UPDATE: Check out www.dineoutwichita.com for the complete 2020 schedule of restaurants and specials!

Years ago, Wichita used to have an event called Wichita Restaurant Week. I loved it and thought it was a great opportunity to get people to try restaurants around town. It had a great turnout and helped raise some money for local charities.

It went away with no word of its return. Given there’s this blog you’re reading, I figured why not use the reach and audience built over the years for some good? Introducing Dine Out Wichita. Your chance to eat for a cause and try out some new restaurants around town.

It’s my version of Wichita Restaurant Week to help promote dining out in Wichita but with a different spin that hopes to improve on two things: The feasibility for any restaurant to join and affordability for diners to participate. At the same time, all proceeds are going to United Way who serves south central Kansas, including Sedgwick, Butler and Sumner counties.

In the past, restaurants would discount their menu items and have set price points for meals like $15, $20, $30 or more a person. They would also donate a portion of those proceeds to charity. I wanted to make it very simple and cost effective for restaurants and give them more flexibility. From a diner perspective, maybe those price points were still too high for customers. So having specials that vary all across the different price points will make it more enticing for everybody to attend.

Why United Way as the benefiting charity? Many people don’t know but the United Way touches every demographic from the moment they born to the moment they pass. They support local programs which was such a key issue for me in deciding a charity. The United Way supports programs like Catholic Charities, Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mental health Association of South Central Kansas, Rise Up For Youth, Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center, Wichita Children’s Home and so many more. They even partner in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library which my daughter is a part of and gets a free book every month. You can see the list of programs here. It’s something a lot of people may not be aware of so shedding some light on United Way and how they are involved in the community is just the icing on the cake for this event. I’ve met with many of the staff there and have their full support and backing. We hope this can turn into something fun for the city.

The event takes place from January 6 to 30th. It spans four weeks with hopes of having restaurants large and small of all types of food to participate from the Wichita area. There will be over 40 restaurants participating. If you’re a restaurant, bar, brewery, food truck, shop or anything that has some sense of ‘dining’ and would like to participate, check out this link here or email me at [email protected] for all the details. Or if you’d like to be a corporate sponsor for the event, please email Kristin Bogner at [email protected].

The beauty of this event is every single penny donated because of Dine Out Wichita will go directly to United Way.

Lastly shout out to Jason Ridder with Miracle Signs for creating the artwork for the event.

Stay tuned for more information on Dine Out Wichita!

WANT TO BE A PART OF THE EVENT?

Please visit this link or email [email protected] to participate in Dine out Wichita. Or if you’d like to be a corporate sponsor for the event, please email Kristin Bogner at [email protected].