Being Foodies in Wichita, KS

When I asked my friend Meredith what there is to do in Kansas she replied with “eat!” She was right, especially because we visited in July when Kansas is hecka hot. So not only do you eat, but you eat indoors! We had a lot of fun hopping around town and visiting some of the Wichita local eats & drinks (because you know we WILL find a new brewery to go to!) So really, without further ado – here are all the places we ate at and all the photos we took!

Hopping Gnome Brewery

Let’s start off with the good stuff – beer. Bruce and I love finding new breweries. We do it all the time in our brewery filled state of Colorado but we also love to do it when we travel (Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland, OH || Upstream Brewing in Omaha, NE & Lazlo’s Brewing in Lincoln, NE || Arts District Brewing in LA) John and Mere know this about us, in fact – they were frequently our wing-men for trying the new breweries that came into town (back when they still lived in Colorado Springs!) They recently did this cool beer tour of Wichita so they were super in the know about some of the best local stuff! YAY for us! Beer and branding both on point!

HomeGrown A Daytime Eatery

The Mays are known for their love of breakfast places. It was another one of our things in the Springs – mostly they would make us wake up to go to breakfast with them 😉 We always liked it because coffee and bffs always makes for a good time. This place was cute, hip, and super tasty! The pictures make it look like it was just Bruce and I but I promise their were three others on the bench across from us!

PS: Yes that is a homemade pop-tart and it is just as tasty as it looks!!

Verita Coffee Bar

Just in case we needed more coffee after mornings of endless coffee at the Mays, Mere and I grabbed coffee with the little guy while the boys finished up work on Friday. Here it mostly looks like they just have kids playing with trains on the table but I promise there is more! Like friendly baristas and really tasty iced coffee.

The Donut Whole

Next to Hopping Gnome Brewing is an adorable donut shop – we of course had to go in because “when in Kansas!” I pretty much fell in love with the nerdy donut names and wanted them all. I ended up picking “Bad Wolf” which is the donut with the ROSE on it!! Gah. If you know anything about Dr. Who, it would all make perfect sense! They also have a pinball machine in free play so you can play all day and feel like you are back in the 70’s.

Churn & Burn

Can you see the coffee theme? Apparently we like beer, breakfast, and sugar 😉 Here they are known for their coffee shakes that they make with nitrogen – it’s pretty crazy. But since we all went for dessert after diner, we skipped the caffeine! Like Verita Coffee, I didn’t get any pictures of the ice cream! We all ate it asap because it was ice cream and it was still mega hot outside! But I did get some adorable toddler photos!

Paradise Donuts

More donuts? You betcha! Fun fact about Elizabeth – I don’t like donuts (gasp) But I do like the way they look and I like that they make other people happy! We scrubbed it to the donut shop down the street for a fun breakfast one of the mornings! It is always fun having an excuse to wear slouchy clothes – AKA what we slept in!

Dempsey’s Burger Pub

The last night, John & Mere got a sitter so that we could eat out (and stay out later) together! We ate a Dempsey’s Burger Pub for obvious reasons – beer & burgers! I got the fish and chips (always a fan favorite) and Bruce got a pretzel bun on his burger. We were happy campers and enjoyed the night out! It was in the cutest little area to explore and had all these other local shops & eateries around it! There was also another ice cream shop but we figured we didn’t need mooooore food 😉

And that’s that! There is only so much you can eat out over a long weekend 😉 But we still feel like we got to experience a lot of the local foodie culture! If you ever find yourself in Wichita, feel free to use this as a guide! Are you a local or frequent flyer? Let’s us know if we missed anything so that we can make sure to hit it up next time we go!!