Worried about effects of new downtown parking plan, owner changes direction of restaurant
Natasha Gandhi-Rue’s downtown restaurant The Kitchen has been closed since Monday, but it’s not closed for good.
When it reopens, though, it will have a new approach and a new name.
Gandhi-Rue, who a year ago added a second and much larger location of The Kitchen in the former Rail Hoppers space at 3622 N. Oliver, said that she’s making some big changes to her original restaurant, which first opened at 725 E. Douglas in November 2016.
Motivated largely by the Wichita City Council’s decision to soon start charging for parking in downtown Wichita, she said, Gandhi-Rue has decided to switch her full-service downtown restaurant into a fast-casual concept where people can pop in and pop out.
Its new name will be Express Kitchen, and Gandhi-Rue said she hopes to have it open by the end of next week.
“Downtown parking starts in July, and that’s going to really impact our business — let’s just be honest,” Gandhi-Rue said. “...I’m worried about parking just like every single person who lives or works or wants to go downtown.”
Though the Oliver location of The Kitchen will keep the larger menu of comfort-food dishes that both restaurants have been serving, Express Kitchen will have a more streamlined menu of customer favorites.
It also will abandon the full-service model: Customers instead will order their food at the counter.
Gandhi-Rue is giving Express Kitchen a new look. She’s removing all of the heavy, plaid-upholstered wooden booths that have furnished the downtown dining room since it opened and will instead fill it with butcher block tables and chairs.
She’s also trying to brighten the space by changing the lighting and removing tinting from the windows. She’ll also repaint the dining room white with hints of yellow.
“I want more light in my building,” she said. “I want more energy in my building.”
People who visit Express Kitchen will still be able to stay as long as they’d like. The downtown location will continue to serve alcohol.
But if customers want to get in and get out quickly, they’ll soon be able to do that, too, Gandhi-Rue said. She wants to be ready when the new downtown Wichita Biomedical Campus opens nearby in a couple of years and thinks her new concept is what people associated with it will want.
“By making it more energetic and faster, I’m hoping to appeal more to the audience that is moving downtown,” she said.
Kitchen Express will be run by Gandhi-Rue’s stepson, Kristopher Rue. When the restaurant reopens, it will have the same hours it did before: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
Meanwhile, Gandhi-Rue said she plans to keep growing her larger, second location. She will soon be offering more daily specials and eventually plans to add brunch.
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