Ad Astra, a legendary Flint Hills restaurant closed since last year, is about to reopen

Denise Neil
·5 min read

Ad Astra — a Strong City restaurant that during the mid-2010s built a strong reputation as an eatery worth the drive — has closed and reopened a couple of times since founder Amanda Hauge opened it in 2012.

But soon, one of the Flint Hills’ most legendary restaurants will reopen under the leadership of a well-known Kansas chef who intends to bring it back to its not-so-long-ago glory days.

Stan Lerner, who for years has been running restaurants in Wichita and around the region, has agreed to reopen the restaurant, which operates on the main drag of Strong City, population 400. At the moment, Lerner is operating Chef Stan’s Place, aka the “little restaurant on the prairie.” He opened it in an old church at the edge of Strong City in July of 2021 and serves things like quiche, lemon tarts and prairie bread on Sundays only.

Lerner said he was recently approached by Ad Astra’s newest owner — Jared Roberts of the Roberts rodeo family — who stopped in Chef Stan’s Place and asked if he’d be interested in running the place. Lerner said it didn’t take him long to agree. Not only had he long been impressed by Ad Astra’s ability to draw crowds of diners from near and far, but Ad Astra also had been Chef Stan’s main competitor when it opened.

Ad Astra got national press in the mid 2010s and became a restaurant that drew diners from Wichita, Lawrence and Kansas City. This is what the dining room looked like in 2015.
Ad Astra got national press in the mid 2010s and became a restaurant that drew diners from Wichita, Lawrence and Kansas City. This is what the dining room looked like in 2015.

Lerner said he’s been in contact with former Ad Astra owners Kris and Pat Larkin, who have agreed to help advise him on how the restaurant operated in its early years. Lerner wants it to feel like that again, he said, and although he’ll be putting his own twist on the menu and expanding the steak offerings, he also plans to return to the menu some of Ad Astra’s most popular dishes from the days when Hague and Larkin ran it: things like fried Brussels sprouts, duck ravioli and craft cocktails.

“I’m making sure that the things that people loved about Ad Astra before are returning,” Lerner said.

Lerner said that he plans to open by the start of the Flint Hills Rodeo on June 1. He may not be fully staffed by then, but he’ll at least open partially, serving burgers and beer. Once he gets the restaurant fully reopened, he said, it’ll offer both lunch and dinner. At first, it will be open during the evenings only on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Eventually, if he can find the staff, Lerner hopes to open the restaurant seven days a week.

Both upscale and not

Hague had Ad Astra from 2012 until 2015, and during that time, the restaurant earned attention from national publications like the New York Times and Saveur magazine. People who showed up without reservations would likely have a hard time getting in the restaurant, which seated 40 was open only on weekends.

Ad Astra’s early success is also what led Hague to close the place in August 2015, saying it had gotten too popular too quickly and that she was having trouble keeping up and finding staff.

By September of that year, Ad Astra had new owners: Gwen Shirkey, who opened the restaurant with Hague in 2012, partnered with Brian Obermeyer plus Kris and Pat Larkin, who own the Lark Inn Guest Houses in the Flint Hills, and with Catherine and John Campbell, who had family ties in the Flint Hills. They bought the restaurant and ran it until the fall of 2021, when they turned it over to Matt Flowers, the owner of a bar called The Gym in Emporia.

Chef Stan Lerner said that the original infrastructure of Ad Astra is still intact. He just needs to clean, get some new kitchen equipment, reupholster booths and perform a few other touch-ups.
Chef Stan Lerner said that the original infrastructure of Ad Astra is still intact. He just needs to clean, get some new kitchen equipment, reupholster booths and perform a few other touch-ups.

But Flowers closed the restaurant in April of last year, saying that he couldn’t find enough staff to keep it going.

Lerner said that under Flowers, Ad Astra’s menu had more of a bar-and-grill feel, and that appealed to several Strong City locals, who enjoyed coming in for a chicken fried steak or a burger. He said he plans to find space on the menu to continue those offerings, too.

“I’ve had locals ask me, ‘So, is it going back to fancy As Astra or is it going to be burgers and chicken fried steak?” he said. “We have the advantage that we can thread the needle and do both. Someone will be able to come in and order an $80 tomahawk and their Brussels sprouts and duck ravioli and a very good bottle of wine, if they want. But someone will also be able to pull in and have a really great burger and a beer and get out for $15 bucks.”

Lerner, a California transplant who’s lived in Kansas since 2013, previously ran Chef’s Table at 815 Main St. in Winfield. He closed it last year and is looking for a buyer for the building. He also opened Chef’s Table Roadhouse in the former Logan’s space at 353 S. Rock Road in July of 2020, but he closed it by April of the following year.

He plans to keep Chef Stan’s Place open but only on Sundays. He had just been planning to extend its hours for the season when he agreed to the Ad Astra deal.

Lerner said word is spreading quickly around the area that Ad Astra is making a comeback, and he gets questions from excited people everywhere he goes.

“I think everyone will be very happy to see it open,” he said. “Yesterday, I was walking outside and some older lady was driving by in her minivan and rolled the window down and yelled, “’Are we going to have a restaurant again?’” he said with a laugh. “We now have the shouting on the street.”