WICHITA — The Petroleum Club is branching outside of the Bank of America Center at Douglas and Broadway.
Building owner Phil Ruffin approached club general manager Kathy Latham about a month ago to see if she might be interested in running food operations at his Ruffin Building at 9111 E. Douglas, which perhaps is better known as the former Pizza Hut headquarters.
For the last four years, Youssef Youssef has run Fattoush Deli there, but he’s now on only a month-to-month lease.
Latham decided it made sense for the Petroleum Club to venture east for an additional operation.
“It’s evolving, it seems like, just because of the success that we’ve had here,” she says of the downtown property.
Latham also runs the Walkway cafeteria at the Bank of America Center.
That’s open to the public.
The Petroleum Club is private, though Latham says nonmembers can use it for private events like wedding receptions and banquets.
“That’s really our forte,” she says.
Ruffin’s son, Chris, who is director of real estate for Ruffin Properties, says food service at the Ruffin Building is open to the public.
Mostly, though, he says, “It’s kind of an amenity for the building.”
There are 1,400 people who work in the 253,000-square-foot building.
Latham will take over the space at the first of the year. She has yet to pick a name for the operation, but we’ll let you know when she does.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” Ruffin says of Latham and the Petroleum Club taking over, “because they do such an excellent job at the Bank of America building.”