Category Archives: About-to-open

New Indonesian restaurant will open this weekend

May 2, 20131:40 p.m.

Wichita is about to get a new Indonesian restaurant.

Bali Cafe should open either Friday or Saturday in the tiny building at 2716 E. Central that’s held several Mexican restaurants over the past several years, most recently La Concina.

The restaurant is being opened by Angga Heinrich, a former accountant, and her mother, Farietni Abbas, who will head the kitchen. It”ll specialize in dishes native to Indonesia, which features lots of chicken and flavors of  basil and lemongrass.

“We don’t have Indonesian food anywhere here in Kansas,” Heinrich said. “This will be a great small niche for us.”

The dining room is tiny — with only about seven tables — so the business will be mostly a carry-out place. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Reach Bali Cafe at 316-682-0002.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open | Comments

Ruben’s move down Douglas is underway

April 30, 20132:17 p.m.

Ruben’s Mexican Grill has started its move.

I had a taco hankering at lunch today, and I tried to go to my favorite nearby Mexican place – Ruben’s Mexican Grill at the corner of Douglas and McLean.

But I got the feeling it was closed, especially when I saw the booths and the oven sitting in the parking lot.

Ruben Acosta and his wife Anita are starting the move they announced they’d make earlier this year. They closed the restaurant at the end of business Saturday in anticipation of moving several blocks west to 915 W. Douglas It’ll be at least four weeks before they’ll be ready to reopen there, Anita said.

The duo said earlier this year that they were moving from the location they’ve been in since 2003 because the rent was going to increase substantially.

They’ve abandoned a plan to change the restaurant’s name back to Ruben & Anita’s Tacos, she said. The paperwork was going to be a mess, plus she likes the name Ruben’s Mexican Grill, she said.

The new restaurant, which is larger than the old one, will have a full bar, a patio, big screen televisions and more.

Several patrons have been calling lately, Anita said, wanting to know if the restaurant would still put on its annual parking lot party that it has thrown during the Wichita River Festival for the past few years. But they won’t be able to, Anita said. “We have to move on,” she said.

I’ll let you know when the move is complete.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open | Comments

The Hopping Pita rolls out on Wednesday

April 29, 201310:28 a.m.

The Hopping Pita, Melad Stephen’s new food truck that will be led by well-known local chef Roni Attari, will officially open on Wednesday.

Attari said he will park the truck near the corner of First and Mosley in Old Town and will open from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The menu, which is peruse-able on the Hopping Pita Facebook page, offers items such as beef and chicken schwarma in pita as well as pitas filled with fish and falafel. There’s also hummus, tabouli, baba ghanoush, baklava and fresh brewed mint tea.

The Hopping Pita owners had hoped to have the truck out much earlier than now but were plagued by several problems, including a broken generator. Attari is still deciding where he’ll park and serve each day, but customers can find the truck via the Facebook page.

As summer approaches, it’s suddenly raining food trucks. Just in the past few weeks, Wichita Brewing Co. & Pizzeria said it would open a food truck called Hopperoni Express within a month. A local German cook said she’ll open Let’em Eat Brats sometime in May. And another pizza food truck, The Rolling Dough, is planned for later this year.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , , , , , , Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks | Comments

German food truck about to hit the streets

April 22, 20132:50 p.m.

The food trucks just keep rolling and rolling and rolling out. The latest one is German.

Manuela English plans to open Let’m Eat Brats, a German-themed food truck, sometime in May. It’ll serve German brats on crusty bread, warm potato salad, German cabbage, bierocks and strudel, among other items.

English, who is of German decent, has been working as a baker at Green Acres for the past eight years. She’s lived in the United States for 20.

Her children are grown and gone, and she’s decided to give the food truck biz a try. “I figured I’d jump on the wagon, so to speak,” she said.

Let'm eat these

Let’m eat these

The truck will park at various spots around town, although English is not sure exactly where just yet. She’s been getting tips from the owners of Espresso to Go Go and The Flying Stove. 

She’ll start with lunch only but may move into dinner, depending on how it goes.

I’ll let you know when the truck hits the streets.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks, German food | Comments

Pizza food truck will join the Wichita fleet

April 11, 201312:26 p.m.

The Nestleroads: Dough rollers.

Another food truck will hit the Wichita streets — this one serving wood-fired pizzas.

Joseph and Cherre Nestelroad plan to open The Rolling Dough within the next six to 12 months, Joseph said.

He’ll be the dough maker, she’ll be the cook, and they’re now searching for a truck that will accommodate a wood-fired oven.

“I just felt like we needed more variety in the food truck scene,” Nestelroad said.

The Nestelroads specialize in “fusion” style pizza, he said, and they like to play around with recipes that mix pizza and comfort food. A recipe for chicken enchilada pizza is among those they’re most excited about.

The pair have held a vareity of jobs of the years. At the moment, Joseph works for an engineering firm — until the truck gets rolling.

Watch this blog for updates.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks, Pizza | Comments

French restaurant to open in Clifton Square

April 10, 20131:14 p.m.

A new French restaurant is opening in the old John Brown’s space this summer.

