Owner of this 34-year-old Wichita restaurant is ready to retire, announces plans to close
Ever since her husband’s death five years ago, May Khoury has been running Po Boy Pizza at 5619 E. Lincoln on her own.
Now, she says, she’s ready to retire. Khoury and her grown sons, Matthew and Ryan, are announcing today their plans to close Po Boy Pizza, which has operated since 1990.
But fans of the restaurant and its unique pizza rolls should not be too despondent.
Though the restaurant will close at the end of business on Aug. 6, the Khoury brothers — both professional engineers — say they plan to revive it at a different Wichita address sometime in the future.
It will likely be two or three years down the road, though, said Matthew Khoury, who works as an engineer at Cessna. His brother works in Dallas.
“We had been trying to do a smooth transition to us taking it over,” Matthew said this weekend. “But right now, we want to get her retired and pick the restaurant up a little later on.”
May, who owns the building — which sits across the street from N&J Cafe — has already sold it.
“It’s my age,” she said. “I’m over 65. I’m ready to retire, and thank God, my sons, they are doing very good on their own. But I’m by myself. They’re always keeping after me, saying, ‘Mom, retire.’ I’ve been working for 40 years.”
But May said she had mixed emotions about closing the restaurant where she worked for so many years with her late husband, Michael Khoury, who died at age 81 in October of 2019.
Though she’s ready to rest, she’ll miss her regular customers, which include alumni from Southeast High School plus McConnell Air Force Base personnel and firefighters and police officers who work nearby.
“I’m going to miss them a lot,” she said. “It’s hard. It’s emotional a little bit.”
Michael Khoury, who immigrated to the United States from Beirut, Lebanon, to attend college at Wichita State University, originally opened his restaurant where N&J Cafe operates now. About seven years later, he moved it across the street to its current location.
After he opened the restaurant, Michael brought May over from Lebanon, and the two ran the restaurant, known for its unique folded pizza rolls, together until his death.
When Michael first opened the restaurant, Southeast High School was a neighbor, and his clientele was largely high school students. In 1990, the Eagle published a story about Khoury delivering pizza rolls to students at Southeast and neighboring Curtis Middle School, going head-to-head with Pizza Hut.
It was a blow when Southeast moved to Pawnee and 127th East in 2015, Matthew said. But former students who had eaten there through high school have continued to return over the years.
“Especially the Southeast folks — we want to make sure they feel thanked,” Matthew said. “Those people have come back and brought their own kids, too, and it’s been super cool to see that.”
A couple of important notes: Until the restaurant’s final day on Aug. 6, it will offer carryout orders only. May encourages people to call in their orders in advance at 316-687-3737.
The hours will remain 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10:30 to 4 p.m. Saturdays with the exception of July 26-29, when May will be attending a family event and will close the restaurant. She’ll reopen on July 30.
Po Boy Pizza menu
This story was originally published July 22, 2024 at 7:51 AM.
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