They traded California for small-town Kansas then opened a restaurant people travel to try

Nearly six years ago, the Biggs family decided it was time to leave California – a move they’d been planning for awhile.

They picked Kansas because Shad Biggs’ brother was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base. All they knew when they left is that they wanted to end up in a small town.

They found it in Garden Plain, a small community of just under 1,000 people that sits about 20 miles due west of Wichita. And now, just two short years after opening a restaurant on the town’s main drag, the Biggs are some of the best known people in town.

Their restaurant — one of just two in Garden Plain — is called Halagains, and it operates out of a longtime bar and grill space at 501 N. Main. Over the years, the space has been home to many businesses, most recently a bar and restaurant called The Other Place.

Since opening around New Year’s Day in 2023, Halagains has become the type of place small towns typically treasure: a reliable restaurant with good food where, any night of the week, a decent chunk of the population can be found. It’s the type of place that people who live in nearby towns like Kingman, Hutchinson, Andale — even Wichita — hear about and make the trip.

Despite its Irish-sounding name — inspired by an inside joke between the owners and an old friend — Halagains serves an eclectic mix of pizzas, sandwiches and “skillets,” which Shad and his wife, Stephanie, make by piling pizza toppings onto a bed of seasoned potatoes. Most of the dishes on the menu are prepared in the wood-fire grill that the Biggs installed three weeks before opening day.

The restaurant is known for its use of tri-tip, a cut of meat that’s more common on the West Coast. Halagains uses its tender tri-tip in a skillet that also includes garlic, onions, bell peppers and jack cheese and also on a couple of its sandwiches, including the popular Game Changer, topped with roasted onions and peppers, provolone cheese, bacon, house mustard and jalapenos.

“It’s not really common around here,” Stephanie Biggs said of tri-tip, a triangular cut that comes from the bottom sirloin. “No one really knew a whole lot about it. But it’s very popular in California.”

The restaurant has the look and feel of a small-town bar: The long and skinny dining room is partially taken up by the long bar lined with bucket-seat bar stools that locals occupy while they chat and watch the game. Across from the bar is a long row of booths. and the back of the restaurant a bigger party room with arcade games. There’s space inside for about 110 people.

The dining room has other small-town restaurant touches, too: The drop ceiling is interrupted by a cutout that’s lined with antique Kansas license plates. Swinging saloon doors separate the back of the bar from the kitchen. A piano sits against a wall beside the bar, serving as a resting place for salt and pepper shakers.

The Biggs run the restaurant themselves with the help of their six children. Some of the younger members of the family occasionally deliver food to customers’ tables. But the most involved is the oldest of the clan — 17-year-old Aaron, who works alongside his parents running Halagains.

When the Biggs opened the restaurant, they decided to focus on pizza — mostly because of Aaron’s enthusiasm for it.

“We use his dough recipe that he’s been working on for years,” Stephanie Biggs said. “It was something he was passionate about.”

Underdog no more

The Biggs weren’t sure exactly where they wanted to settle when they got to Kansas. They lived in Wichita the first year and made money by growing vegetables and selling them from a “crop cart” they parked at Hoover and MacArthur.

Soon after, they decided they wanted to sell Mexican food as well. They turned the truck bed of an old Chevy truck into a food stand from which they could serve tacos, quesadillas, burritos and cheese burgers. They called the business The Underdog Street Food & Catering and would set up near the Harbor Freight at 2847 S. Seneca.

In the meantime, they found the house they wanted — and it just happened to be in Garden Plain. So they decided that’s where they’d live.

In March of 2020, the Biggs bought a food truck that had previously been used to sell barbecue in Kansas City. They re-wrapped the rig and operated The Underdog out of it. Sometimes, they’d park in Wichita, but mostly, they set up in Garden Plain, Cheney and Conway Springs and at small festivals around the area.

The Underdog developed a following in the area.

Then, in 2021, a bright yellow bar called The Other Place — which had been founded by Ron Nett then passed on to Troy and Janet Loehr — came up for sale. The Biggs had been working with the owners for about a year, serving their own barbecue, Italian fare, Mexican food and more at the bar, and they decided to buy the place.

At their brick-and-mortar business, they decided to switch their focus from Mexican fare to pizzas and skillets. Halagains, which eventually got a more subtle paint job, was a hit from the start, partially because the town had already gotten to know the owners.

“It helped a lot with having the food truck before because people already knew that we liked to cook and what not,” Shad Biggs said.

Halagains has had a strong first year, the family said. It made even more friends during Lent, when it offered a menu designed for the town’s large Catholic community. Every week, it offered meat-free dishes like homemade lobster ravioli, oysters on the half shell and ceviche.

Halagains also offers off-menu specials the rest of the year, and they almost always sell out, the Biggs said. Some of the town’s favorites have been homemade meatballs, brisket, pastrami, and fried chicken dinners. Halagains’ occasional steak nights are also popular.

The Biggs have big plans for their second year, too. In 2025, they plan to expand their hours and change up the menu a bit to add some of the Mexican specialties that were popular when they had the food truck.

The family is happy that it ended up in Garden Plain, Stephanie Biggs said.

“Everyone has supported us very well and taken us in,” she said. “We love it. It’s a great community. We’re not going anywhere.”

Halagains hours are 3 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays; and 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturdays. The kitchen usually closes around 9 p.m.

Halagains menu

This story was originally published January 1, 2025 at 5:26 AM.

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.