Add another biggie to the long list of local restaurants that won’t make it out of 2025. The Breadbasket on Newton’s Main Street is shutting its doors after four decades. The restaurant has served its last German buffet and is in its final days of business. The owner recently said he’d continue serving food until the restaurant was cleaned out. He estimates that the last day will be New Year’s Eve. The restaurant has been for sale for two years, but the owners didn’t get any offers they liked. They say they’ve had trouble keeping employees since
COVID and are ready to move on. They plan to sell the building once The Breadbasket closes. The restaurant first opened in 1984.
In happier dining news, Wichita has added two restaurants over the past couple of weeks. One is Chicken Salad Chick, a quick-service restaurant that specializes in more than a dozen different flavors of chicken salad. It opened on December 16th in a strip center that sits behind the 29th and Maize Sam’s Club. Also, the first location of The Big Biscuit out of Kansas City finally opened on Dec. 20. It’s at 21st and Maize and serves breakfast and lunch daily. Two more locations of The Big Biscuit will open in Wichita over the next year and a half and both will be in old Jimmy’s Egg locations: one at Douglas and Hydraulic and one at 21st and Rock. Derby is also getting one in its old IHOP space.
Finally, if you need something to look forward to in 2026, Wichita Festivals recently announced plans to launch a new barbecue festival in October of next year. Flavor & Barbecue Fest will be separate from the Wichita Riverfest and will include competitive and noncompetitive barbecue cooks offering samples. Non-barbecue restaurants also will serve food, and the festival will include vendors and live music. It will all happen in the same area around Century II where the Riverfest takes place each year. The dates for the event are Oct. 2 and 3.
