Chef’s Kiss is planning to bring its Italian buffet back to Topeka, Kansas, on October 16, with lasagna on the buffet and more pasta making the rounds. The tentative dinner at The Woodshed Event Center would mark the restaurant’s return after its Washburn Avenue location closed in August.
Pass the Pasta is the part to leave a little room for. Alongside a buffet of spaghetti, lasagna, Alfredo, meatballs, chicken, salads and Italian sides, chefs choose extra pasta dishes, sauces and combinations. Staff bring small tasting portions to the tables, so a new sauce can find you while you are busy with an old favorite.
The event announcement, reproduced by The 785, lists the AYCE dinner at $24.95 per person from 5–8 p.m. at 1901 North Kansas Avenue. October 16 depends on construction and final licensing, and reservation details are still to come. The restaurant’s announcements also include a tentative October 28 AYCE crab-leg and seafood event.
A new room for the return
Chef’s Kiss opened at 1618 SW Washburn Avenue in August 2025. Local reporting identifies Jesse Page and Dustin Pfamatter as co-owners and Kelli Page as head chef. The restaurant closed August 30, 2026, with the chef’s health among the circumstances cited.
In a 2025 TK Business interview, Kelli Page described an Italian menu influenced by Southern cooking and her childhood around her grandmother’s home-cooking restaurant.
The new venue has hosted quite a few gatherings itself. The Woodshed says the property housed Topeka Moose Lodge 555 for more than 60 years, until the lodge moved in 2016. It later became an event venue under owner Adam Moser. If the remaining construction and licensing work comes together, October 16 will give the old gathering place another reason to set the tables.
