This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Old 56 Family Restaurant is an all-day-breakfast diner at 912 S Chestnut St, Olathe, KS 66061, at the corner of Old 56 Highway and Chestnut, next to Veterans Memorial Park. It opened in 1972 in a building that began life as a Waid’s Restaurant in 1965, and it is one of the longest-running restaurants in Olathe. Hours are 8 a.m.–2 p.m., seven days a week — breakfast and lunch only. A second location in Ottawa, Kansas has closed; Olathe is now the only room. Owner information is ****; the business publishes no ownership statement.

Description

Old 56 is a short-hours, long-menu diner. It serves breakfast all day inside a 8 a.m.–2 p.m. window, seven days a week, and closes before dinner service despite carrying a full dinner section on the menu — KC strip, country fried steak, pork chops, liver and onions, fish and chips — all available at lunch.12

The first-party description positions the room by its intersection: “Find us at the corner of Old 56 Highway and Chestnut Street. We’re by Veterans Memorial Park.” Named signatures are country fried steak, the chili cheeseburger, grilled chicken salad, and the chicken quesadilla.2

The menu’s structure is old-school diner: numbered “Egg Fare” plates (#1 through #9), a six-omelet board, short orders, a “Healthy Option” section of egg-white and oatmeal plates, and a kids’ menu that includes a “Senior Citizen’s Choice.” Chili and biscuits and gravy are made in house, and the soup of the day is not published — the menu instructs customers to call and ask.1

Kansas Travel describes the room as feeling not retro but simply unchanged since the 1960s, notes the menu and hours have both shortened over the years, and records that the restaurant does not bake its own pies but serves pies from Golden Boy Pies of Overland Park. It also records a 3.5% credit-card surcharge.3

Ownership and history

Old 56 Family Restaurant opened in 1972. The building predates it: it was constructed in 1965 as a Waid’s Restaurant, a Kansas City–area coffee-shop chain of the period. Both facts come from Kansas Travel, whose author reports visits to the restaurant going back to at least 2008.3

The company formerly operated a second location in Ottawa, Kansas, in Franklin County. That room has closed. Its residue is still visible on the first-party ordering site, whose social-link block points at TripAdvisor and Yelp listings for the Ottawa restaurant rather than the Olathe one; the site’s own Locations page lists Olathe alone.324

No owner is named. The business publishes no ownership statement on its site, and no press coverage naming a proprietor was located this pass. Tenure of 54 years under a single trade name is a strong local-institution signal, but the chain of ownership across that span is ****.

menu_status: verified — transcribed 2026-08-13 from the restaurant’s own online-ordering menu at olathe.old56familyrestaurant.com, its own domain. These are the restaurant’s published online-ordering prices; whether the printed dine-in menu matches exactly is not disclosed. No delivery-platform or aggregator prices are used here.1

Short orders — French toast combo 12.00 · French toast 9.00 · Extra large pancakes (2) 8.00 · Malted waffle 11.00 · Breakfast sandwich 8.00 · Oatmeal 6.00 · Cinnamon roll 6.00.

The Healthy Option — #1 egg whites, tomato, fruit cup, English muffin 11.00 · #2 egg-white veggie omelet, no cheese 10.00 · #3 oatmeal with blueberries and two poached eggs 11.00 · #4 vegan burger with two eggs 13.00.

Burgers (with one side; double meat and cheese +3.00) — Cowboy (grilled ham, fried egg, cheese) 16.00 · Bacon cheeseburger 15.00 · Chili cheeseburger, open face 14.00 · Patty melt on grilled rye 14.00 · Traditional cheeseburger 13.00 · Beyond vegan burger 13.00.

Sandwiches — Reuben 14.00 · Philly steak or French dip 14.00 · Chicken sandwich 13.00 · Turkey stacker 13.00 · Club sandwich or wrap 13.00 · B.L.T. 13.00 · Super Bird 13.00 · Hot turkey / hot beef / hot burger (open face with homemade gravy) 13.00 each · Caribbean wrap 13.00 · Southwest wrap 13.00.

