WICHITA — In a recent USA Today story, Aviation Week deputy managing editor Jennifer Michels shared “her top places for flights of fancy,” as the newspaper put it.
Her top 10 choices include some naturals like the Wright Brothers National Memorial and the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Wichita makes the list too, but not because it’s the Air Capital.
It’s because of Hangar One Steakhouse.
“What else would you do in Wichita — home of Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and Spirit AeroSystems, as well as excellent beef — but eat a steak at an aviation-themed restaurant facing the airport?” Michels said.
She also mentioned Hangar One’s Control Tower lounge.
In addition to being extremely excited, owner Greg Hiser says, “Actually, we were very honored.”
He just had a meeting with restaurant employees to say the bar has been raised and, “Let’s make sure we stay there.”
16 Comments
Well done Greg!
That’s pretty cool. I need to go check out Hangar One.
I bought my Dad a gift Certificate to Hanger One for his B-Day. He raved about the steak he had and My Mom raved about her chicken meal as well. They are tough critics, so this place must be great. He promised to take me there when I visit at Christmas.
My sister, who has eaten in restaurants around the world, just HAPPENED to visit your restaurant when she was here in July. And……she was very impressed! I need to get there myself.
Been there a few times, meal was good as well as the service. Neat place, you should all go check it out.
Sounds like a trip out by the airport is in order… Great story, Carrie!
Give me a break! The Wright Brothers Museum,The National Memorial and the Museum of Flight, The Kansas Air Museum, all the factories and airbase. Not to mention the rest of Kansas like the Kansas Cosmosphere Space Center in Hutchinson; and this doo-da says a resturant makes her top 10 list?
She really ought to resign as she clearly has no idea about the subject she is supposed to be writing/editing about. Either that or this is one of those Pay to Play type list.
My husband and I visited Hangar One. Have not been back. We were told if we went to the lounge we would have to keep checking back to see if a table was ready for us. It didn’t seem like the front staff maximized seating as when we were seated there were a lot of vacant seats and when we left a bunch of vacant seats, and a lot of people waiting to be seated.
We went out to Hangar One not too long ago on a whim and beat the Sunday lunch crowd (our church lets out at 11:30). The lounge wasn’t open, but they let us take the kiddo up there anyway, though air traffic was so light we didn’t get to see anything of consequence. Food was excellent, and the staff had great fun (or at least faked it convincingly) explaining the various artifacts to us.
@nonflyer: Er, the list *did* include Wright Bros Memorial, *and* the Museum of Flight.
And if you go look at the article, it really is (as Carrie briefly quoted) “flights of fancy.” That is, the list by definition is not actual flight stuff like the factories and such. It’s crazy flight-INSPIRED stuff like the 727 hotel and whatnot. (I do confess I’m puzzled by the Luray Caverns Airport inclusion, though. It’s… an airport? It’s not IN the Caverns or anything, right? The article praises the caves, but conversely they’re not flight-themed or anything, are they?)
My mother and I stopped to eat there one evening and were sorely disappointed. The atmosphere was neat but the quality of the food left something to be desired cosidering the prices. I don’t think I will go back unless the quality of the food improves they get better at seating people.
Karen, “they” was Robin, and she has a blast as the GM. Go often, and ask for her, they are truly a service business.
I eagerly waited over a year for this place to finally open. When it did, I was impressed with the decor and disappointed in the food. For being a steakhouse, they failed to cook my steak correctly TWICE. The old Beech cockpit on the side of the building could be a really cool attraction, but it was gutted. Looked more like an injury waiting to happen for a child.
Haven’t been back since.
We were there had to wait for a while but when we were seated there were numerous empty tables. The food wasn’t that good and the service left something to be desired.
I am totally surprised by the negative comments. When we went, we were seated in less than ten minutes, and they were packed. My medium rare steak was perfect. The service was over the top. The prices were up there, but not over the top. It was a special occasion, and we were pleased all around.
This is a new restaurant. Let them work the kinks out and give them another chance.
Would love to see the service and food quality raised to the same level as the themed decor.