Sign from now-closed restaurant among relics spotted in Wichita antique stores

As I may have mentioned a time or two, I have appointed myself the keeper of Wichita restaurant relics that are still floating around town: things like old dishware, old menus and old postcards showing restaurants that no longer exist. My collection started after I wrote the book “Classic Restaurants of Wichita” and is frequently fed when I visit local estate sales and antique stores.

I had some time off a couple of weeks ago and was scouring local antique malls for such items when I came across one too big to save: the old parking sign that used to hang on the Wichita Fish Co. building when it operated at 1601 W. Douglas from 1997 until it moved to 818 N. Mosely in the summer of 2020.

Wichita Fish Co. owner Larry Towns died in January 2022 at age 77, and his family closed Wichita Fish Co. for good in August 2023. Towns’ son, Steven Blalock, later opened Blalock’s Seafood Restaurant at 803 N. West St. He once cooked at Wichita Fish Co. and is using recipes passed down from his mom, Judy.

But the sign that pointed customers to parking at the original Wichita Fish Co. building on West Douglas is currently residing at the Hudson Antique Market at 6401 E. Kellogg. I recently stumbled across it— and its $95 price tag — in a booth at the very back of the store.

I searched for a photo of the sign when it was on the building but instead found a painting done by Wichita artist Bill Goffrier, who’s known for painting pictures of notable Wichita restaurants, businesses and landmarks. (In most photographs I located, cars are parked in front of the sign and blocking it from view.)

Sadly, I have nowhere to store a relic that large, so I had to leave the sign behind — much like I had to in 2022 when I discovered one of the original exterior signs from Wichita restaurant Portobello Road in a local estate sale. That sign hung over Portobello Road’s original location at Kellogg and Bluff from 1973 until 1996. Local preservationist Greg Kite of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Wichita and Sedgwick County rescued the Portobello Road sign from the estate sale and gave it a home in one of the alliance’s warehouses.

During that same antiquing spree, I also came across a few other relics that I did have room to store, namely drinking glasses from El Charro Cafe (5325 E. Kellogg, 1948-1972) and from Sandy’s Drive-In (several Wichita locations, 1960-1973).

I also found a glass that would have been used at Wichita’s Broadview Hotel, Douglas and Waco, when it was owned by the Hutson Hotel chain between the 1930s and 1960s. The logo on the glass matches a logo from an ad for the hotel that ran in local newspapers in 1941. At that time, the Broadview had a coffee shop called Pink Elephant.

The drinking glasses are sitting on my desk now so that I can glance at them as I write. When the thrill wears off a little, I’ll put them in my relic cabinet next to my Pasta Mill mugs, Tom & Sonny’s menu, Allis Hotel etched spoon and Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour hat.

Let me know if any of you end up with the Wichita Fish Co. sign.

Denise Neil

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6327

Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.