Have You Heard?

WICHITA — Restaurateur Mike Issa and the owners of Terradyne Country Club confirm it: Hereford House is going to open there.

“The deal is going forward,” Issa says.

The restaurant likely will open in the first week of December.

Have You Heard? reported the news earlier this month, though at that time no one involved would comment.

Even if you’re not a member of Terradyne, you’ll be able to eat at the restaurant. In fact, that’s what Issa is counting on.

“Being in that location, it can serve Wichita and all the surrounding area,” he says.

“People are going to come from all over,” says Craig Smith, an owner in Terradyne and the club’s current restaurant, Palomino Grill.

The grill will remain open until Hereford House opens, but the restaurant is scaling back to a simple menu while Issa remodels the kitchen.

Also, he says, a designer is coming “to put the Hereford House theme inside that building.”

Hereford House originally opened in Kansas City half a century ago and now has numerous locations around that area.

“We haven’t run across anybody that hasn’t said, ‘Wow,’ ” Smith says.

He also likes that Issa will be the operator.

Issa previously owned the Italian Garden at 21st and Tyler, which he closed in August.

His agreement with the restaurant chain will allow him to have one more Hereford House in the Wichita area, but Issa says that’s down the road.

“Right now, we’re going to focus exactly on what we have at hand,” he says.

He likes Terradyne in part because it has banquet rooms that offer a wide range of seating, and “it’s a beautiful establishment.”

“It’s really beautiful scenery overlooking the golf course,” Issa says.

Smith says, “We always are trying to figure out how to make things better and nicer out here.”

And he thinks Issa and Hereford House will go a long way towards that.

“We’re very enthused about it.”