A Wichita classic has closed, and this time it doesn’t appear to be coming back

Wichita has lost another restaurant legacy — even though this version of it was open just three years.

Classic Town & Country survived only a fraction of the time as its namesake predecessor, the 63-year-old Town & Country on West Kellogg.

Classic Town & Country owner Billy Wood said he closed the restaurant because sales went down, and everything else — food, labor, utilities — went up.

“It got to the point that we couldn’t do it anymore.”

Wood acquired the name in March 2020, the same month that Town & Country owner Larry Conover died. Conover’s father, Jay, had taken over the restaurant attached to the Town & Country Lodge in 1957.

Wood’s Classic Town & Country was in two places during its short time.

Business “never was very good,” he said.

“There was a month or two it was all right.” Then Wood said there would be a downturn. “Then it would turn up again and give you some hope.”

Wood said he didn’t keep the business on West Kellogg due to issues with the building, but he said those problems followed him.

The first place he opened Classic Town & Country was at K-42 and South Maize Road.

He said there were numerous HVAC issues there, and he had to close several times because customers were either too hot or too cold.

Then someone suggested the former Neighbors space on West 21st Street just west of Amidon.

“We thought, well, this would be a busier location,” Wood said. “Maybe we didn’t get in it soon enough. I don’t know.”

There were a few issues with the building as well.

“It seems like we can’t catch a break.”

The restaurant closed March 12, and Wood said he’s now working to get the space ready to turn back to the landlord. He said he inherited a mess when he moved in and is trying to not leave it that way.

“I’m just wore out from all this moving and closing and cleaning.”

Wood once had expansion plans for Classic Town & Country, but he said now he can’t even think of reopening anywhere else.

“No, I just don’t have the backing and the finances to do it,” he said. “We had a lot of compliments on our food, and everybody liked it, but they just didn’t come in enough to keep the doors open.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2023 at 4:54 AM.