There’s no place like home–and after Colorado and NYC, it’s great to be back to Wichita to enjoy some local cuisine. As a recent transplant from California by way of The-Middle-of-Nowhere, SW KS I was ignorant of the many culinary treasures in Wichita. The first establishments I frequented were the breweries–the breweries in Wichita are fantastic but more on that later. But, when looking for a date night or a cool restaurant location I went to the internet. I sought out as many message boards as I could find and Angelo’s was consistently in the top five. This very strong word of mouth is only the tip of the iceberg. Apparently this place went extinct in 2006 and was brought back by popular demand–first in a media poll asking people which restaurant they miss the most and then later as a successful Go Fund Me attempt to bring Angelo’s back. Read all about it here: https://www.angeloswichita.com/about
After being seated we were introduced to the most fun, efficient server I’ve ever encountered. Her name was Shawn and she was born on St. Patrick’s Day–always a good omen. She clearly loves her job and it shows. “I didn’t like working so much as when I retired.” Wow, what a line. We should all do that. Retire and work the jobs we’re passionate about.
We started off with drinks–the specials for the night were 22% off of select lines and $4 local beers. I know there’s probably a certain level of Dante’s Inferno reserved for people who order beer at an Italian restaurant but I’m a sucker for all things local. If there had been a bottle of something from Grace Hill Winery, I would have been tempted to order that but I was very happy with the V-6 IPA from Wichita Brewing Company at $4. My lovely wife ordered the prosecco. Even though I wished that the IPA was on tap (they brought it out in a can), I really appreciated that they produced a frosted glass for every beer I ordered–a glass so cold that it formed a little bit of slush when I poured the already cold ipa.
The house specials all looked amazing. I ordered the home made sausages covered in sautéed onions and peppers with Spaghetti. It was a small fee to add the onions and peppers but totally worth it. The minestrone soup had an Au Gratin upgrade option which I totally took advantage of. The thick soup came out with a huge layer of bread and cheese–it was amazing.
Since each specialty comes with garlic bread (this is not stated on the menu), we decided to rescind our garlic bread appetizer order. The bread that came with our dishes was more than enough. We saved room for the tiramisu and shared one between us. (And by save room I mean we at only about half of our entrees. There was so much food to take home. I cant want to warm it up for lunch.
The food, overall was really good. Although my wife wished that the garlic bread was a bit more garlic-y and it would have been nice if there was a bar to sit at. If that were the case, I would come just for the beer and minestrone soup. That was probably enough to fill me up.
