“We just think these young people that are tackling this project are kind of awesome and wanting to save what we consider a treasure of Wichita’s past … instead of tearing something down.”
– Food For Thought owner Melinda Foley on why she’s holding a Sept. 22 fundraiser (with carnival games and a silent auction) for the Joyland Restoration Project
WICHITA — If you’re a fan of Gobi Grille, you’d better go quick for one last meal. The restaurant, which is in the former Victory Sports Grille space on Ridge Road near 21st Street, is closing after this weekend.
“We hope to make it to Sunday,” says general manager Mary Dinino-Emmerson.
She says she didn’t order new food shipments this week.
“Corporate America got another locally owned-and-operated (business), I guess,” Dinino-Emmerson says.
She says Gobi, which opened in March 2009, had been doing well until Genghis Grill opened in the former Krispy Kreme space at 8512 W. Central in 2010.
Gobi owner Jeff Lucke didn’t return a call for comment.
WICHITA — Speedy Cash is a new tenant in the former KGB call center space at 8400 E. 32nd St. North, which is along K-96 just east of Rock Road.
“It was a great option for having space to grow from a call center standpoint,” says Bill Baker, Speedy Cash’s chief marketing officer.
“We’ve been growing … really steadily the last number of years.”
Previously, the company’s call center had been at its corporate headquarters at 3527 N. Ridge Road. This month, it moved to the former KGB space.
“There’s a lot of room to continue growing,” Baker says. “It supports both our domestic and international operations.”
Speedy Cash has 311 locations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. It has Internet lending services in 22 states and the United Kingdom and is working on Canada.
Internet sales are a big part of the company’s growth, but Baker says, “We’ve continued to add more store locations and plan to continue to do so.”
UPDATED — More than a year ago, Justin McClure thought he was doing a favor for a friend of a friend when he designed his first book cover.
McClure has Justin McClure Creative in Delano, but he wasn’t looking to start designing for the publishing world.
“It was an artist helping another artist,” McClure says.
The author was self-publishing her book.
“We were really doing a lot of, we thought, helping out.”
Courtesy of Atria Books
Now that book is getting a lot of attention. It’s Jamie McGuire’s bestselling “Beautiful Disaster.”
“We kind of knew it had been taking off,” McClure says of the book. He started receiving requests from international outlets for artwork of the cover.
Then, last week, a colleague was in an airport in Chicago when he saw the book next to a sign for New York Times bestsellers.
“He took a picture with his cellphone,” McClure says.
“Does this look familiar?” the employee texted.
“That’s how we found out.”