Albero Cafe owner is working on a new restaurant for Central and Hillside

He still plans to find somewhere to reopen his Albero Cafe , which he had to close last year after almost 10 years at Central and Oliver.

But in the meantime, Wichita restaurateur Hassan Ballout has decided to open another restaurant in the College Hill area — this one with a different approach.

Ballout, who also owns Albero Bistro at K-96 and Greenwich, will soon open a quick service Mediterranean restaurant he’ll call Levantine Kitchen . He’s already started remodeling a 1,400 square feet space at 3337 E. Central and plans to have the restaurant open by late September. His new spot is on the other end of a strip center that’s also home to Panera Bread and sits across Central from Wesley Medical Center.

The restaurant will offer healthy Mediterranean fare and will have an option where people can build their own bowls and sandwiches, choosing from proteins, vegetables and sauces displayed at the counter. Customers will be able to choose the ingredients they want on their dishes or if they’d rather, order standard gyro, falafel and shawarma sandwiches.

The menu will be friendly to vegans, Ballout said, and offer items like a jackfruit sandwich or falafel nachos, which are made by cooking falafel dough onto a pita then topping it with veggies and sauce.

Ballout said he decided that, in today’s labor market, it made more sense to go forward with a quick-service restaurant where people order at the counter. Levantine Kitchen will have seating for about 20 and will be takeout friendly. It’ll also have a front patio.

Customers will be able to choose from Pepsi products, energy drinks and bottled water, but the restaurant will also serve bottled beer, individual-sized bottles of wine and four mixed drinks dispensed from a machine.

The restaurant will be the kind of quick, clean, healthy-eating establishment that his own daughters, ages 18 and 20, crave when they go out to eat with their friends.

“It’ll be very uncomplicated, very easy, very simple,” he said.

The word Levantine refers to things from the Levant, a geographical region that includes the Eastern Mediterranean.

Ballout worked for 10 years at Bella Luna Cafe before branching off on his own in 2014 to open Albero Cafe at 4811 E. Central. Last year, he had to close the Italian restaurant after learning that his landlord had other plans for the area.

His second restaurant, the more upscale Albero Bistro , opened at the Greenwich Place development in early 2021 .

When he closed Albero Cafe, Ballout said he hoped to find another spot in the College Hill area to reopen it. That’s still the plan, he said, and he has some specific spots in mind.

But he definitely wants it to be in College Hill, a neighborhood he said has “always been about companionship and community and conversation.”

Stay tuned for more details on Levantine Kitchen as opening day gets closer.

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