A couple of weeks ago, my report was filled with news of Wichita restaurant openings and not a single closing. But I can't say the same this time.
Over the past couple of weeks, Wichita has lost two longtime restaurants. One is the original Riverside Cafe on West 13th Street. It closed for good nearly two weeks ago, and its contents have since been auctioned. The owner said that the cafe never financially recovered from a year and a half shut down that followed a fire in 2021, but she does plan to keep the Riverside Cafe on West Central going. The other closing happened this week.
Mexican restaurant Jose Peppers had been open at the Palacio Development at 13th and Greenwich since 2009, but shut its doors for good at the end of business on Sunday. Managers said the closing coincided with the restaurant's lease expiring. Wichita once also had a West Side Jose Peppers at 21st and Tyler. It closed in 2022 after a decade in business.
And there's even more bad news for Wichita restaurants, at least for those that would get occasional visits from movie star Harrison Ford for years. Ford would arrive in Wichita in January, February or March, for pilot training and plane maintenance, and would be spotted at restaurants and stores all over town. But he hasn't been back in Wichita since March of 2024. Now, a documentary filmmaker working on a project about Wichita and its adopted celebrity thinks he's figured out what happened. The flight simulator that Ford uses for training was moved out of Wichita shortly after his last visit. Since then, Ford has been spotted at a training center in Orlando that does have the simulator. In short, Ford no longer has any pressing reasons to visit Wichita. The film about the city's long run with the Star Wars actor called “Ford Comes to Wichita” is still coming out this fall.
