New dining options on tap for Derby, including a shipping container mall full of eateries
Wichita is bigger than Derby and has more restaurants.
But if Brant Dumford gets his way, it appears, Wichitans may soon start traveling to Derby to dine.
The real estate developer, best known as the founder and owner of The Coop in Derby (which is about to expand to Wichita), is moving forward with previously announced plans to populate Derby with lots more dining options. Not only is he planning to add a new shipping container mall that will have its own built-in restaurants, but he’s also partnering with a well-known restaurateur and Wichita chef to open a standalone Mediterranean restaurant.
Here’s an updated look at the Derby dining projects Dumford is working on and their timelines:
▪ Derby Market Square, Market and K-15: Wichita is familiar with Revolutsia — the shipping container mall that sits at Central and Volutsia — and with Clifton Square — the collection of old houses turned charming restaurant and retail destination at 3700 E. Douglas. Dumford said his new shipping container mall will be a cross between the two. Dumford said he’s in the process of working with the city of Derby to get permits for the project and he hopes to have it open by April of next year.
The complex will feature 15 shipping containers arranged to create 6,000 square feet of retail space, and it will include a craft cocktail bar, a creamery and a restaurant specializing in smash burgers. He already has found someone to run the bar (though he’s not ready to share that person’s identity yet) and is looking for entrepreneurs to run the other two food concepts.
“One of the things that I really struggle with with the city of Derby is that we have to go to Wichita anytime we want to go do something with the family,” he said, noting Derby’s new Sandbox entertainment venue as an exception. “We wanted to do something that was more family oriented yet higher class, if that makes any sense.”
Dumford said the development will also have room for about 12 retail shops plus an outdoor courtyard with lots of seating and yard games. He hopes to break ground in January.
▪ Layali, 236 W. Greenway: Last September, Dumford and his longtime friend Roni Attari announced plans to open a new sandwich place in the old Sharon’s Place Hawaiian Food space at 141 E. Kay St. Attari — a well-known Wichita chef who in the past owned places like Soleil and Yuca Latin Bistro — would run the restaurant in the space, which Dumford owns.
The two ultimately decided against that plan, though, and came up with a new idea. Instead, they’re opening a new Mediterranean restaurant in the space that once held Electric Pizzeria. It’ll be called Layali, which is Arabic for “nights,” and it will offer high-end dinner with a more modest lunch menu focused on things like shawarma sandwiches and kabobs.
“If you want to go have a nice date night in the city of Derby, there are not that many options except for Olive Garden. We wanted to cater to what the city needs,” he said, adding that the restaurant won’t be completely upscale but will land in a vein somewhere between Wichita restaurants Meddys and Georges French Bistro.
The duo is in the process of remodeling the building on West Greenway and are adding a big patio space. They hope to have Layli open by late November or early December, Dumford said.
He has another restaurateur potentially interested in the old Sharon’s Place space, he said, but the lease is not yet signed.
This story was originally published September 12, 2023 at 11:33 AM.
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