Georges French Bistro has been teasing Wichita with promises of ‘big news.’ So what is it?
Georges French Bistro at 4618 E. Central got its customers pretty excited earlier this month with a mysterious social media post.
“SAVE THE DATE,” it read. “Big news coming soon...” Accompanying the text was an image of the date 5/13.
Some guessed the news would be that Georges was adding a west-side restaurant. Some hoped it would be the announcement of an east-side restaurant. Some really didn’t care what the big news was, as long as it was.
“Whatever it is, I’m in!” wrote one fan in the Facebook comments.
But several people who commented got it right: Georges is reinstating its lunch service, which has been suspended since 2020. Lunch officially returns at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 13.
And that’s not all. When Georges owner George Youssef reopens the restaurant for lunch, he’ll officially introduce the results of his latest project: a 3,000-square-foot bakery he’s just added on the far west section of the strip center that the restaurant has occupied for the past nine years.
Youssef, who has been slowly spreading out to the spaces surrounding Georges since he opened the restaurant in 2015, has taken over the spot previously occupied by a trophy shop called Awards Factory and has transformed it into a massive commercial bakery where his two pastry chefs are now able to create loaves of homemade bread and French pastries.
The list of fresh-baked breads created by Chef Colin Renner includes loaves of pain de mie sandwich bread, French-style brioche, French baguettes, country-style sourdough loaves and potato buns as well as chocolate, ham-and-cheese, and zaatar croissants. They’ll be used mainly on the restaurant’s soon-to-launch lunch menu, created by executive chef Cedrick Thavone, that will include sandwiches made using Renner’s breads plus quiches, crepes and dishes like chicken coq a vin and Parisian salmon.
No cutting corners
Youssef said that the main reason he ended his lunch service four years ago was that, post-COVID, he couldn’t get enough staff to execute both lunch and dinner to his standards. Now he can, and he wants a place to showcase his new bread program. Lunch is the perfect place to do that, he said.
His standards also are the reason he wanted to build a bakery and start making his own bread, Youssef said. He wasn’t satisfied with the bread he was getting from his food suppliers.
“When you make this stuff yourself, you know you’re putting real butter in it,” he said. “You know the product will be made 100 percent the way it should be made: no cutting corners, no preservatives. It’s made with pride.”
When he decided to start the bakery, Youssef turned to Renner, a Georges chef who had a personal interest in making bread. He kept his other longtime pastry chef, Jared Williams, on desserts.
Now, Renner and Williams share the space, which is connected to the Georges dining room via an enclosed breezeway. The cavernous space is filled with new equipment, including industrial ovens and stand mixers, a proofer, shelves full of imported chocolates, refrigerators full of European butter, and a giant butcher board workspace.
Youssef said had the idea to open the bakery before COVID, but he didn’t decide to move forward until the trophy shop next door moved out. Not only is the bakery providing bread for Georges, but it also sends baguettes as well as croissants for bread pudding to Youssef’s other Wichita restaurant: Chester’s Chophouse at 1550 N. Webb Road, which he purchased in 2019.
Eventually, Youssef said, he might open fresh bread sales to the public and allow people to take home baguettes, loaves of country bread and more. But he wants to get Georges lunch going and add more bakery employees first.
Years of growth
Youssef, a longtime Wichita chef known for restaurants such as Nouvelle Cafe and Uptown Bistro, opened Georges in 2015 in the space that had been home for years to Bella Luna Cafe.
When he opened, he had only 60 seats in the restaurant, but over the past nine years, he’s slowly expanded and taken over half of the strip center.
In 2017, Youssef closed the restaurant down, gutted it and transformed it into a spot-on replica of a Parisian French bistro, complete with ceramic floors, gold-trimmed walls, a brass-and-marble bar and a retractable door that opened onto the patio. During that remodel, he took over the space directly to the west that had been home to a hair salon and expanded the dining room, adding 50 seats.
Then, in 2020, he took over the space directly to Georges’ east, previously occupied by College Hill Donuts. That move allowed him to expand the kitchen and the front patio.
Most recently, he took over the trophy shop for the bakery, a move that will also allow him to expand the patio farther west.
Youssef said he’s excited to bring lunch back to Georges, but he can’t wait for people to see what his staff is doing in the new bakery. He hopes that his customers will notice the difference in his bread, which he says is made with top-quality ingredients that produce top-quality results.
“We want to showcase what we have,” he said. “I feel like the city needs something like this.”
When Georges reopens for lunch on May 13, its hours will change to 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 11 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 11 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays. Those who visit on weekends will also be able to order from a list of new brunch items.
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