Anthony Sosa is a man of many talents. The former and future restaurateur — in the 1990s, he owned Sosa's Cantina in the historic Northeast — now owns a painting and remodeling company. Yesterday, he was on top of a scaffolding with a relative, Paul Tinoco, power-spraying the filthy yellow awning hanging over the entrance to 3906 Waddell, the venue vacated last April by Mama's 39th Street Diner.
It's a famous location, this low-slung building facing Southwest Trafficway. For more than eight decades, it was the home of an iconic 24-hour diner, Nichol's Lunch, which was the early morning breakfast joint for the intoxicated set stumbling home from the midtown bars. When Sosa's 39th Street Diner opens in December, Sosa says, it will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner so that customers can stumble in at any time of the day or night.
"It won't be a 24-hour restaurant, not at first," Sosa says. "But we're considering that for later on."
Sosa will open the restaurant with business partner Carl Weiss and plans to serve a menu with both American comfort foods and Mexican favorites. That will mean house-made cinnamon rolls and freshly baked breads with the omelets and huevos rancheros in the morning and chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, pork tenderloins and beef burritos in the evenings.
"We'll be celebrating the history of Kansas City with our decor," Sosa says. "This is a classic location, and we want to honor that with lots of black-and-white vintage photographs of Kansas City's past."
Sosa says he'll begin accepting applications for employees over the next two weeks.
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