There’s a new restaurant in Wichita, but you can’t eat at it

A year after Have You Heard? reported that Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers would buck a trend and keep its headquarters in Wichita, that office is open along with the new Freddy’s Training & Innovation Center.

That includes a new Freddy’s restaurant within the center. Though it’s not open to the public, vice president of franchise services Zach Woodburn said it’s still a boon to Wichita.

“The few who have come through are just blown away by it,” he said.

The headquarters and center are in 23,000 square feet on part of the first and second floors at 3020 N. Cypress Dr., along K-96 near 29th North and Webb Road.

The office opened in June, and the training center saw its first visitors and franchisees last week.

The center includes an entire Freddy’s restaurant for potential franchisees to check out and current franchisees, managers and others to take training.

Freddy’s employees often will be the beneficiaries of meals made there or new dishes that are innovated there.

The center is a bright, red-and-white environment, just like a Freddy’s restaurant.

There’s a red carpet that leads people into the training area.

“We can bring people in and show them that they are very important to us as Freddy’s franchisees,” Woodburn said.

There’s even a drive-through window for drive-through training, though there’s no place for a car to drive up.

Woodburn said there are “nice touches” throughout the center, such as shirts hanging on the walls to honor the chain’s late namesake, Freddy Simon.

“He used to wear a shirt that says, ‘I’m Freddy,’ ” Woodburn said.

There are studios for podcasts and videos, and there’s a classroom that can be expanded or made smaller.

There are collaboration spaces and hands-on training areas.

By having an on-site restaurant, Woodburn said that means trainees don’t have to get up in the middle of the night anymore to use working Freddy’s restaurants before customers come in.

“Every part of this was intentionally designed,” Woodburn said.

He credited the training and innovation team and the media resource team — the teams who work daily with franchisees.

“It’s so thoughtful, all the details,” Woodburn said. “I’m really impressed.”

There are 530 Freddy’s sites in 36 states, and he said there’s a “strong focus on our franchisees and restaurants in the field.”

Previously, managers used to go to conferences for training. Now, they’ll be able to choose from various training sessions at the headquarters.

There will be training videos, too.

“We put it all together here, and then it gets distributed out to the 17,000-plus team members,” Woodburn said.

In the almost four years since Thompson Street Capital Partners purchased Freddy’s from its Wichita owners , there was talk on and off that the company might move the chain’s headquarters to Fort Worth, where its CEO is.

Thompson, a private equity firm based in St. Louis, expanded in Texas, but it chose to keep Freddy’s in Wichita where the majority of its corporate workforce is.

“You know, so much of what makes Freddy’s the brand that it is today is the people and the culture,” president and CEO Chris Dull said at the time.

Keeping the company’s headquarters here “was very important to me,” he said. “We think it’s paramount to the future of the success of the business.”

That’s unlike some other homegrown Wichita companies, such as Pizza Hut, Rent-A-Center and Coleman Co., which eventually moved their headquarters out of Wichita after new owners purchased the businesses.

“We are hometown Wichita,” Woodburn said.

He said the company’s leaders “see the value and understand that Wichita’s a special place.”

When potential franchisees, including ones from major international brands, consider Freddy’s, he said, “They’re coming here to check us out in Wichita.”

He said there’s a benefit for the city, too.

Woodburn said training and potential franchisee visits equate to hundreds of flights and thousands of hotel nights every year.

“It can only help the Wichita economy.”