Longtime N. Broadway restaurant will soon relocate. Owners cite safety concerns.
A Wichita Mexican restaurant that has operated on North Broadway for nearly 50 years is preparing to move to a new address.
La Chinta, which started at 1451 N. Broadway in 1976 then relocated to the bigger space at 1015 N. Broadway in 2019, will in a couple of months move to the building at 2615 West 13th St. that was recently vacated by Want Bierock Company — which is also moving.
Abraham Sebastian, who owns La Chinita with his father, Eduardo, and his brother, Edward, said that the owners hope to open the restaurant in the new space on Cinco de Mayo — May 5. They plan to keep the North Broadway building operating until the day before they open in the new space.
Sebastian said that many factors went into his family’s decision to move the restaurant. One is that they have been able to purchase the building on 13th Street, which originally operated as a McDonald’s. They’re leasing the building on North Broadway, which was built to house a Burger King.
The changing landscape of the stretch of North Broadway south of 13th Street also played a factor in the decision, he said. Over the past several years, he said, his customers have begun expressing safety concerns about the area.
“We’ve had a lot of customers tell us that they don’t like going there at night,” Sebastian said. “We’ve had situations happen in front of customers, and they get scared, and they don’t come back. We’re really just thinking about how comfortable the customers are. We absolutely want them to be comfortable.”
The family likes the new space not only because it’s roughly the same size as the one they’re in but also because its parking lot is in much better shape. The one at their current building is riddled with potholes, Sebastian said. They also like that the address is near family-friendly neighborhoods.
And they were happy to find a building that had a drive-through lane: Though it’s a sit-down restaurant, La Chinita has been offering drive-through service since it moved to the former McDonald’s building on North Broadway.
Sebastian said that he recently began posting signs announcing the move, and nearly all the customers who have commented have expressed support.
“The first time we moved, a lot of people were kind of skeptical,” he said. “Moving is scary. Nobody likes to move. But this time around, the vibe has been a lot different. Everybody understands. Everybody’s happy.”
La Chinita was founded in 1976 by Don Norton and his wife, Marta, whose childhood nickname was the inspiration for the restaurant’s name. They retired in 2000 and sold the restaurant. Don Norton died in 2010.
During the last few years, several other businesses have left the section of North Broadway that stretches from Murdock to 13th Street. QuikTrip quietly left its longtime spot at the corner of Broadway and Murdock in the summer of 2022, just over a year after one of its security guards was shot and killed while working security at the store. (Jump Start has since taken over the corner.)
Several restaurants have also left, though no one associated with the moves specifically cited safety concerns as a reason. Lane Enterprises’ McDonald’s closed its restaurant at 1050 N. Broadway in November 2023, and the shuttered building is now covered in graffiti. Not long after, Popeye’s abandoned its longtime home at 1211 N. Broadway. And though the Spangles at 850 N. Broadway is still operating, it has closed its dining room and operates as a drive-through only.
Want Bierock’s next move
Jim and Lori Want, meanwhile, have also found a new building, though it will likely be April before their Want Bierock restaurant is fully operating again.
The couple closed their bierock and coffee shop on West 13th Street on Dec. 31 after deciding that the building was too big for what they wanted to do. But they plan to reopen the business in near-Wichita town.
They’ve purchased the space at 106 E. Fifth St. in Sedgwick that was previously occupied by Kilroy’s Pizza, and the people of Sedgwick have expressed excitement — so much so that the couple put on an impromptu soft opening last weekend but opened only the drive-through and offered a limited menu. (The Wants won’t be serving coffee at their Sedgwick shop.)
They’re slowly remodeling the interior of the space, Lori said, and they hope to put on a grand opening with a bigger menu by the first of April.
The Wants, who for years have also run their Want Bierock food truck, are about to get it back out for the season. They’ll start their every-Saturday service at the Kansas Grown Farmers Market at 21st and Ridge on Saturday, March 21.
This story was originally published March 4, 2026 at 2:13 PM.
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