Garden Plain
Garden Plain, KS · LATEST NEWS
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Wichita Eagle
Wichita Eagle
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WLBT
Wichita Eagle
Wichita restaurant owner had decided he'd have to close. Then things changed.
The owner of a Wichita Hawaiian restaurant who recently decided he’d have to close his business has changed his mind. Mike Brotemarkle, the owner of Sharky’s Island Bites at 8918 W. 21st St., had even notified his landlord that he’d be out of the space by Dec. 1. But earlier this week, he told the landlord he’d decided to stay. It all started when Brotemarkle received a cease-and-desist letter from a restaurant based on the West Coast called Uncle Sharkii Poke Bar saying that the Sharky’s Island Bites name was too similar to its trademarked name and that it created brand confusion. The California-based Uncle Sharkii chain, which has several locations across the country, recently partnered with Walmart and is planning to open versions of its restaurants in some stores across the country. It already has opened restaurants inside two Walmarts in Texas. Brotemarkle said that he found himself faced with a decision: fight the lawsuit, close Sharky’s and open it under a different name, or close the restaurant entirely. The first two options, he’d decided, would be too expensive. But Brotemarkle said that his lawyer recently discovered that Uncle Sharkii had let its trademark lapse. Though the chain is
Wichita Eagle
Wichita Eagle
Wichita restaurant was about to get a second rebrand. Now it's just plain closed.
The restaurant space on the northeast corner of Central and Maize has gone through a bit of an identity crisis over the past couple of years. After operating for years as a Planet Sub, the space at 10330 W. Central was taken over by local restaurateur Johnny Chandra and some partners, who opened it in January 2025 as a dual-concept fried chicken and boba restaurant called Crispy & Co/HaneBe. Then, in March, the owners renamed the restaurant Zen Bento and began serving bento boxes with choices such as spicy pork bulgogi, udon noodles, Chinese sweet-and-spicy chicken, and General Tso’s chicken. But in August, Zen Bento closed, and a sign posted on the door said the restaurant was closed for remodeling and would be rebranded as a sushi bar. Those plans are now off, Chandra said. “We decided not to reopen with the new concept because we weren’t able to find a partner to run it,” he said. Now, the 2,360-square-foot space is listed for lease with Landmark Commercial Real Estate . Chandra and his partners have opened several other restaurants in Wichita over the past eight years, starting with Tuptim Thai, 2121 N. Rock Road, in October 2018 and followed