He announced plans for his own Wichita restaurant last summer. Now, it’s about to open
Anyone who’s been to Normandie Center — the almost 60-year-old strip center at Central and Woodlawn that’s home to businesses like Il Primo — has noticed that a big portion of its south-facing section is under heavy construction.
But next month, a long-awaited new restaurant will emerge from the jumble of construction equipment and safety fencing.
Sebastian Gordon, who has spent years working in and managing Wichita restaurants owned by other people, is on the verge of opening his own place — one he announced plans for more than a year ago.
Called Red Bird, the restaurant at 6440 E. Central will serve sandwiches, salads and soups along with craft beer flowing from 10 taps, wine and craft cocktails, and Gordon said he’ll be able to start welcoming customers very soon.
“It can’t be past October,” he said of the restaurant’s opening. “We’re going to open next month.”
Recently, Gordon offered a tour of the almost-complete space, which has lots of eye-catching touches. Not only will the restaurant — which sits next door to Jack Fukuda’s Yokohama Ramen Izakaya — have an open kitchen and a comfortable covered patio attached to the restaurant by a retractable garage door, but it also features some fun design pieces.
Gordon, who said he wasn’t sure exactly what the restaurant would look like when he got started on the project, said he’s been blown away by the work of his architect, Mike Seiwert — who is leading a redesign of Normandie Center — and of local wood craftsman Eric Means of River City Sawmill.
“He (Seiwert) asked if we had any idea where we wanted to go with the design,” Gordon said, reminiscing about the early days of planning Red Bird. “And I was like, ‘I do not. I know that I love the way natural wood is so we’d like to go heavy on that.’ But it kind of came together in a way that I wasn’t expecting.”
Gordon said Means first made an intricate “live edge” bar top for the restaurant, which features a big slab of walnut that still has its natural, uneven edges. Gordon knocked all the bark off the edges then spent hours and hours sanding and staining it to perfection.
He liked the bar so much, he also commissioned Means to create the restaurant’s wooden booths and a couple of massive oak community tables, one of which will sit on the outdoor patio. The restaurant also is lined on one side with suspended wood pieces painted in Red Bird red and meant to evoke the feeling of birds in flight.
The menu — which is posted on the Red Bird website and excerpted below — features unique sandwiches, all named after birds. They include Gordon’s attempt at a “perfect” Cuban sandwich made with ham, “mojo” pork loin, yellow mustard, Swiss cheese and Kan-Grow Hydro Farm owner Jimmy Vo’s pickles all served on house-made Cuban bread. Among a few other interesting-sounding sandwiches are the Robin, made with prosciutto, havarti, cheddar, gouda and spicy tomato relish on bread made locally by Pee Wee + Sweets, and a grilled cheese sandwich that’s made with three different cheeses, roasted butternut squash and pickled jalapenos.
Red Bird also will serve soup — including Gordon’s wife Ashley’s famous spicy chicken noodle soup — and several salads and appetizers. The menu will feature rotating specials, too.
Red Bird will have around 85 seats, including the patio. Gordon will be assisted in the kitchen by another Wichita restaurant veteran: Matt Edwards, who has lots of experience with baking and pastries, will produce the restaurant’s desserts.
Red Bird’s hours will be 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays. The kitchen will be open until 10 p.m. to start but eventually, Gordon plans to add a late-night menu. He’ll also offer occasional Sunday brunch service.
Gordon said he’s still fighting the perception that his restaurant is somehow associated with a famous sandwich restaurant from Wichita’s past with a similar name —Dr. Redbird’s Medicinal Inn, which developed a passionate following from the early 1970s through the mid 1980s.
Though Gordon has long known Marni Vliet — who owned Dr. Redbird’s with her late husband, Rich — the two restaurants are unrelated. Gordon chose the name Red Bird as an ode to his mother, Jeanne, who died in 2016 but would always tell her son that seeing a red male cardinal guaranteed a lucky day. Gordon reached out to Vilet, who was his College Hill neighbor when he was a child, and told her of his plans before announcing the name.
He’s hopeful that once the restaurant opens and people try his slate of sandwiches, people will start to understand that the restaurants are unrelated, though he wouldn’t mind if Red Bird also developed a reputation as a Wichita classic.
“It’s been a process,” Gordon said of building his first restaurant. “But I think that the final product is going to be something that’s pretty extraordinary.”
Red Bird sandwich menu
This story was originally published September 25, 2023 at 1:38 PM.
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