Wichita restaurant owners offering customers a taste of their former life in New York City
Before the owners of First Mile Kitchen moved to Wichita in 2020, they lived in New York City and were partners in a trendy breakfast-and-lunch restaurant that had two locations in New York City.
Now, they think it’s time to let Wichita diners in on a little of their restaurant past.
During the month of June, Nick Korbee and Amanda Luginbill will be unleashing an “Egg Shop Invasion” at First Mile Kitchen, 2141 N Bradley Fair Parkway, during which time they’ll populate the Saturday and Sunday brunch menu with some of the most popular dishes served at the Egg Shop restaurants.
“Amanda and I opened this restaurant, and I think people had very little context as to what we had done before,” Korbee said of First Mile Kitchen. “We’re at a point now where we’re like, ‘Wow, we should really share this with Wichita and give a little more context as to who we are and where we came from.”
Egg Shop, which the couple is still partners in, offers a menu of “elevated” egg sandwiches and “innovative, sort of healthier egg-y stuff, whether it’s a grain bowl or a salad that involves basting eggs in pesto or just kind of interesting egg cookery,” Korbee said.
During the June invasion, Korbee said, he plans to drop several of Egg Shop’s most in-demand dishes on the brunch menu next to some of First Mile’s dishes. Among the Egg Shop dishes he’s for sure including is the Egg Shop B.E.C., which includes an over-easy egg, Vermont white cheddar cheese, pepper bacon, tomato jam and pickled jalapenos on a brioche roll. Brunch is served at the restaurant from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
In addition, Korbee will sign copies of his 2017 cookbook, “Egg Shop: The Cookbook” on Sundays. He also will likely put at least one Egg Shop item on the weekday lunch menu at First Mile Kitchen, and he’s also planning to sell tickets for two evening events that will offer breakfast for dinner with a menu of Egg Shop favorites. He’ll announce those dates soon on social media.
Korbee and Luginbill moved back to Wichita from New York City so that they could be closer to Luginbill’s family in Newton and plant roots in the Midwest. Korbee, an Ohio native, and a couple of partners opened their first Egg Shop in New York City’s Soho neighborhood in 2014 then added a second location in Brooklyn in 2017. Korbee went on to write “Egg Shop: The Cookbook,” a book full of egg recipes and cooking techniques that has a comic flair
The couple opened First Mile Kitchen in early 2022. They also owned First Mile Canteen, a sister restaurant that opened in downtown Wichita in June of 2022 but closed in April of this year.
Have Korbee and Luginbill ever considered just opening an Egg Shop in Wichita?
“I think it would work here,” he said. “I think it would work across most of the country. We’ve definitely thought about it, but there’s not anything currently in the works.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2023 at 12:19 PM.
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