Ziggy’s owners have given sister restaurant The Depot its own culinary identity
When they partnered last year with the owners of Walnut River Brewing to open a new restaurant called The Depot, the founders of Ziggy’s Pizza decided to serve a menu they were familiar with.
Jamie and Ryan Verbeckmoes, who opened the first Ziggy’s in 2012, filled The Depot’s menu with the same pizzas, sandwiches and salads that their Ziggy’s customers already knew, adding only a few new appetizers.
Now, though, they’ve decided to go in a different direction. The owners of The Depot recently launched a revamped menu that they hope will give the restaurant — which operates out of the historic Rock Island Depot building at 711 E. Douglas — its own culinary identity.
The focus of the new menu is tavern-style pizza, said Jamie Verbeckmoes. Instead of the rectangular, bready pizzas ZIggy’s serves, The Depot’s tavern-style pizzas are round with thinner, crispier crusts. They’re cut “party style” so the individual pieces are squares rather than slices.
Verbeckmoes said that the owners already knew their customers liked their recipe for tavern-style pizza, which they’ve been perfecting for a while. They’ve served it as a special a few times at their four Wichita Ziggy’s restaurants, and customers gave it positive reviews.
“We just wanted to try something different,” Jamie Verbeckmoes said. “The vision is to differentiate from our other restaurants and build something completely unique at The Depot.”
Customers who would rather have Ziggy’s original pizzas will still be able to order those at The Depot, he said.
The new menu also lists several other new items, including cheeseburger sliders and Nashville hot chicken sliders. And the new menu’s sandwiches are also different: They now feature butter-toasted bread and are grilled. Options include a club sandwich, an Italian sandwich, a turkey melt and a BLT.
The wings also are new, Verbeckmoes said. The just-introduced “trashed wings” are inspired by wings the owners sampled in St. Louis: oven baked then flash fried and double sauced.
“It makes them crispier, saucier and messier,” Verbeckmoes said. “So they’re just a little bit different than what we do at Ziggy’s, and people really love our wings at Ziggy’s, but this is a different option.”
The new menu has retained a few favorites from the original, including the popular sandwich wraps, appetizers and “Brewhouse Favorite” entrées like chicken tenders, fish and chips and mac and cheese.
The Depot still also serves Walnut River Brewing Company’s beers and has a full bar.
During the five years before the Ziggy’s owners got involved with the business, Walnut River’s owners were operating it as PourHouse.
Wichita’s Ziggy’s restaurants are at 3700 E. Douglas, 12115 E. 21st St., 84104 W. 13th St., and 13605 W. Maple.
The Depot’s new menu
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM.
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