Family plans at least three California Tortillas for Wichita, starting northeast
.jpg "Mark and Christine Poling are planning to open three California Tortilla franchises in Wichita over the next couple of years.")
An injury that brought Mark Poling’s UPS driving career to an end is now leading to a new Mexican restaurant option for Wichitans.
Poling and his wife, Christine, plan to open at least three California Tortilla franchises, the first of which likely will be at 21st and Greenwich.
Mark Poling is from Wichita, and his wife is from California with roots in Mexico and Central America.
“My wife’s standard is very high when it comes to this type of food, and they just nailed it,” Poling says.
The restaurant has a variety of traditional Mexican fare, such as street tacos, burritos, nachos and fajitas.
It also has some more creative, nontraditional items.
“They’re not afraid to go bold with some of their promotional items,” Mark Poling says.
For instance, one recent one was a ramen noodle burrito.
“It was actually pretty well received,” Poling says. “They’re not afraid to be cutting edge with their menu items and their ingredients.”
The Maryland-based franchise has 42 restaurants nationally and will open eight more by the end of this year, including the first of the Polings’ three restaurants. The chain’s goal is to have 100 restaurants by 2023.
Mark Poling had been a UPS driver for 15 years when he broke his elbow in 2016 and had to have a couple of surgeries and therapy.
At that point, he and his wife began to look for franchise opportunities. Poling says he thought that for Wichita as the original home of Pizza Hut and other franchises, a restaurant would make sense.
He says he hasn’t signed a lease for his first California Tortilla but expects to shortly and then be open by late November.
He says next they’ll target the west side.
“Then we would just have to look at the dynamics of Wichita at that point.”
That could mean a downtown restaurant or one near Central and Hillside.
They have options for two more of the restaurants.
The Polings have two daughters: Ela, 9, and Adeline, 2.
“This, for us, is a family business,” Mark Poling says.
His mother-in-law, Teresa York, will be the general manager of the first California Tortilla.
Ela Poling is already looking to overthrow her, her father says.
“She’s like, ‘When do I get to be the GM? When do I get to boss people around?’ ”
The Polings are expecting a third child, a son, in late February or early March.
Mark Poling says that “2019 is going to be quite the year for us.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2019 at 2:35 PM.