM.
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