It’s official: A Whataburger restaurant is in the works and headed to Johnson County

Beloved Texas-based chain Whataburger is coming to Overland Park.

Whataburger Restaurants LLC has submitted a preliminary plan to the city to demolish the former Salty Iguana Mexican Restaurant in Overland Pointe Marketplace, at 8420 W. 135th St., for a new restaurant.

A planning commission hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14.

Whataburger officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

Whataburger has been looking for a general manager for that location, as well as another in Blue Springs. It also has been in talks for a site in Lee’s Summit.

Whataburger was founded by Harmon Dobson in 1950, according to the company’s website. He had an idea — an eatery that would “serve a burger so big that it took two hands to hold, and so good that after a single bite customers couldn’t help but exclaim, ‘What a burger!’ ”

Burgers are made to order and it uses 100 percent beef and a 5-inch bun.

It also has breakfast items such as pancakes and biscuit sandwiches, fish and chicken sandwiches, patty melts, salads and shakes.

After the Texas-based burger chain offered to send Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes some of his favorite ketchup and a T-shirt in late 2018, he tweeted back, “I just want a store in Kansas City!”

This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 12:01 PM.