Dinner (most with two sides) — KC Strip, 12 oz. 24.00 · Shrimp dinner 18.00 · Pork chops 18.00 · Smothered chicken 15.00 · Chicken strip dinner 14.00–15.00 · Fish & chips 15.00 · Country fried steak dinner 14.00 · Liver & onion 14.00.

Soup and salad — Grilled or crispy chicken salad 15.00 · Chef’s salad 14.00 · Mexican salad (tortilla bowl with chili) 14.00 · Side salad 10.00 · Homemade chili 6.00 · Homemade soup of the day 5.00.

Appetizers — Chicken quesadilla 13.00 · Onion rings 9.00 · Chili cheese fries 8.00 · Fried mushrooms or pickles 6.00.

Kids’ menu (12 and under; includes a drink) — all 8.00; Senior Citizen’s Choice 9.00.

Sides — Bacon / sausage / ham steak 5.00 · Fruit cup 3.50 · Sweet potato fries 3.50 · Vegetables of the day 3.50 · Hash browns 3.00 · Toast 2.00 · One egg 2.00.

Dessert — Strawberry shortcake 6.00 · Vanilla ice cream 3.00. Pies are bought in from Golden Boy Pies, Overland Park, and are not itemized on the ordering menu.3

Beverages — Juice, hot chocolate, cappuccino, milk, chocolate milk 4.00 · Soft drink 3.50 · Coffee, hot tea, iced tea 3.00.

Kansas Travel records a 3.5% credit-card surcharge in the dining room. This is not restated on the ordering site and is **** for 2026.3

Note: the TripAdvisor and Yelp links published in the first-party site footer point at the closed Ottawa location, not Olathe. They are not reproduced here.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Old 56 Family Restaurant — first-party online-ordering menu, olathe.old56familyrestaurant.com (own domain; Menufy white-label ordering, location id 10499) (accessed 2026-08-13; menu data read from the site’s own menu feed, api.menufy.com/v1/locations/10499/categories/all). Asserts: every item name and price transcribed in the Menu section; category structure (Egg Fare, Omelets, Short Orders, The Healthy Option, Breakfast Sides, Appetizers, Soup & Salad, Burgers, Sandwiches, Dinner, Wraps, Kids Menu, Sides, Dessert, Beverages); free egg-beater substitution; “Make any burger double meat and double cheese for just $3.00”; homemade chili and biscuits; soup of the day published as “call to ask for selection.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Old 56 Family Restaurant — first-party location record served to its own site (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: address 912 S Chestnut St, Olathe, KS 66061; phone (913) 390-9905; business hours Monday–Sunday 8:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.; accepting carryout and delivery; description text “Welcome to Old 56 Family Restaurant in Olathe, Kansas! We serve Country Fried Steak, Chili Cheeseburger, Grilled Chicken Salad, Chicken Quesadilla, and more! Find us at the corner of Old 56 Highway and Chestnut Street. We’re by Veterans Memorial Park!”; accepted payments Credit, Cash, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo; social-link block pointing to Ottawa-location TripAdvisor and Yelp pages. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. “Old 56 Family Restaurant — Olathe, Kansas,” Kansas Travel (kansastravel.org) (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: opened 1972; building began as a Waid’s Restaurant in 1965; “the restaurant feels like it is still in the 1960s… not like it is retro, but that it is unchanged”; menu and hours both shorter than on the author’s first visit in 2008; breakfast served all day; smothered chicken breast and grilled beef liver called out as non-chain dishes; pies bought in from Golden Boy Pies of Overland Park rather than baked in house; 3.5% credit-card surcharge; the former Ottawa, Kansas location has closed; author’s most recent visit July 2020 (pork chops and liver & onions, iced tea served with an iced-tea spoon). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Old 56 Family Restaurant — Locations page (accessed 2026-08-13). Asserts: one location only — Olathe, 912 S Chestnut St, (913) 390-9905. ↩

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/old-56-family-restaurant · record updated 2026-08-13