Owners of Wichita restaurant that abruptly closed last month share their reasons
Peruvian restaurant Lima Nation Peruvian Kitchen, which had operated at 2146 N. Collective Lane in Wichita since January 2024, abruptly closed early last month. And although the owners shared the news in a Facebook post on Jan. 9, they didn’t initially share the reason for the closing.
Now, owners Karo and Carlos Barreda are clarifying why they made the decision to close, even though their restaurant got high marks from local diners.
On Wednesday, Carlos Barreda filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy, citing total liabilities of $314,183.85 and total assets of $23,774.76. Contacted on Thursday, Karo Barreda responded with a statement that explained the filing.
“It is part of the corporate and personal decisions required to close this chapter in an orderly and responsible way,” her statement read. “Significant efforts were made to sustain the restaurant and meet its obligations, but ultimately the operating costs made it impossible to continue.”
Though they had to close the restaurant, Karo Barreda said, the couple isn’t finished with Wichita. Carlos is planning to start offering catering, private dinners and “more personalized events and collabs, with the intention of continuing to share Peruvian cuisine and culture with the community through a different format,” the statement read.
They will share more details as they solidify their plans, Karo Barreda wrote.
“Wichita remains very important to us,” she said in the statement. “The next steps will continue to be connected to the community here, although the format will be more personal and gradual rather than a traditional restaurant space for now.”
Carlos Barreda trained at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Lima, Peru, and had been cooking and managing restaurants for more than 25 years when he arrived in Wichita and took over the old Lola’s Bistro space, which is tucked away in the Collective, an office and retail complex on 21st Street in between Greenwich and 127th Street North.
If the restaurant could have continued operating on good will alone, it would have, Karo Barreda said in the statement.
“The closing of Lima Nation wasn’t due to a single reason, but rather a combination of factors inherent to the model we built: introducing a new culinary concept, working with high-quality ingredients, maintaining very high standards, and operating a restaurant closely tied to the direct work of the chef and the team in a non-commercial area. All of this made the project very intense and complex to sustain over time, even with the incredible and constant support from the community.
“We leave deeply grateful to Wichita. The support from our guests, the outstanding reviews we received, and the connection we built with the city exceeded every expectation we had when we started. For us, the closure is one chapter, but not the end of the project,” she wrote.
Stay tuned for more information about the owners’ next steps as they share them.
This story was originally published February 6, 2026 at 5:01 AM.
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