More than two years ago, the owners Viva Tacos & Tequila in the Kansas City area said they would open a version of their restaurant in the former Jax Restaurant and Bar building at 21st and Webb in Wichita.
Now, they finally have. Saturday was opening day for the restaurant, which has a multi-page menu of Mexican favorites, serves eight different flavors of frozen margaritas and offers a long list of tequilas. The restaurant, which is just north of Deano’s in Cambridge Market, is now in its soft-opening phase, and although customers can visit any time, the staff members of the are still perfecting their jobs.
Anyone who visited the restaurant in its previous iterations as Jax and Greystone won’t recognize it now. The dim lighting, dark tones and private dining nooks that characterized those two John Arnold-owned concepts have been completely removed and replaced with a bright white dining room decorated with vibrant murals, all-new booths, tables and chairs, and a decorative white ceiling that is dripping with colorful heart-shaped lighting fixtures.
The open dining room now seats about 200 people, the staff said, and the building still has a sectioned off party room on the east side that will be used for private events and overflow seating.
Among the touches that set Viva apart from Wichita Mexican are its eye-catching serving apparatuses: I ordered a “flight” of four miniature frozen margaritas that were served on a little metal airplane. My friend ordered a taco flight that featured four rolled tacos with different feelings served vertically in a specially-made iron structure…