Downtown Wichita food hall, planned for at least two years, gets its first tenant today
A food hall has always been part of the plan at WSU Tech’s downtown culinary school — called National Institute for Culinary & Hospitality Education (or Niche for short) — since it opened nearly two years ago.
In fact, the various stalls for the planned hall have been finished and waiting for tenants since the school first opened in early 2023 at Broadway and William.
Now, the food hall, which sits on the first floor of the Niche space adjacent to the closed-for-now Jinya Ramen Bar restaurant, is finally getting activated.
Today is the first day in business for The Coffee Spot, a student-run venture that will serve crafted coffee and tea drinks as well as artisan pastries and grab-and-go breakfast and lunch items.
To start, its hours will be 7:30 to 11 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, though the school will likely expand the hours into the lunch hour soon, said John Michael, the Niche director.
The Coffee Spot is taking over one of the kiosks closest to the Broadway-facing entrance to Niche. By spring, a second concept focused on pizza and operated by already-known Wichita restaurateurs should be ready to go. The owners aren’t ready to be identified yet, Michael said, but the new pizza business will be a separate concept from their existing business.
“The restaurant is locked in and has started work and design of the space,” Michael said.
Another student-run restaurant should be open in the hall by later next year or early 2026, Michael said. The hall has room for between five and six concepts total.
Niche already has one first-floor restaurant that’s run by students called Envision Bistro. It opened in July 2023 and is doing well, Michael said.
“We continue to set new records,” Michael said, adding that The Bistro had its highest sales day, week and month, all in October. “We are quite literally setting the standard by which all other culinary school restaurants should be judged and at the same time creating amazing learning opportunities for our students.”
Jinya, which also opened in April 2023 on the first floor of Niche, has been closed since earlier this month when downtown developer Sudha Tokala closed it over a parking impasse with the city of Wichita. It’s unclear when or if the restaurant will reopen.
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