Phase 1 of developer’s plan for Derby corner includes new breakfast restaurant
Developer Brant Dumford is always up to something in Derby, and the results are usually delicious.
His pastime appears to be turning vacant buildings into food-related businesses, especially in the southwest part of Derby. He’s the one who came up with The Coop — a co-op bakery and coffee shop that he opened in an old gas station at 104 N. Baltimore in 2020 then expanded into Wichita in 2023, opening another at 2812 E. Douglas.
Then, last fall, Dumford and his business partner, chef Roni Attari, opened the upscale Mediterranean restaurant Layali at 236 W. Greenway. The building they took over had been vacant since Electric Pizzeria closed in 2019 following a fire.
Now, Dumford and his partners are about to launch another project that will turn unused buildings at the corner of Market and K-15 in Derby — just north of The Coop — into three dining concepts: A breakfast restaurant, a cocktail bar and a creamery.
The addition of the restaurants are the first phase of a bigger project planned for the corner, which eventually will include shipping container shops and be called Derby Market Square.
The first piece, though, will be a breakfast restaurant that will open this spring at 120 N. Baltimore in a building that previously was home to Little Firehouse Cafe. That’s where he’s putting The Hen House, which he describes as a traditional breakfast restaurant that will serve smash burgers at lunchtime.
He said the concept is something that’s needed in that area of Derby.
“Especially on the west end, there are not many options at all,” he said. “Firehouse Cafe did pretty well there, and we just want to carry on the tradition of that.”
Nearby, at 130 N. Baltimore, Dumford is planning a craft cocktail lounge called The Social. That building, one of the oldest in Derby, was once home to the Derby Informer newspaper.
Dumford says he plans to turn the old building into a chic and elegant space where people can enjoy craft cocktails. It should open in the middle of next year.
“We’re going to make it look really nice and trick it out and make it look like it’s supposed to,” he said of the space.
After that, Dumford and his partners in the project will focus on opening The Creamery, an ice cream parlor that will make its own ice cream cones and ice cream. It will be at 113 E. Market, in the building that sits behind the other two. He also hopes to have it open mid-2026.
The three buildings are all grouped together, and Dumford plans to cover the common area in between them with AstroTurf to make a big courtyard that all three businesses can share.
“You can go there, and there will be a lot of outdoor seating and heaters during the colder weather months,” he said. “People can come as a family and they can eat, they can get a drink and they can grab some ice cream and sit outside.”
Though he first announced his plans for the corner 2023, Dumford said he’s now decided that adding shipping containers to the project should be part of a second phase.
“Phase 1 is to get all three of those businesses up and running and see how the city of Derby reacts to them,” he said.
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 4:16 AM.
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