What’s next for the old Walt’s Klassics building sitting at Central and Washington?
A little more than a year ago, Station 8 BBQ owner Alex Eftekhar announced that he had purchased the former Walt’s Klassics building — a prefab metal structure that had operated as a burger restaurant at 616 S. Tyler since 1997 — and that he would move it across the street from his restaurant at 1100 E. Third St. and turn it into a diner.
He did move the building off the lot at Kellogg and Tyler, and for a while, it’s been sitting on cement risers at the high-profile intersection of Central and Washington. Many people have been wondering what’s next.
Recently, Eftekhar shared an update on the project, which he said has been slowed down by “some hiccups along the way that have dragged this project on a lot longer than I would have hoped.”
But it’s still happening, he said, and the foundation for the building has now been put down on the empty lot on the southeast corner of Third and Wabash, which is just across the street from Station 8. He has all the permits with the city in order, he said, and he’s now working on setting up a crane rental to get the project started.
“Once the building gets placed at its final location and all utilities get handled and connected, interior renovation will begin,” Eftekhar said, adding that it might take some time to clean up the 30 years of burger-and-fry residue inside the building. But he promised he would rehab it back to its original “diner glory.”
Eftekhar said he wished he could provide a timeline for opening day, but he just doesn’t have one yet.
One thing has changed from what he said about the project a year ago. Instead of focusing on breakfast and brunch, he’s now planning to offer lunch service featuring specialty sandwiches, including Station 8’s popular brisket pastrami sandwich as well as a smoked brisket Philly cheese steak. Dinner service also is a possibility.
Eftekhar, a onetime chef at Flint Hills National Golf Club, bought the Walt’s building after Lange Real Estate — who purchased the property the diner sat on last year — announced plans to auction it. They wanted the building off the site, they said at the time, to make way for another project, which we now know was the arrival of Wichita’s first Sticky Bird restaurant. It opened earlier this month in a new modular building on the lot.
The building Eftekhar bought is a 2,135 square-foot modular Starlite diner unit whose interior has a 1950s look complete with checkered floors, steel and Formica tables and a dining counter with seven bar stools. It was the longtime home of Walt’s Klassics, which closed in March after 25 years in business.
Stay tuned for updates as the project progresses.
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