Italian restaurant that arrived in Wichita five years ago is about to pack up, leave town

An Italian restaurant chain that Wichita excitedly greeted at the Wichita Waterfront in the summer of 2019 is about to close.

The Old Spaghetti Factory at 1421 Waterfront will open for the last time on Sunday, Nov. 24. After that, the chain will pack up all the velvet couches and antique decor inside the restaurant and move it back to its warehouse in Portland for use in another restaurant, said district manager Jason Davis.

“We had a short-term lease, and financially, it wasn’t one of our busier restaurants,” he said of the chain’s decision to leave Wichita. “We didn’t have the success we hoped to have there.”

When the restaurant took over the former Fox and Hound space at the Waterfront development, 13th and Webb, a little more than five years ago, it was the 43rd Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant in the chain. The original Old Spaghetti Factory was opened in Portland in 1969 by Guss and Sally Dussin.

The restaurant is known for its brightly-colored, antique-filled interior, which also featured a full-sized trolley car that people could sit in while they dined.

The Old Spaghetti Factory is not related to the Spaghetti Works that once operated downtown Wichita. Spaghetti Works was the name for the Kansas franchise of the Spaghetti Warehouse chain, which was an imitator that came along three years after The Old Spaghetti Factory. Spaghetti Works, which also had a trolley car, closed in Wichita in 2004.

I reached out to the developers of the Waterfront about what might be next for the space but didn’t immediately hear back.

This restaurant has locations on both the east and west side. But one of the two is closing.

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