Cohlmia Marketing to move to Delano

UPDATED — Cohlmia Marketing is moving from one historic building to another.

The marketing-communication firm has been in the Yellow Cab building in Old Town for a decade.

It’s moving to the Travel Air Building at 535 W. Douglas in Delano.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to have some Douglas street exposure,” says president Carol Skaff.

That’s partly why she’s moving.

“We’re kind of off the beaten path here,” she says of her location on Mosley Street between First and Second streets.

That’s the same building where Egg Cetera is.

“It really is a wonderful location,” Skaff says. “We have really enjoyed Old Town.”

When the office opened there, there was no Old Town Square.

“The energy has been building,” Skaff says. “It’s been really fun to be part of that.

“At this time, the energy of Delano is really starting to, I guess, percolate,” she says. “They’ve just been doing so many interesting developments, and it has an interesting creative vibe, and that was attractive to us.”

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Old Town’s Uptown Bistro to close April 2

WICHITA — After months of speculation — and some denials — Melad Stephan says he’s closing Uptown Bistro in Old Town Square on April 2.

“That store hasn’t lived up to my standards in food and service and sales,” he says. “I’ll take the blame for some of it. Or most of it.”

Stephan signed a new 5-year-lease last month.

“I’m not going to leave that spot. I’m going to do something with it some day.”

He’s working on a new concept, but he won’t share details yet.

Stephan grew fed up with Uptown Bistro.

“I told them the other day, if I hear one more complaint, I’m shutting the doors down,” he says. “I’m done with everybody.”

Stephan says he couldn’t be there enough to oversee and correct operations.

He also owns Sabor Latin Bar & Grille, Egg Cetera, Oeno and Press.

So has he considered perhaps limiting himself to only one or two restaurants?

“I have in the past,” Stephan says. “You know what? You do one thing     . . . you get bored with it.”

He says he could don his chef’s coat and revive Uptown Bistro on his own, but he doesn’t want to.

“Do I have the passion and the time and the effort to do it at this stage in my life? I don’t.”

He’s been in the restaurant business 25 years.

“You know, just the routine kills you. You want to advance your life.”

Look for an update on the space as soon as Stephan makes a final decision.

You don’t say

“It was unbearable to keep it open.”

Melad Stephan, who had to temporarily shut his Egg Cetera restaurant in Old Town after breakfast Sunday because of air conditioning issues but hopes to reopen Thursday

Jason-Paul Febres and Roni Attari to open Latin restaurant near Central and Tyler

WICHITA — Jason-Paul Febres once again has left Sabor Latin Bar & Grille.

Last year at about this time, he left to start his own restaurant amid differences with owner Melad Stephan, but another restaurateur nabbed the space he wanted.

Febres and Stephan reconciled, and Febres returned to Sabor last summer.

Now, he’s teaming with Roni Attari, another employee of Stephan’s Empire Restaurant Management, to open Yuca Latin Bistro.

The restaurant, which will offer Latin fusion food, will open within a month in the former Quiznos building on Tyler just south of Central.

“Everybody was telling me, ‘Open on the east side! Open on the east side!’ ” Febres says. “But I guess the west side has a lot of potential.”

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Sabor at the Waterfront is not closing

WICHITA — The hot restaurant talk at the end of last year has continued into this year, and that’s that the east-side Sabor Latin Bar & Grille is closing or converting into a new business.

“There were some rumors that we were closing, but right now we’re going to keep it open,” says Sabor district executive chef Jason-Paul Febres.

Febres says the Old Town Sabor had a better reception than the one that opened in late 2008 at the Waterfront.

“Downtown people . . . they’re more open to try Latin food,” Febres says.“They’re more open to new ideas.”

The economy has been a factor, too.

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