Alton Brown on what he missed most about Wichita and his plans for life after touring
Wichita somehow was skipped on Alton Brown’s last major tour: “Beyond the Eats” started in October 2021 and ran through April of 2022 but never made it into Kansas.
So Brown — who was last in Wichita in 2017 for a stop in his “Eat Your Science” tour — is eager to return to the Midwestern city that he once proclaimed was among his top 10 favorite cities to visit while on the road.
He’ll get the chance on Thursday, when his “Last Bite” tour stops at Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre, 200 N. Broadway.
During a phone interview last week, Brown said he’s particularly excited to be back in the city that’s home to Doo-Dah Diner, the 13-year-old restaurant at 206 E. Kellogg owned by Patrick and Timirie Shibley.
“It’s a classic,” he said. “I like that place very much. I hope they put some kind of historical protection on that place.”
Brown, famous not only for his science-and-humor-filled interactive stage shows but also for his stints on Food Network programs like “Good Eats” and “Cutthroat Kitchen,” is known for immersing himself in the food cultures of the cities included on his tours.
During past visits to Wichita, he’s popped up in a long list of local favorites, including Old Mill Tasty Shop, Little Saigon, Reverie Coffee Roasters, Tanya’s Soup Kitchen, Public at the Brickyard and Nifty Nut House, which he once called “a national treasure.”
And, he said, it’s highly likely that Wichita will spot him out about town this week as well, though on Thursday he’ll likely limit himself to coffee shops. It’s nothing personal toward Wichita, he said. It’s just part of his new policy.
“I don’t get to get out as much on this tour,” he said. “I had a very bad experience on my last world tour — not in Wichita. I went to a restaurant in another state that everybody said I had to go to, and I ended up getting food poisoning and I had to miss two shows. So I’m very strict about not letting myself eat. The only thing I get to have before on a day of a show is coffee.”
Brown said he does like to find somewhere local to eat once he’s done on stage and is always looking for good places open past 10:30 p.m. He remembers having “some of the best tacos I think I’ve ever had in my entire life” from a Wichita food truck whose name he can’t recall.
He’ll need to make the most of his time in Wichita this week, though, because Brown says the “Last Bites” tour will be his last.
He’s not retiring, he said, but as he approaches age 63, he’s ready to try something new with his career.
Food related, of course.
“Back in 2013, when I started doing these tours, I kind of set a goal for myself that . . . if I could do four, if the world would tolerate me doing four, that I would do four,” he said. “And this is four. And so I’m going to stick to my word.”
He hasn’t completely ruled out doing live shows, he said, but he envisions scenarios in which he flies into one city and does three or four nights of shows for much smaller audiences.
But he’s ready to put his tour bus days behind him, he said.
“Living on a bus for 13 weeks is not as much fun as you might imagine, not as glamorous,” he said. “Anytime that you think of some kind of ’80s mirror balls and lines of cocaine... no, no, there’s none of that. We’re in here eating Slim Jims and sweating in a metal tube. But I love the audiences, and that’s why I do it and have loved doing that, but it’s time for me to move on to do other things. “
Brown said that he has promised his wife — award-winning interior designer Elizabeth Ingram — that he won’t start planning his next move until after the tour is over. He hasn’t taken a real break in 20 years, he said, and he wants to spend a few months puttering around the recently renovated home they share in Atlanta.
He envisions himself in a frumpy sweater, reading books and drinking Scotch while his wife works in the garden. They’ll go to the opera. They’ll travel a bit.
“I’m just going to put a chair in the yard and sit and watch the sun move,” he said. “But only for a couple of months, and then we’ll get back to work.”
Brown describes the stage show he’s bringing to Wichita this week as a culinary variety show. He won’t sing as much as he has on past tours — this show just includes one song — and it will have more of a science focus.
“My first two or two shows, the first three, I very much designed to please the audience,” he said. “But I think this one I designed a little bit more to please myself. To be honest, it’s mostly about things that I’m obsessed with, and so there’s a little bit more science and a little bit more storytelling that I feel makes it deviate a little bit from the previous model.”
Besides touring, Brown’s recent work also has included putting out a new book. He released “Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations” in February. It’s a collection of personal essays about his life and his thoughts on the culinary world and on the world in general.
The book came about by complete accident, Brown said. A big fan of classic typewriters, he was repairing the “J” key on his Hermes 3000 and needed to see if it was working. He spontaneously started typing out a story from his life. Eventually, he showed his wife what he’d written, and she encouraged him to do more with it.
“And so I sat down for four months at that typewriter and wrote that book,” he said. “I did not mean to do it. It wasn’t something that I premeditated or kind of like mulled over. . . .But now that I’ve done it and done the audiobook for it, it’s changed my perspective on myself.”
Alton Brown’s Last Bite Tour
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 200 N. Broadway
Tickets: $63-$249 at www.selectaseat.com, by phone at 316-755-7328 or in person at the Select-a-Seat box office inside Intrust Bank Arena
This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 11:45 AM.
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