Meet the Phoenix-trained chef at Larcher’s Market — a new sister concept to The Belmont
The Belmont has a new neighbor: Larcher’s Market — a sister concept that is part bar, part coffee shop, part restaurant and part specialty market — opened last week on the east side of Happiness Plaza, 3555 E. Douglas.
The new business has the same owners as The Belmont, but everything else is separate. It has its own menu, its own cocktail list and its own hours.
It also has its own chef. The owners, who all have ties to the Phoenix area, were able to lure one of their favorite Arizona chefs to Wichita and have hired him as Larcher’s operations manager and head chef.
Kevin Lebron, a culinary school graduate with a long restaurant resume, moved with his wife, Maria, to Wichita in January and helped The Belmont’s owners — brothers Anthony and Ryan Francisco and Tory DeMarce — open the new business. He also designed the Larcher’s menu, which offers an all-day upscale breakfast menu plus lots of lunch dishes, ranging from a soba noodle salad to a birria melt.
Lebron, who worked with DeMarce when both lived in Phoenix, said that before he came to check the place out, he’d never been to Kansas. But he liked what he saw on a visit in November.
“It was just a very big small city,” he said. “There was a growing food scene here, and it kind of reminded me of Phoenix in the early days, where people were really trying to create a new food scene and the local scene was growing. I saw an opportunity for myself to come out here and immerse myself in the community and really just put my stamp on the food scene.”
Lebron, 42, grew up in Phoenix, and during his freshman year of high school, his class did a class project on careers. He had no idea what he wanted to do with his life at that point, but his friend wanted to be a chef and had done extensive research on what it took.
“Something inside me said, ‘Hey, that sounds interesting. I should go for it,’” Lebron remembers.
He started telling everyone he was going to be a chef, and during his senior year, he took cooking classes at a local technical school. His kitchen aptitude was apparent from the beginning, he said, and he realized the kitchen was where he belonged.
After high school, he attended the Art Institute of Phoenix, where he studied culinary arts, graduating in 2001. He started working in restaurant kitchens all over Phoenix, including at the Phoenix Country Club and at Eddie Matney’s. He was working for a Phoenix restaurant group called Upward Projects, and he met DeMarce when both worked at the group’s restaurant Windsor.
Four years ago, Lebron and his wife started a food business called Pachamama, which specialized in plant-based Mexican food. It started in a tent at the local farmers market then progressed into a brick-and-mortar restaurant and food trailer. The business, which started just as the pandemic hit, survived COVID, but it was emotionally tough, and it burned Lebron out, he admitted.
He decided to go back to work as a private chef and was doing that when DeMarce called him about the Larcher’s opportunity.
Lebron said he spent three weeks here, and by the end of the visit, he’d decided to move to Kansas. Phoenix has in recent years become overpopulated, and the fentanyl epidemic is particularly bad there, Lebron said, adding that he even had problems in front of his restaurant.
“I’m a very in-tune person. I’m very self aware,” he said. “So all the energy was just really wearing on me, and when I came out here, I just felt a sense of peace. I haven’t been stressed or anxious... It’s like I was destined to be here.”
Lebron, who is Puerto Rican, said his cooking style is eclectic. Though his specialties are Asian and Mexican fare, he also is well-versed in Italian, Japanese and Greek cooking. When he designed the Larcher’s menu, he said, he wanted to include dishes that were familiar but that featured his own twist. Diners will, for example, find biscuits and gravy on the breakfast menu, but the gravy is made with poblanos, and the dish is topped with crispy chicken, pico de gallo and a sunny side up egg.
He said he’s also excited about the birria melt, which he makes using his mother-in-law’s recipe.
Among the other highlights on the Larcher’s menu: strawberry crepes, focaccia French toast made with Cinnamon Toast Crunch, a Croque Madame sandwich, and a smash burger served on a potato bun.
The country will get a closer look at Lebron’s cooking style when he appears on a Food Network competition show, which should air sometime in the next few months. He hasn’t yet been cleared to name the show, he said, but it’s a popular one, and he filmed the episode just before he moved to Wichita. (Stay tuned for more information on that when it’s available.)
Larcher’s name is an ode to Ryan Francisco’s wife Lacy’s and sister-in-law Kelly Novacone’s great grandfather Frank Larcher, who opened a market called Larcher’s at Erie and Central in 1922. The store moved and evolved over the years but was a fixture in Wichita until 1989.
The owners designed the business after similar places in Phoenix and Scottsdale that they loved. Customers can buy locally-made products, including cheeses from Elderslie Farm and pickles from Kan-Grow Hydro Farm, as well as local craft beer, wine and grab-and-go sandwiches and salads.
They also can stay for breakfast, lunch, coffee or cocktails. Seating is spread out in the adjoining two-story space that used to be home to Dean’s Designs and has in recent years served as a spot where people waiting for tables at The Belmont could hang out and enjoy a drink.
The market and the seating area are joined on the lower level by a bar, which also has an outside-facing pass-through window as well as bar stool seating inside.
The hours at Larcher’s are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 7a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.
