Ninth-floor cigar lounge to specialize in whiskey, offer sweeping downtown views
.jpg "Ninth Floor Club co-owner Scott Welsh, left, and club general manager Chris Romero are pictured in the future home of the Cloud 9 cigar bar, which will be a new perk for Ninth Floor club members.")
A swank new cigar bar is about to open on the top floor of one of Wichita’s most recognized buildings — but you’ll need to be a member to enjoy it and its sweeping downtown views.
The same goes for a new upscale dining room, which recently opened on the top floor of the same building and also offers top-floor views, just from a different direction.
Access to the two spaces is one of the perks of the Ninth Floor Club, which last year took over the space long occupied by the historic Petroleum Club on the ninth floor of the Ruffin Building at 100 N. Broadway. The club’s ownership, which includes Terradyne Country Club general manager Scott Welsh, renamed it and has been making upgrades to it ever since.
When they took over, the new owners said they wanted to beef up the club’s membership and planned to do so by offering perks that members of the Wichita business community would have a hard time turning down. Converting an old storage area into an upscale dining room separate from the 215-capacity ballroom that the club regularly rents out for weddings, office parties and professional club meetings was one of the improvements they planned. So was the cigar bar.
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Now, the dining room is complete. Named the “Petroleum Room,” it has seating for about 40 people and during the day is illuminated with natural light streaming in from skylights. Two sides of the new dining room — one that faces south and one that faces west — afford views of downtown, and the dining room also has wood accents, chandeliers, new carpet and its own bar.
The dining room is meant to be a place where members can enjoy a meal or take clients for meetings , Welsh said, and it’s available even when the main ballroom is in use.
“One of the things I really want to try to highlight is that we are a business club, and I want businesses to come up here and close business deals, “Welsh said. “And this is a really nice spot to be able to bring a client. It creates the synergy that we want, and obviously, the view is spectacular.”
The members-only cigar bar, which will be called Cloud 9, should be open by the end of October, Welsh said. It will be built in an east-facing room down the hall from the main club where the Petroleum Club used to store wedding flowers and decor. Welsh said he thinks the room once was a boardroom for long-ago tenants.
It has hard-wood floors and at the moment still has the 1960s-era metal blinds and heavy cloth drapes that were likely installed in the 1970s or 1960s. (Those will go.)
Cloud 9 will have its own bar and also will have leather furnishings, cigar lockers and a big selection of whiskey. Members will be able to hang out in the club and socialize, or they can use it as a place to entertain clients and business associates. It will have television sets, and Welsh said he envisions members gathering for whiskey tastings and sports watch parties, too.
To prevent cigar smoke from drifting into the hallway or into the Hite Fanning & Honeyman law offices that are also on the ninth floor, crews will install a state-of-the-art air filtration system and build an entryway that will require passage through two sets of doors, which should keep the smoke from escaping, Welsh said.
“We encourage our business members to use this room for client events, employee gatherings, any sort of special, upgraded event that they want to do nine floors up above the city of Wichita,” Welsh said.
The Ninth Floor Club has managed to expand membership since the new owners took over, Welsh said. They inherited about 100 members from the Petroleum Club, but Welsh said last year that the new owners’ goal was to double that number.
And they did: The club now has 217 members who enjoy access to the club’s dining room and its various special events, get free tickets to Thunder hockey games and are able to access 50 reciprocal business clubs in other cities.
The ballroom, which has been spruced up with modern new chandeliers, can still be rented by nonmembers for weddings, big group meetings or other events.
The new owners aren’t finished with their upgrades: They also are planning a renovation of the main lobby, which since the 1970s has featured adobe-like walls and a southwestern motif.
Membership in the club costs $50 a month with a $300 initiation fee for an individual and spouse. A business membership is $150 a month with a one-time $500 initiation fee.
For now, the dining room is open weekdays for lunch and Friday and Saturday evenings for dinner. The new cigar bar will likely be open from 4 to 10 p.m Tuesdays through Fridays, later on Saturdays.
For more information or to join the club, visit ninthfloorwichita.com
Ninth Floor Club Menu
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Ninth-floor cigar lounge to specialize in whiskey, offer sweeping downtown views."
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