“So instead of hanging out with a 20-foot-long bronze insect, I’ll get to hang out with a really tall bronze babe wielding a giant sickle. Hope she’s as friendly as the bug.”
– Patricia McDonnell on leaving WSU’s Ulrich Museum of Art (home to Tom Otterness’ “Millipede“) to be director of the Wichita Art Museum (home to Otterness’ “Dreamers Awake”)
WICHITA — After encountering some bad unemployment luck, including a couple of layoffs, Toni Priddy is now going to be the master of her own destiny.
Priddy is moving her home-based women’s clothing business to the Westlink Shopping Center at Central and Tyler Road.
Wildly Divine opens early next month to sell clothing, jewelry and accessories.
“It’s going to be a fun little woman’s store,” Priddy says.
Her business partner, Vicky Nichols, encouraged Priddy to move the business into a retail location.
“It’s a great corner,” Priddy says of Westlink’s location. “There’s a lot of traffic in that area.”
The store is not quite 1,000 square feet.
“It’s a little small,” Priddy says, “but it’s good to start with.”
WICHITA — You knew it was just a matter of time.
The ubiquitous Melad Stephan has done just about everything else related to food – bars, restaurants, catering – so naturally now he’s going to have a food truck, too.
“I’m pretty much about 90 percent done with the deal,” he says.
He hopes to debut his Schwarma Truck in November. Stephan plans to sell dishes popular in his native Lebanon, including chicken and beef schwarma, gyros, falafel, hummus and fattoush, among other things.
Like the other popular food trucks spinning about town, Stephan will rotate his among businesses and events.
“We’ll definitely want to do one day in Old Town and compete with myself, right?” he says, joking about his Old Town businesses – Sabor Latin Bar & Grille, Luca Italian Kitchen, Oeno Wine Bar, Caffe Moderne, the coming Revolution Rock Bar and his Empire Catering at Eaton Place.
“I got too much going on, don’t I?” Stephan says. “Honestly, it’s just one of my kid’s idea.”
His son Jordan, 21, will operate the truck.
“He’s been bugging me about it for a couple of months,” Stephan says. “I’m just going to let him live the American dream.”
The food business is not Stephan’s dream for his children.
“I didn’t think I wanted any of my kids to do what I do,” he says.
It’s happening anyway, at least with one of them.
“I don’t know, must be in the blood or something,” he says.