As I may have mentioned a time or two, I have appointed myself the keeper of Wichita restaurant relics that are still floating around town: things like old dishware, old menus and old postcards showing restaurants that no longer exist. My collection started after I wrote the book “Classic Restaurants of Wichita” and is frequently fed when I visit local estate sales and antique stores.
I had some time off a couple of weeks ago and was scouring local antique malls for such items when I came across one too big to save: the old parking sign that used to hang on the Wichita Fish Co. building when it operated at 1601 W. Douglas from 1997 until it moved to 818 N. Mosely in the summer of 2020.
Wichita Fish Co. owner Larry Towns died in January 2022 at age 77, and his family closed Wichita Fish Co. for good in August 2023. Towns’ son, Steven Blalock, later opened Blalock’s Seafood Restaurant at 803 N. West St. He once cooked at Wichita Fish Co. and is using recipes passed down from his mom, Judy…