College Hill Creamery will open soon in this spot in Clifton Square.

The ice cream shop will serve 24 flavors of ice cream and will be owned by Caleb Shannon, who as a manager at local Sam’s Club.

I’ll update you on the exact opening date when I find it out.

In the meantime, you can see pictures of the interior on the shop’s Facebook page.

After decades of chasing storms, he’s no stranger to damage like that found in the wake of the EF-5 tornado in Moore, Okla., on Monday.

“The store is closing just due to economic conditions,” says Mike Collins, store manager.

The independent grocery, which is at 1915 E. Pawnee, has been open since 1987.

Collins won’t discuss who owns the store.

“We just don’t want to put that out there.”

The grocery leased the building. Collins isn’t sure what may take the store’s place or if there’s another tenant considering the space.

The store’s last day is May 28.

“Everything’s 30 percent off,” Collins says.

He won’t talk specifics on what happened to lead the store to close.

“The whole issue has just been the economy, and that’s just it,” Collins says. “That’s just about all we can say.”

The single-engine piston-powered plane has a diesel engine that runs on Jet-A fuel.

The four-place plane performed as expected, Dale Bleakney, Cessna senior test pilot, said in a statement.

“The weather conditions were fantastic, and we took the turbo 182 up for what turned out to be a very normal first flight,” Bleakney said.

The flight lasted 2.3 hours, flew at 8,000 feet and reached a true air speed at 182 mph.

The plane is the first aircraft powered by a diesel engine specifically designed for aviation, Cessna said.

The general aviation industry has been facing a looming fuel issue in many parts of the world.

Avgas, typically used to fuel most single-engine aircraft, is becoming scarce, expensive and unavailable in many parts of the world.

The ability for a single-engine plane to run on the more common Jet-A fuel means operators can fly to more parts of the world without worrying about the availability of increasingly scarce avgas, the company said.

The engine is expected to burn about 30 percent to 40 percent less fuel than comparable avgas engines, it said.

Late last week, as the NBA’s top prospects assembled for the league’s draft combine in Chicago, former Kansas guard Ben McLemore expressed his desire to be the No. 1 pick in the draft.

It’s been decades since a true shooting guard went No. 1 overall. (Depending on how you categorize Allen Iverson, you probably have to go back to David Thompson in 1975.) And McLemore would be the first Jayhawk to go first overall since Danny Manning in 1988. But does McLemore have a chance?

The NBA Draft lottery took place on Tuesday night, and the Cleveland Cavaliers walked away with the top pick for the second time in three years. Last season, the Cavs used the No. 4 overall pick on former Syracuse shooting guard Dion Waiters (he averaged 14.7 points in 61 games), while point guard Kyrie Irving continues to emerge as one of the league’s best young players.

So perhaps the Cavaliers will find McLemore appealing, but they certainly don’t have a gaping hole at the guard spot.

After Tuesday’s lottery, draft expert Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com projected McLemore to go No. 2 to the Orlando Magic, while ESPN’s Chad Ford pegged McLemore to go No. 4 to the Charlotte Bobcats. Both Givony and Ford projected former Kentucky center Nerlens Noel to go No. 1 overall.

(Meanwhile, Givony projects former KU center Jeff Withey to go No. 22 overall to the Brooklyn Nets, and former MU guard Phil Pressey to go to Atlanta with the 50th pick.)

If McLemore doesn’t go to Cleveland, here are four other places he could land.

No. 2 Orlando Magic

A possibility, mostly because the Magic, coached by former KU guard Jacque Vaughn, has holes all over its roster. Arron Afflalo, a 27-year-old shooting guard, led the Magic with 16.5 points per game last season.

No. 3 Washington Wizards

Probably not a great fit. The Wizards selected shooting guard Brad Beal (McLemore’s old AAU teammate in St. Louis) in the first round last year.

No. 4 Charlotte Bobcats

The perpetually moribund Bobcats are still looking for a spark. Kemba Walker hasn’t been able to lift the franchise. And the Bobcats have few answers … inside or out.

No. 5 Phoenix Suns

If McLemore would slide outside the top four, he could become teammates with former Jayhawks Marcus and Markieff Morris.

C.J. Polczynski

C.J. Polczynski, 10, is a Pittsburgh Panthers fan and a basketball player who wears glasses. His vision affected his jumper, until he watched Wichita State’s NCAA Tournament win over Pitt in March.

He noticed WSU’s Carl Hall, who wears goggles (although somewhat reluctantly, as this Bob Lutz column detailed in November). C.J., according to his father, refused to wear contacts or other types of prescription eye-wear designed for athletics. Hall’s goggles, however, looked sharp.

“We were watching the Shockers kick Pitt’s butt in the NCAA tournament (yes we’re a Pitt household, job well done WSU) and my son saw Carl’s glasses.  He said “Dad, if I could get glasses like that, I’d wear them to basketball,” Mike Polczynski wrote in an e-mail. “If our son could see the rim, it might prevent a couple air balls!”

