FioRito co-owner tapped to open an upscale restaurant at new Wichita pickleball venue
Nearly three years after he and his brother opened their Italian restaurant FioRito Ristorante at Hillside and Douglas, Jason Rickard is ready to help launch another restaurant concept.
He’s in the process of planning an upscale Mediterranean restaurant that will be open sometime in the next three or four months and will be called Raha, which is an Arabic word meaning peace, happiness, freedom and bliss.
Raha is the new concept planned for the restaurant space that was built as part of the Tap N Paddles pickleball complex that opened in the District 96 development, at K-96 and Oliver, in November. (Other District 96 tenants are The Kitchen, Another Broken Egg Cafe and Scooter’s Coffee.)
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Though it will cooperate with Tap N Paddles and provide food for its members and for special events, Raha will get its own entrance (on the east side of the building) and will have some physical separation from the pickleball courts.
Raha will have its own signage, too, both on the building and at the entrance of the District 96 development on Oliver.
The restaurant, which should be open “by the end of April at the earliest and June 1 at the latest,” Jason said, will serve many of the dishes Wichita is used to enjoying at local Mediterranean restaurants, but they’ll be executed at a higher level. The vibe will land “somewhere between FioRito and Lotte,” he said, referencing Josh Rathbun’s popular new upscale restaurant at 320 S. Market.
The star of the menu will be sourdough pita bread that will be prepared onsite and will be served alongside various Mediterranean dips, salads and pickles.
The Raha menu will feature lots of shareable plates, and entrees will include proteins like lamb, chicken and fish. Jason is planning dishes including a whole, local organic spatchcock chicken that’s crispy on the outside, and a lamb shank.
“We’re doing modern Mediterranean food,” Jason said. “Our hummus will be the smoothest in town... The bread will be puffy and fresh and warm. We will have the same attention to attention to detail that we have had at FioRito.”
Jason and his brother, Jordan, have 50/50 ownership of FioRito, and that won’t change. Jordan will remain at FioRito, where he’s served as chef while Jason ran the front of the house. With Jason gone, Jordan will rely more on his hired chefs in the kitchen and will serve as an overall manager at FioRito, Jason said.
Jason, who is already physically working at the future site of Raha, will be the chef there while the restaurant is getting up and running. He and the Tap N Paddles owners are already planning a remodel of the restaurant space, which opened along with the pickleball venue in November as more of a sports bar serving burgers, pizzas and nachos.
The remodel will include new lighting, banquette seating, wall sconces, a new host stand, a waiting area and a new paint scheme. When complete, the main dining room will seat between 60 and 75 people, and a separate private dining room that has another 40 seats will be open to overflow diners when it’s not being used for events.
Raha will also have use of a so-far unfinished wraparound patio that will have wind- and sun-blocking shades and built-in heaters.
Jason said that he got hooked up with Tap N Paddles not long after it opened. He’s been playing pickleball for about a year, he said, but had mostly done so at an outdoor court near his home. When it started to get cold outside, he began dropping in for open play at Tap N Paddles.
He got to know the people who run the place, he said, and they started talking about ways the restaurant space could be better utilized. Jason, who’s been on a weight-loss journey of late, said that he thinks healthier Mediterranean fare makes more sense than burgers and pizza near a venue where people are trying to be fit and active.
Tap N Paddles owner Mike Ventling was traveling this week but shared an email that he recently sent out to members at Tap N Paddles about the change.
“We didn’t imagine we would be here only 80 or so days after we opened,” he said in the message. “But we have known for some time that change was needed. And ever since our first conversation, we knew that Jason was the one we needed to lead the charge.”
Jason said he’s been interested in Mediterranean food for years. During his early career, he worked in restaurants in Denver, and one of them was a place called Safta, owned by famed chef Alon Shaya, which he helped open as a sous chef in 2018. The culinary skills he learned there had a big impact on him, Jason said.
“They were able to make everything from scratch and still do volume,” he said. “And on top of all of that, it was truly some of the tastiest food I’ve ever had.”
The restaurant section of Tap N Paddles is now closed to the public, though Jason Rickard is still serving people who play pickleball there. Soon, he’ll introduce the new Mediterranean menu. Then, once the remodeling is done, the restaurant will reopen to the public.
He said it’ll start with dinner service then eventually add lunch and then brunch. Raha will offer different menus to pickleball players who want to grab a bite court side than it does to the general public.
Stay tuned for more information about Raha as its opening gets closer.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 1:38 PM.
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