Whataburger in Kansas City: When, where 12 new locations will open across the area

The first Kansas City-area Whataburger is opened last month in Lee’s Summit, followed by a location in Independence.

But a dozen more are in the works, and the company revealed the details on Friday.

“We’re excited to bring our big flavors, fresh ingredients and original recipes to Kansas City,” said Whataburger senior area manager Mike Garza in a statement. “We’re looking forward to growing here and being part of the community.”

The Lee’s Summit location, at 1450 N.E. Douglas St., opened to great fanfare in November and was followed by a location at 18902 E. U.S. 40 highway in Independence on Monday. Both are corporate-owned restaurants.

Additional corporate locations and opening dates:

▪ 8420 W. 135th St. Overland Park (former Salty Iguana site) for late 2021 or early 2022.

▪ 905 Missouri 7, Blue Springs (former Winstead’s site), for early 2022.

▪ 1921 W. Foxwood Drive, Raymore (former Golden Corral site), for summer.

▪ 95Metcalf, 95th Street and Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park, for summer.

Whataburger franchise partner KMO Burger, which includes Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and longtime Whataburger fan Patrick Mahomes as a partner, plans to open 30 locations from Wichita to St. Joseph. But the group plans to concentrate on the metro.

KMO’s first area restaurants will open next year:

▪ 10780 Parallel Parkway, Kansas City, Kansas, just north of the Legends Outlets Kansas City (former Logan’s Roadhouse site), for early 2022.

▪ 11300 Nall Avenue, Overland Park, for spring.

▪ Metro North Crossing, 400 N.W. Barry Road, for summer.

▪ Southwest corner of 159th Street and U.S. 69, Overland Park, for summer.

▪ 14123 W. 135th St., Olathe (near Menards), for late summer.

▪ 9100 block of Missouri 45, Parkville, for fall.

▪ Southeast corner Interstate 435 and Bannister Road, for 2023.

▪ Missouri 152 and North Booth Avenue (near Liberty), for 2023.

While many local fans have clamored for Whataburger to open in the heart of the metro, the company said it is still scouting locations.

But it is not looking for additional franchisees in the Kansas City market.

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!’”

Items are made to order, and it uses 100% beef and a 5-inch bun. The menu also includes mushroom Swiss burgers, patty melts, a honey barbecue chicken strip sandwich, a sweet and spicy bacon burger, fish and chicken sandwiches, salads, and breakfast items such as a honey butter chicken biscuit, pancake platter and taquitos with cheese. Restaurants are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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

Plans for a Lee’s Summit Whataburger in June 2020 were the first confirmation that the chain was coming to the metro.

Garza, previously a leader in Whataburger’s Texas operations, will lead the expansion of corporate-owned Whataburger restaurants in the Kansas City area. He had lived here from 2010 to 2012 and recently returned with his family after 11 years away.

Whataburger plans to have 400 area employees by the end of the year and will hire more than 1,000 for area openings in 2022. Employees are paid weekly and have access to flexible schedules. There also are opportunities to advance in the company, and managers have the potential to earn up to $60,000 annually. Operating partners earn an average six figure income.

QSR, a trade publication, put Whataburger on its new list of the 27 fastest-growing chains in the U.S. It currently has more than 850 locations in 14 states and annual sales exceeding $2.8 billion.

Five Whataburger locations are scheduled to open in 2022 and 2023 in the Memphis, Tennessee area, the first for that market. Whataburger also plans to expand to Nashville and to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in early 2022.

The Star last month asked readers to vote in a poll: What new Kansas City area restaurant are you most looking forward to? Of the eight choices. Whataburger had a resounding victory with 52% of the vote.

This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 8:00 AM.