Mike got in touch with WSU trainer Todd Fagan. Hall wears the  Illusion IT-10A made by Liberty Sports.

Last week, C.J. got his goggles. The early returns are good. He scored nine of his team’s 30 points in one game and made two three-pointers in a second.

“Please let Carl know that he has a new fan!” Mike wrote. “We’re very happy with them so far!”

Highs are expected to reach the upper 70s under mostly sunny skies, with light winds out of the north. A chance of showers and thunderstorms arrives early Thursday morning, when lows slip into the mid-50s.

Thursday will see chances for rain continue, forecasters say, with mostly cloudy skies and highs in the mid-70s. Winds out of the east-northeast will crawl into the double digits.

Chances for rain and thunderstorms will continue through the holiday weekend, forecasters say.

For more information on current conditions, go to our weather page.

No wonder a tornado emergency was declared for Wichita by the National Weather Service.

Freebirds World Burrito is opening at Central and Hillside next month.

As May comes to a close, it’s time to prepare your appetite for June.

And lucky for restaurant fans, several new places will be opening up next month.

Among them:

Wasabi west, 2402 N. Maize Road: It takes time grow the perfect Wasabi. The first one, at 942 E. Douglas, was initially planned for a January of 2010 but opened in June The latest one, which is nearly finished at New Market Square near Logan’s Roadhouse, originally was to open in December of last year, but now it’s looking like early June, a manager said. There’s also a Wasabi at 3242 N. Rock Road.

Freebirds World Burrito, 410 N. Hillside: The first Freebirds World Burritos, a franchise of a chain based in Texas and California, is almost finished at Central and Hillside, a few doors down from Great Wall. It’s a Chipotle-like place that allows people to build their own burritos, tacos and more with lots of organic ingredients. The restaurant’s website now says the restaurant will open on June 20.

Twelve Restaurant & Bar, 12111 W Maple St.: The former Shorty Small’s space is getting a makeover and will soon be home to Twelve Restaurant & Bar, which will specialize in American fare such as steaks, seafood and chops. Owner Bryce Kuhn says he hopes to be open by June 23.

The Cocoa Dolce Artisan Chocolates founder is opening her second store, this time in Overland Park’s Prairiefire development on West 135th Street between Nall and Lamar avenues.

“We’re going to think of Wichita as the hub and that this is the first spoke in the wheel,” Tully says.

Yes, that means she’s already thinking of other potential regional stores, though none is in the works yet.

“I think you only double the complexity of a business once, and this is it,” Tully says.

The idea, she says, is to create a template that can be reproduced.

“We’re basically going to do kind of a tweaked version of our lounge here,” Tully says of her Bradley Fair store.

Tully and her husband, Jay, opened their Wichita store in 2005 in Siena Plaza at 37th and Rock Road and then moved to Bradley Fair in 2009.

Tully says she has long thought about a second store.

“The honest truth is probably in our first year of business, way when I shouldn’t have been have been thinking of having a second location,” she says.

She knew that “as a really baby business” she couldn’t realistically do a second store then.

“We’re kind of a sophomore business now,” Tully says. “We’ve finally gotten over the hump.”

(more…)

Happy people dining outdoors at Newport Grill

I don’t know if you all caught the Perfect Summer section in Sunday’s paper. It was a fat, 72-pager, and it was filled with lots of good restaurant news.

One story I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss was one I wrote about my favorite outdoor dining spots in Wichita.

Wichita restaurants have lots of nice patios, and the tiny window when you can properly enjoy them — after it warms up but before the flies and sweaty temperatures arrive — is closing quickly.

Check out my list, and see if your favorite patio made it. You also can read stories I wrote about the best beer and wine for summer, ideas for throwing outdoor summer foodie parties, and a list of places you can take summer cooking classes.

And if you want to get up close and personal with the Cake Face folks, you can read about their idea of a perfect picnic.

— Former Wichitan Kristin Peck, vice president for government and public affairs for Cox Communications in Oklahoma, in an e-mail about the massive tornado that hit Moore on Monday

South Africa continues to be one of the largest growth markets in the world, Scott Plumb, Beechcraft vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said in a statement.

The business aviation fleet in the region has grown by more than 20 percent in the past 10 years, Plumb said.

“Having Kingsley stationed in South Africa will provide further impetus to strong Beechcraft sales in the region,” he said.

Okoli spent 13 years in the U.S. Air Force that included work involving the West Africa region and the Nigerian Air Force. He was an F-16 crew chief and later a fighter squadron logistics readiness officer, according to information from the company.

He has experience with Department of Defense acquisition program management, business development and operational management in foreign military sales and foreign military financing.

He most recently served as a senior program analyst for IMSolutions.

The package is designed to improve fuel efficiency.

The flight took off from Paine Field in Everett, Wash., this week and flew for four hours.

“It was a great flight and the engines performed as expected, Capt. Kirk Vining said in a statement. “This is an important milestone for the flight test program.”

The plane’s Performance Improvement Package includes improvements to the engines and flight management computer software.