The weather won’t be very springlike this weekend, but both of Wichita’s big farmer’s markets will be opening for the spring season anyway. Both the Old Town Farm & Art Market and the Kansas Grown Farmers Market at 21st and Ridge will celebrate opening day on Saturday morning. Both will have vendors selling crafts, jewelry, candles and ready-made food items, and both will have food trucks on site. The official farmers market season continues every Saturday morning through October.
Once the spring weather comes to stay, Wichitans will likely gather in the Delano district, which by fall will have two rooftop bars. Not only did Wichita Brewing Company recently open its new two-story restaurant and with a rooftop bar near West Douglas and Handley, but Picasso’s owner Kurt Schmidt also has one planned down the street. He and some business partners are opening a new brewery next door to Picasso’s called Flatlanders Brewing Company. It will be a completely separate business from Picasso’s but will have a doorway connecting it to the restaurant so that people can get pizza while they drink beer. The new brewery also has space on the second floor for a rooftop bar. Look for it to open in late summer.
Finally, you might remember back in January that for the first time ever a Wichita restaurant made the list of semifinalists for the James Beard awards. Georges French Bistro was among 20 restaurants nationwide named in the category of Outstanding Restaurant. This week, the James Beard Foundation released its narrowed-down list of five finalists, and Georges did not make the cut. But owner George Youssef said he truly was honored just to have been nominated.
