Another KC metro Whataburger location in the works as the Texas-based company expands

Beloved Texas-based burger chain Whataburger has selected a south Independence site for a new restaurant, according to a city spokesperson.

Meg Lewis, with the City of Independence, said it has received a building permit application for a Whataburger at 18902 E. U.S. 40 highway.

A Whataburger spokeswoman could not confirm the location.

In June, Lee’s Summit officials were the first to confirm that Whataburger wanted to enter the market and had a site picked out near Saint Luke’s East Hospital.

Days later, Whataburger announced plans to expand in the Kansas City area and Tennessee.

According to city officials, the chain is now going through planning for restaurants in Lee’s Summit and Overland Park (on the site of a former Salty Iguana Mexican Restaurant). It also is looking at the former Winstead’s site in Blue Springs.

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.

The beloved Texas-based burger chain started to announce plans in the Kansas City region nearly two years after it 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!”

Now Mahomes and other area Whataburger fans will have more than one option for the famed Texas burger.

This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 3:42 PM.