Brothers Brad and Brent Steven are opening another new restaurant

Brothers Brad and Brent Steven seem to have a pandemic-proof formula for success at their Wine Dive in Wichita and Wine Dive Kitchen in Manhattan, so now they’re opening a Wine Dive Kitchen in Lawrence.

“We kind of just got lucky with this property,” Brad Steven said. “It makes sense.”

They’d been looking even a couple of years before the pandemic.

“We’ve had a lot of success with the Wine Dive in Manhattan,” Brent Steven said. “That is when we realized Lawrence needs something like this, too.”

He said all the college students and their visiting parents are “a draw for sure.”

They’re taking the former Baan Thai Restaurant space and a vacant space next door. The addresses are 739 and 741 N. Massachusetts St., which Brent Steven said is considered to be prime property.

“It’s a pretty building,” he said.

There’s also what Brad Steven calls a cool covered patio.

Still, they have extensive renovations to do before the restaurant can open this spring.

They’re keeping the kitchen’s plumbing but putting in all new kitchen equipment.

They’re building a wine cellar similar to the one at the Wine Dive in Manhattan. Instead of being in an actual cellar, it’ll be on full view for the restaurant.

The new Wine Dive will be similar to the existing Wine Dives with large wine lists and some of the same menu items.

“But they’re not exactly the same menu because they’re different chefs,” Brad Steven said.

The first two Wine Dives both have Best of Award of Excellence Wine Spectator awards.

The restaurants have about 40 wines by the glass.

“That’s kind of what separates us from a lot of the other restaurants,” Brent Steven said.

That’s in addition to about 350 bottles on the menu.

The brothers aren’t necessarily looking to do more Wine Dives.

“We don’t want to just jump in something unless it feels right,” Brad Steven said. “Something that would really pique our interest.”

The two don’t plan more restaurants in Wichita. Instead, they plan to keeping trying new dishes and adding new wines.

“It’s a never-ending . . . progression for all of our restaurants,” Brad Steven said. “We don’t want any of them to be stale.”

The brothers said all their restaurants, including Vora and the Hill Bar & Grill, are doing well.

That’s not to say the industry is easy, Brent Steven said.

“We have the normal issues that we have on a daily basis.”

Rising food prices are a particular concern.

Still, they haven’t suffered the way some restaurants have, especially in other cities, Brad Steven said.

“At least people in Kansas are eager to live life and eat and drink.”