Doo-Dah Diner in Wichita is about to get new owners, and this weekend, customers will have a chance to say goodbye to the popular restaurant’s founders. Last week, Timirie and Patrick Shibley revealed that they’d decided to sell their popular restaurant at 206 E. Kellogg so that they could focus more on their health, particularly on Chef Patrick’s stage four prostate cancer diagnosis. New owners Jeff and Jay Miller will officially take over the restaurant on Monday. Wichita knows the Miller brothers as the franchisees of Wichita’s Five Guys Burgers & Fries restaurants. They’re also longtime customers of the diner and say they don’t plan to change anything besides extending the hours to seven days a week. Fans and friends of the Shibleys are invited to stop by the diner Saturday for a send-off brunch in their honor. The couple will have time that day to talk to people and will also be giving away diner memorabilia. They’ll be there for Father’s Day brunch on Sunday, too, but say they’ll likely be too busy working to chat. The couple first opened the restaurant in 2012.
Also, if you’re the type of diner who keeps track of local chefs, you might be interested to learn about several changes on that front, too. Many of Wichita’s fine dining restaurants have put new chefs in charge over the past several months. One of them is the Wichita Marriott. Chef Peter Moretti was in charge of the kitchen there for nearly 30 years but retired in April. The hotel has since hired Ben George as executive chef. George has in the past led the kitchens at Siena Tuscan Steakhouse and at Intrust Bank Arena and most recently worked as an instructor at WSU Tech’s downtown culinary school.
