Wichita restaurant that’s been to-go only since COVID is (slowly) reopening dining room
Most Wichita restaurants have undone the most drastic changes they made to their businesses during and right after the COVID-19 pandemic.
But one owner is just now starting to roll back a decision he made back in 2020: to completely close his popular Italian restaurant to dine-in customers and serve food exclusively for to-go and delivery.
Last week, Mickey Afsharpour seated customers at Marchello’s, 3107 S. Seneca, for the first time in four years. He said his regulars kept asking him to reopen the dining room, and he finally gave in.
He’s decided to start slow, though. For now, Afsharpour will serve dine-in customers only at lunchtime: from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. And those customers can order only from a new, limited lunch menu that features Marchello’s favorites like lasagna, fettuccine Alfredo, ziti, spaghetti, ravioli, chicken or eggplant Parmesan, and fettuccine carbonara. (See the new lunch menu below.)
Customers also can get hot or cold sandwiches, panini sandwiches, calzones or personal pan pizzas. All lunch diners also get one trip through Marchello’s salad bar, which features the restaurant’s famous Italian dressing, plus a soft drink, coffee or tea.
Afsharpour said he’ll continue to serve his full, five-page menu to carryout and delivery customers until 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and until 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Since Wichita was last able to sit down inside Marchello’s, it’s changed a bit. It still has the same cozy, checkered-tablecloth look it’s had since 1996. But Asharpour sold the booths that once lined the east wall, describing them as “a hassle” and replaced them with more tables and chairs
Asharpour said he hasn’t ruled out eventually welcoming dine-in customers over the dinner hour, but it could be a while. The reason he hasn’t reopened the dining room since COVID, he said, comes down to one issue: staffing. He hasn’t been able to find enough reliable help to keep the dining room open the hours he did before COVID-19, he said.
“To be honest with you, dinner was so busy, you have to have more help,” he said. “Reliable help.”
Marchello’s dine-in lunch menu
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