Get a sneak peek of the book ‘Classic Restaurants of Wichita’

I’ve been working on a pretty exciting project for more than a year, and on Wednesday, I will finally be able to share some details.

My new book, titled “Classic Restaurants of Wichita,” will be published this August by Arcadia Publishing’s The History Press (the same group that put out Joe Stumpe’s book “Wicked Wichita” back in 2018.)

The book, which will feature close to 100 images, offers profiles of Wichita’s gone-but-never-forgotten restaurants, starting in the 1870s when Wichita was founded and spanning all the way to the late 1980s with the addition of places like of Pasta Mill, Willie C’s, Amarillo Grill and more.

The Wichita Public Library has asked me to speak about the book during an online installment of its Senior Wednesday program this week, and anyone can tune in. I’ll be giving the talk via Zoom, and I’ll share several of the photos from the book as well as an overview of what I’ve included in its pages.

And I’ve included a lot. The book includes profiles of more than 100 Wichita restaurants, and I focused on the favorites people have named over and over again since I started writing about restaurants in Wichita more than 21 years ago: places like Innes Tea Room, Hickory House, Albert’s, Abe’s, Elizabeth’s, Lazy-R, Chateau Briand, The Looking Glass, Dr. Redbird’s Medicinal Inn, Fife and Drum and many, many more.

My talk starts at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and if you want to participate, you just need to go to wichitalibrary.org and register for free. You’ll have a link sent to you on Tuesday. You can also call 316-261-8500 to register.

I hope to see you then, and I’ll be sharing more details about “Classic Restaurants of Wichita” as the publication date gets closer.