Two well-known businesses partnering to turn downtown’s PourHouse into something brand new

Big changes are in store for PourHouse, the restaurant and brewery that the owners of Walnut River Brewing Company opened in 2018 in the historic Rock Island Depot at Union Station, 711 E. Douglas.

The business as Wichita knows it will close on Dec. 30, and when it reopens in the spring, it will have a new name, a new look, a new menu — and some new names on a long list of owners.

Walnut River’s BJ Hunt, Rick Goerhing and Travis Rohrberg are partnering with the owners of Ziggy’s Pizza — the Verbeckmoes family led by brothers Jamie and Ryan Verbeckmoes — on a unique new partnership. The owners of the two businesses are coming together to create a new brewpub that combines all of their most popular offerings and then some.

The partners are in the process of creating a menu and choosing a name for the new business, which will serve Walnut River’s beers, Ziggy’s pizzas and sandwiches, and some all-new “brewhouse bites” like mac and cheese, wings, nachos and more.

“It’s going to have its own twist,” Jamie Verbeckmoes said. “It won’t be a Ziggy’s Pizza.”

The deal came about when the Walnut River owners decided they’d like to get back to their original focus: brewing beer, which they first started doing commercially in July 2013 when they opened Walnut River Brewing in El Dorado. They added a tap room in 2016.

Hunt said that he and his partners had known the Ziggy’s owners for years, and their beers sell better in Ziggy’s restaurants than almost anywhere else in Wichita. They approached the Verbeckmoes clan — which has four restaurants in Wichita — about a partnership where they ran the kitchen.

“It takes a ton of time and energy — not to mention money — to run a restaurant, and that’s great, but we are beer guys and we’d like to get back to our roots,” Hunt said.

Jamie Verbeckmoes said that the family liked the idea of the partnership, but they didn’t want to open another Ziggy’s so close to their flagship pizza restaurant, which has operated at Clifton Square in College Hill since 2012.

The Ziggy’s/Walnut River combo business, though, could be something unique and interesting with a distinct Old Town feel, they decided.

Another partner in the deal is Jeff Knott, the Verbeckmoes brothers’ cousin. He’s been working as a manager at Chicken N Pickle but will come on board as the operating partner at the new business. Other partners include the Verbeckmoes brothers’ parents, Joe and Becky, their sister Kristi Fenwick and husband Jonathan Fenwick, and their brother Jason Verbeckmoes.

They’re still working out some details with the landlord of the historic train depot, Jamie Verbeckmoes said, but they plan to revamp the kitchen, update the main floor dining room and bar and give new life to the upstairs bar. All of that should take until spring.

The new concept will be open for lunch and dinner. The owners will share more details about the new restaurant’s menu and branding in the next month or so, Jamie Verbeckmoes said.

“It is not going to be Ziggy’s but it’s going to have a brewery vibe with good food and drinks,” he said. “It will be a cool hangout place before concerts or ball games or any of the festivities downtown.”