A French and Belgian restaurant called Au Paris-Bruxelles will open in the old John Brown’s space in Clifton Square in June, the center said today.

Florence and Didier Fraikin are relocating from Belgium to open the restaurant. They’ve visited the United States several times over the years and say they have dreamed of opening a restaurant here, too.

This means that Mortimer’s Piano Bar, which Kevin Brown and Tracy Fahrbach had previously announced they’d open in the space, won’t go there. Several calls over the past few months to Brown have gone unreturned.

Florence is a graduate in cooking arts of the Citadel in Namur, Belgium. The couple also has a restaurant in France, located one hour south of Paris, called Le Vieux Bruxelles.

The restaurant will offer Belgian specialties such as fish soup, terrines and salad nicoise. They’ll also have French specialties such as  bœuf Bourguignon.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , Filed under About-to-open, Uncategorized | Comments

Espresso To Go Go will stay put put

April 9, 20134:56 p.m.

Espresso To Go Go’s future home

One of the many things that happened while I was gone with the Shockers: Another popular food truck decided to go stationary.

Espresso To Go Go, the mobile coffee shop that  Warren and Ann Tandoc opened last August, will move into a permanent location starting in May. It’ll be in a tiny, 650 square-foot space in the corner of the Zelman building at Douglas and St. Francis, so it’s not really designed for lingering. The couple plan to keep the name Espresso To Go Go because they’ll still specialize in coffee to go, though there will be about 10 bar stools for those who want to sip-in.

The menu will offer the same gourmet coffee drinks that the truck serves, from lattes to espressos. They’ll also have a limited number of food items from their friends at Cake Face, another food truck that’s planning to park.

Warren and Ann Tandoc

As for the trailer, a 1973 Airstream Land Yacht: It’s a little too large and gas hungry for the Tandocs, it turns out. They’re looking for a place to park it so that it could serve as a second, drive-through location. But nothing’s turning up, so if they don’t find a space soon, they’ll try to sell it.

Coffee fans can follow the progress of the new shop on the Espresso To Go Go Facebook page — or right here on this blog.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , Filed under About-to-open, Coffee, Food trucks, Uncategorized | Comments

Frida’s is back — but with a new name

April 9, 201310:43 a.m.

Oh, piratas. How I’ve missed you.

I needed some good news today.

And I got it, from Mario Quiroz, former owner of only my favorite Wichita Mexican restaurant ever — Frida’s at 1580 W 21st St. The restaurant, known for its amazing piratas and cursed traffic situation, closed in 2010.

Quiroz has dreamed of reopening it ever since but couldn’t find the right spot — until now. He’s taking over the former Las Tias de Beto spot at 1064 N. Waco, right next to Juarez Bakery.

The restaurant will be called Molino’s Mexican Cuisine, and Quiroz will serve everything he used to serve at Frida’s and then some. He’ll have the piratas, the tacos, the salsa bar and will add other dishes. He’s also making the restaurant full-service rather than order-at-the-counter.

Quiroz has been working for the past several years as a sales rep for US Foods, and Manuel Fernandez, owner of Juarez Bakery and Las Tias de Beto, was one of his clients. Quiroz says he’ll keep that job, and his wife will run the new restaurant. They decided not to call it Frida’s because they wanted a fresh start.

The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Quiroz hopes to have it ready to go by the end of April. I’ll keep you posted.

By Denise Neil | Tags: , , Filed under About-to-open, Mexican food | Comments

Schwarma truck to be called The Hopping Pita

Feb. 22, 20134:12 p.m.

Initially, they were going to call it Pita Hut.

Then, Melad Stephan, his son, Jordan, and chef Roni Attari thought better of it.

They’ve decided to call their Lebanese food truck, which should take to the streets soon, The Hopping Pita. 

That name beat out several other clever runners up, including my personal favorite — Eat a Pita.

The Hopping Pita’s launch has been slightly delayed by recent weather developments, but it’s close, Stephan said. He shared this photo of the finished, green product.

I’ll let you know when it’s ready to go.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks | Comments

Cake Face finds spot for new eatery

Feb. 22, 201311:00 a.m.

The Cake Face logo

Cake Face food truck owners Summer Schoenhals and her husband, Dave, called to let me know that they signed a lease on a building that will house their new, not-mobile restaurant –  Cake Face Bake Shop & Deli.

The spot is at 1100 E. Douglas, which is at the corner of Douglas and Wabash. The space previously held part of Kitchens Plus.

The duo hope to be open by May 1. They’re waiting on the previous tenants to remove their displays, then they’ll add a kitchen and do a little remodeling. The front half of the 1,478 square-foot-space will hold the restaurant, and Schoenhals will house her bakery business in the back half.

The restaurant will serve breakfast and lunch, including some of the more sought-after dishes from the food truck, which the couple hope to put in the hands of their oldest daughter once she graduates.

Among the items they’re planning: grits, “Wafflewiches” and several sandwiches and lunch specials, such as chicken and dumplings.

By Denise Neil | Tags: Filed under About-to-open, Food trucks | Comments