WICHITA — If you were hoping to celebrate the new Five Guys Burgers and Fries downtown location by dining there today, you’re out of luck.
The opening at the southwest corner of Douglas and Ida was delayed a day due to construction and permitting issues.
Franchisee Jeff Miller says it will open Tuesday, though.
For now, hours will be 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., but Miller says he’s willing to adjust that if customers show an interest in dining later.
UPDATED — There’s a lot of downtown news this week with more approvals coming on the area’s master plan.
What might bring a little more immediate excitement is Five Guys Burgers and Fries‘ confirmation that it has a deal to open Sept. 1 at the southwest corner of Douglas and Ida.
Have You Heard? first reported that was a possibility in August.
Five Guys franchisee Jeff Miller says he’ll locate on Douglas across from the Anchor, which is on the southeast corner of that intersection, though the city’s Historic Preservation Board still needs to approve the restaurant’s design.
“We’re pretty confident that they’ll be real happy with what we’re bringing to them,” Miller says. “We don’t anticipate any problems there.”
WICHITA — California-based Panda Express has chosen a second Wichita site.
The first Panda will open in early December at One Kellogg Place on East Kellogg where Walmart is.
The second will be on Maize Road in front of Lowe’s.
“It’s the logical place for us to go,” says Susan Flesher, Panda’s real estate manager.
She likes the new retail stores, especially big ones like Lowe’s, opening in the area.
The restaurant will locate on the second pad site north of the Lowe’s entrance.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Long John Silver’s Freshside Grille and Cinnamon’s Deli are on the pad sites to the south.
The west-side Panda will be 2,700 square feet, which is a bit bigger than the east side’s 2,448 square feet.
Flesher says the extra space is for some expanded offerings, though it’s not yet clear what those offerings will be.
Leisa Lowry of J.P. Weigand & Sons handled the deal for the space and is representing Panda in the market.
Look for the west-side Panda to open this spring.
WICHITA — Almost six years after opening the popular Anchor restaurant and bar on Douglas just east of Old Town, owner Schane Gross is expanding.
“We’ve gotten so busy, especially with going nonsmoking,” she says.
Gross hired Farha Construction to help her with a couple of key changes.
First, she’s knocking down the wall that separates the two sides of the business.
That’s in part because she wants the Anchor to feel more like a restaurant.
“Our food sales are easily 70 percent of our sales,” she says.
Because of the current dividing wall, Gross says the bar area seems even bigger.
“It has such a huge presence.”
The back room at the Anchor traditionally is where customers can book parties and events, but now Gross is building a new banquet hall to the east of the Anchor where Honie’s Wig & Beauty Supply used to be.
“We have so many people wanting to do private parties,” Gross says.
She doesn’t like having to turn diners away when there’s a private party, in part because the parties are less lucrative.
“Plus, we upset our regulars.”
The new event space will hold about 140 people or even more without tables and chairs.
The physical bar at the Anchor also is being rebuilt, Gross says.
WICHITA — Five Guys Burgers and Fries franchisee Jeff Miller confirms what we suspected about his next site.
“You were right about Comotara,” he says of the shopping center near 29th and Rock.
“We are going to be in the Material Comforts location.”
That store already has closed.
Miller signed the new lease today and expects to be open by November.
The space is 4,800 square feet. About 3,500 of that will be for the restaurant, which is substantially bigger than the 2,300 square feet Five Guys has on the west side in front of Lowe’s near 29th and Maize.
“When it’s busy, we’re very crowded, and we’d like to have a little more space for our guests,” Miller says.
“We feel like we’ve been so well received in town, we’d just like a little bigger space.”
The rest of the building will be used to train employees in the market.
Miller also is eyeing several downtown sites.
“We haven’t committed to anything,” he says.
He is shopping, though.
“We’ll have several more in the area.”
WICHITA — It seems downtown won’t be left out of the Five Guys Burgers and Fries craze.
The west side Five Guys has been open since February, and an announcement about an east-side Five Guys likely is mere hours away.
“I’ve looked at several places downtown,” franchisee Jeff Miller says. “It all depends on several factors.”
The southwest corner of Ida and Douglas, across from where La Chinita may go, is looking likely.
Miller won’t be specific at this point.
“I’d like to tell you that it would be walking distance from your offices,” he says of The Eagle’s 825 E. Douglas Old Town address. “It might not be, but it probably would be.”
It could be dangerous having those Five Guys fries this close.
Given Miller’s timetable, better start exercising now.
“The odds are good that it’s sooner than later.”
WICHITA — Next to repeated Chick-fil-A questions — when’s it coming? where? — the next fast food restaurant we hear the most questions about is Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
When is the chain going to add an east-side Wichita location?
Answer: soon.
Franchisee Jeff Miller says he’s just this close to signing a lease.
The Five Guys in front of Lowe’s near 29th North and Maize opened in February.
Sources have reported several east-side sites Miller has eyed.
He reportedly looked at reconfiguring part of the former Ethan Allen space near Central and Rock, but that’s where Mattress Hub is now going.
Comotara Center at 29th North and Rock Road is another reported possibility.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Miller has focused on Rock Road.
So where’s the final spot?
Miller will tell us within days.
“People thought I was nuts. But the customers appreciated it.”
— Five Guys Burgers and Fries founder Jerry Murrell, a fan of made-to-order hamburgers, who noted in a recent Inc. story that he used to have a store sign that read: “If you’re in a hurry, there are a lot of really good hamburger places within a short distance from here.”
WICHITA — Five Guys Burgers and Fries and Long John Silver’s Freshside Grille are getting lots of attention for opening next week in front of Lowe’s near 29th Street North and Maize Road.
But that doesn’t bother Cinnamon’s Deli owner Larry Wilson, who is opening in the same building Thursday.
“I’m going to beat ’em,” Wilson says.
This is his fourth Cinnamon’s in Wichita.
“I like the traffic count,” Wilson says of the area.
There may be a lot of other restaurants there, he says, but “there’s a lot of customers also.”
Landmark Commercial Real Estate handled the lease.
Wilson, who opened his first Cinnamon’s in 1986, hopes to open two more here and possibly one in Derby. Don’t look for the new restaurants anytime soon, though.
With a tight market for financing, Wilson says, “I’m going to have to pull back . . . for a little while.”