Chico's Mexican Restaurant, a West Wichita fixture since 1974, will serve its last meal Sept. 19, ending a 52-year run outside Towne West Square.

Owner Lupita Cordova Fernandez announced the sale Aug. 24. She has run the restaurant at 4407 W. Maple for 28 years.

"We still have to make money, and I think I'm just tired," Fernandez told the Wichita Eagle.

The buyers plan to open a Japanese restaurant in the building. Closing on the sale is scheduled for the end of September, and the new owners declined to share details until then. Daniel Sanchez of Lange Real Estate represented Fernandez in the transaction.

The decision caps years of uncertainty. Fernandez first listed Chico's for sale in August 2020, citing the toll of COVID-19 shutdowns. She pulled it off the market in 2022, deciding to tough it out, then re-listed the property in late 2025.

A $1.2 million building and a shrinking staff

Fernandez's family spent $1.2 million constructing the current building in 2007 after being forced off their original West Street location to make way for road construction. She said she still owes on the building, and the restaurant now operates with just four employees.

Family roots at Douglas and West

Fernandez's parents, Arnoldo and Clara Fernandez, co-founded Chico's in 1974 with Clara's parents, Francisco and Magdalena Rizo, in a small shingled building at the corner of Douglas and West Street. The name came from Francisco Rizo's nickname. He is now deceased.

A second location opened in 1989 at Kellogg and Oliver but closed in 1995 when Kellogg construction displaced it. About a decade later, the same fate hit the original West Street spot, prompting the family to build at the Maple Street site.

Of the four founders, only Arnoldo Fernandez, now 80, is still alive. He was the longtime cook and still helps out occasionally.

Fernandez said she is unsure what comes next but that an 8-to-5 job sounds appealing.

Remaining hours

Chico's is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays; and noon to 8 p.m. Saturdays through its final day, Sept. 19.