Downtown Wichita champagne bar’s big expansion includes more seats, a Douglas-facing patio
Bubbles Champagne & Espresso Bar has been open for nearly eight months on the ground floor of Eaton Place, and it already needs more room.
Now, owner Janelle King is planning an expansion of the bar at 523 E. Douglas, and it should be done quickly.
King, who in June 2024 opened Bubbles as a side attraction attached to her business The Workroom, says she is turning the two large Douglas-facing spaces that are just north of the existing lounge area into more room for Bubbles. The move will nearly triple seating for the bar, she said, and it also will allow her to add a patio.
She plans to have the expansion ready by March 15 — in time to entertain St. Patrick’s Day and NCAA Tournament crowds.
“It has definitely exceeded my expectations,” King said of the bar, which is on the west side of her big Eaton Place space. “The Workroom is such a staple that I kind of thought of this more as a fun way to enhance that experience. But it has really gained its own traction and footprint. It is its own destination now.”
One of the spaces that Bubbles will take over was previously occupied by Planterior, a plant design installation business that was an extension of the Grow Plant Bar. It took up half of the area until it moved back into the Grow space at the first of this year.
The second space has been empty since King moved into Eaton Place last summer. She’d been reserving it as an “incubator space” for an up-and-coming business — King had such a space when The Workroom was at Cleveland Corner — but she never found the right tenant for it, she said.
King said she will add more lounge-type seating, including comfortable sofa sets, to the new spaces. She’ll also add some two-top tables, something the current lounge is lacking. She also plans to add to the new space a big chandelier that will be visible from Douglas as well as a shuffle board table and a darts cabinet, she said.
“We’ll be giving people more of a reason not to just come through for that one drink and the experience but to stay and hang out in the lounge,” King said.
One of the two new spaces also will be available to reserve for special events, something King said her Bubbles customers have been asking for but that she hasn’t had room to provide.
The building already has a door leading from Douglas into the new seating area, and King said she’ll start using it as a separate entrance for Bubbles. Customers can walk straight into the bar through the new patio area, which will be sectioned off from the sidewalk by a wrought-iron gate.
Since opening the bar with a menu of champagne, prosecco, bubbles-themed cocktails and beer, King has slowly been adding options. At the beginning of the year, she added red and white wines by the glass, and there’s also now a retail wine space, where people can purchase a bottle and enjoy it in the bar for a $10 corking fee.
Over the past month, she’s expanded the offerings even more and has added higher-end champagnes to the menu that people in search of a more “elevated experience” can order — labels like Dom Perignon and Veuve Clicquot.
The bar also serves coffee drinks, THC drinks and non-alcoholic options. Since opening, it’s offered a menu of appetizers that included trendy “sea-cuterie” boards featuring tinned fish. But those aren’t to everyone’s taste, King said. With the expansion, she’ll be adding more traditional charcuterie boards with meats and cheeses.
Bubbles also serves brunch every day and has been offering a once-a-month brunch buffet that has been consistently packed.
King said she’s especially excited about the increased visibility Bubbles will get when it expands into the Douglas-facing spaces. Because the bar doesn’t have its own sign and is tucked into the corner of The Workroom, some people don’t even know it’s there.
Still, it’s been able to develop a big following.
“We found that the demand is there for having downtown options and really just that elevated experience for a bar that’s not your sports bar and not your restaurant,” she said. “We’re providing something that’s unique.”
The bar’s hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. It offers a happy hour each day from 3 to 6 p.m.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 11:20 AM.
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