A new tenant will take over this historic Wichita theater spot in a few weeks

The Vorshay’s Cocktail Lounge spot won’t stay vacant for long. A new business will open there on June 20.

Dreamers Cocktail Lounge is moving into the Vorshay’s space at 417 E. Douglas, which Steve and Natalie Peters ran from 2018 until they closed it in early May citing “increased costs and decreased sales.”

Alisha Gentry, a longtime local bartender who will serve as general manager at Dreamers, said she wasn’t ready yet to reveal the identity of Dreamers’ owner but did say it was his first time owning a bar.

The plan is to open a cocktail lounge that has a similar vibe to Vorshay’s: It’ll have craft cocktails and a full bar and will frequently hire live bands to perform music from many different genres.

“From the comments that we read when Vorshay’s put in their two weeks, people liked coming in and the atmosphere,” Gentry said. “We want the same thing, but we don’t want to be Vorshay’s 2.0. We want to be Dreamers.

Gentry said that she’s already assembled a staff, and the cocktail menu is being developed. Dreamers won’t serve food but will eventually add some bar snacks to the menu.

She said that the owner liked that the area around the bar was coming to life with other businesses and music venues, and its proximity to the under-construction Wichita Biomedical Campus at Broadway and William was also a plus.

“The location is coming up,” she said “I think it’s heading in the right direction, and we want to be a part of it.”

Dreamers’ hours will be 4 p.m. to midnight Mondays through Thursdays; 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 1 p.m. to midnight Sundays.

The building that Dreamers is taking over was home to the historic Marple Theater, which was opened in 1908 and had a variety of owners and names until it closed in 1977 as Vogue Art Theater.

Before Vorshay’s took it over, the space had been vacant since Fat Tony’s Grill closed there in February 2014. Over the years, it was home to a variety of nightclubs, a gelato cafe, a Christian coffeehouse and a dinner theater.

This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 1:04 PM.

Denise Neil

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6327

Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.