Family that owns Wichita’s Amore Italian Restaurant is adding two more locations

The Italian restaurant that Wichita has been buzzing about since it opened in October at 21st and Amidon is about to expand into two more Kansas communities.

The family that owns Amore Italian Restaurant, which is in the old Neighbors space at 2315 W. 21st St., is about to add Italian restaurants in both Salina and Derby.

The Salina restaurant is set to open later this week and is taking over the space at 3025 S. Ninth St. where RibCrib operated until late 2019. It will also be called Amore and will have the same menu as the Wichita restaurant, said Nick Plava, a member of the family that owns Amore and its sister restaurant in Hutchinson: Roma’s Italian Restaurante, which opened in early October at 216 N. Main.

Then, by mid-February or early March, the family will add an Amore Italian Restaurant in Derby. They’ve taken over the lease on the building at 1221 N. Rock Road where El Maguey Mexican Restaurant operated for seven years before it closed in March.

Plava said the family is excited to get into Derby and has already started work remodeling the building. Derby could use a good Italian restaurant, he said.

“Definitely, that place needs something like our food,” he said. “I’ve been there and seen it. There’s an Olive Garden, but that’s not homemade.”

On the Derby deal, Andrea Ray of Landmark Commercial Real Estate represented the tenant and Zach Zerby of the same firm represented the landlord.

Both the Salina and Derby restaurants will offer the same menu Wichita’s Amore has. It includes pasta dishes like lasagna, manicotti, cannelloni and spaghetti and meatballs and entrees like veal piccata, chicken marsala and chicken Alfredo. (See the full menu below.)

The new restaurants also will have the same hours as in Wichita: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

In addition to the soon-to-be four in Kansas, Plava’s family also operates restaurants in other states, including two in Mississippi.

Though they’re not finished expanding, Plava said, four is probably all they’ll have in Kansas.

Amore Italian Restaurant menu

The Wichita menu — which will also be used in Salina and in Derby — is below.

This story was originally published January 9, 2024 at 2:43 PM.

Denise Neil

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6327

Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.