Paul's Jr. Drive-In

Paul’s Jr. Drive-In is the revival of Paul’s Drive-In, the 1960s-era burger drive-in at 10th & Osage in Kansas City, Kansas’s Armourdale neighborhood, where cars pull into stalls under a canopy for burgers, onion rings, tenderloins, chicken tenders, malts and shakes ordered from a walk-up window. The original closed during the pandemic; Daniel Macias, who grew up around the founding Smith family, leased the building and reopened it in May 2025 with the same recipes, several of the old crew (including an uncle who has worked there since the 1970s), and a slightly different name. Lines ran four hours at the reopening. It is not affiliated with Paul’s Drive In on Blue Ridge Boulevard in south Kansas City, Missouri, which has had separate owners for years. Open Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Description

Paul’s is a classic mid-century drive-in on the south side of Armourdale, the industrial-residential neighborhood in the bend of the Kansas River. Customers “pull into the stalls under the canopy for onion rings, burgers, chicken tenders and other favorites,” or order at the walk-up window.¹² The Star’s reader-memory piece and FOX4’s reopening coverage are full of the same refrain — parents and grandparents who brought their kids here, sharing a basket because that was what the family could afford.³

The menu is, by the owner’s design, the one the Smiths served: burgers, the tenderloin, onion rings, chicken tenders, milkshakes and malts. “The menu will be the same as it was under the previous owners,” Macias told The Star; “While there are some small changes, Macias said the menu is the same,” FOX4 reported a week after the grand opening.¹³ Reviewers on Yelp rate the single-patty cheeseburger with a basket of onion rings as the order.⁴ No first-party menu with prices has been published.

Ownership and history

The original Paul’s Drive-In at 1008 Osage “has been around since the 1960s.”¹ Its long-time owners were Harry and Mary Smith; Harry died several years before the 2025 reopening and Mary in May 2025, the week before Paul’s Jr.’s grand opening, after watching video of the soft opening.³ The relationship between this Paul’s and the Paul’s Drive In on Blue Ridge Boulevard is murky: Mark Fulbright of the south KC restaurant told The Star that “the previous owner sold the locations off to separate owners,” and that the two “aren’t affiliated with each other, though they share many menu similarities.”¹

The drive-in closed during the pandemic — Macias could not recall whether in 2020 or 2021.¹ Daniel Macias grew up with the Smiths as family friends (“I used to go to the back door and help them out”), formed an LLC in 2024 and tried unsuccessfully to open a restaurant in Argentine; in February 2025 his father told him the Osage building was available.³⁵ He leased it from the property’s owner, sought and received Mary Smith’s blessing, and rehired former staff: his uncle Ricky Lee Macias, a Paul’s employee since the 1970s who knows the recipes, and Lora Ralle, Mary Smith’s niece, who told KC Hispanic News she was fielding twenty inquiries a day about when Paul’s would return.⁵ Macias kept his full-time job as a warehouse manager.⁵

Word leaked on social media in April 2025 and the Armourdale Renewal Association’s Monica Mendez reported an “overwhelming” response (“‘Best news all day,’ ‘Don’t mess with my emotions’”).¹ Soft opening ran the weekend of May 16–18, 2025; the grand opening was May 22, and on National Burger Day the following Wednesday FOX4 found customers who had waited four hours in line.⁵³ The new name, Paul’s Jr., marks the new ownership while keeping the sign.¹ On May 22, 2026 the restaurant’s Facebook page marked “our 1 year anniversary of being open for business.”⁶

The space

1008 Osage Ave, the original canopy drive-in building, leased from a property company; Macias updated the exterior before reopening.⁵¹

Links

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Pauls-Jr-Drive-in-61576826968271/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauls_jr_drive_in/
• Visit KCK listing: https://www.visitkansascityks.com/listing/pauls-jr-drive-in/2032/

Menu

Last verified: — · Source: none first-party · Confidence: —. No menu has been published by the restaurant online; press describes burgers (single and double cheeseburgers), pork tenderloin sandwiches and baskets, onion rings, chicken tenders, milkshakes and malts.¹⁵ Menu status: unverified.

Sources

Footnotes

1. “It’s true: Longtime KC area burger joint is reopening after 4-year hiatus,” The Kansas City Star, April 2025 (syndicated via Yahoo) — Confirms: 1008 Osage Ave; Daniel Macias; closed 2020 or 2021; same menu, new name Paul’s Jr. Drive-In; canopy stalls, onion rings, burgers, chicken tenders; Armourdale Renewal Association quotes; former employees returning; “around since the 1960s”; Blue Ridge location “never closed” and has had separate owners for years; Mark Fulbright on the split; not affiliated. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

2. Visit Kansas City, Kansas — listing “Paul’s Jr. Drive-In.” Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address 1008 Osage Ave, Kansas City, KS 66105; phone (913) 217-7802; “drive-up burger joint with sandwiches; fries & malts dispensed from a walk-up window. Open Monday–Saturday 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM.” ↩

3. Crystal Martinez, “Iconic Kansas City, Kansas burger drive-in reopens,” FOX4 KC, 2025-05-28 (updated 2025-05-29) — Confirms: reopened under new ownership after closing during the pandemic; grand opening the prior week; National Burger Day lines; new owner Daniel Macias, “I grew up with the original owners”; original owners Harry and Mary Smith, Harry died several years ago, Mary “last week”; four-hour waits; same menu; address 1008 S. Osage Ave, Armourdale; hours 10–8 every day except Sunday. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Yelp — “Paul’s Jr Drive-In, 1008 Osage Ave, Kansas City, KS,” page dated August 2026. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: current listing; review snippet “Literally the best hamburger in Kansas City.” Provisional; rating and count not retrievable. ↩

5. Joe Arce and Corey Crable, “Fire up the grill — Paul’s Drive-In, is reopening in KCK,” KC Hispanic News, spring 2025 (undated on page; describes a soft opening “at the end of this week” and a grand opening “tentatively planned for May 22”) — Confirms: “10th and Osage”; closed in 2020; new owner Daniel Macias; LLC formed the prior year; failed Argentine attempt; father’s tip “this past February”; lease from the building’s owner; Mary Smith no longer involved but advising and supportive; uncle Ricky Lee Macias employed since the ’70s; Lora Ralle, Mary’s niece; Macias keeping his warehouse-manager job; menu of burgers, tenderloins, onion rings, milkshakes, malts. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

6. Paul’s Jr Drive-in — Facebook page, as indexed in search results (page itself not machine-readable). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: address and phone (913) 217-7802; post of 2026-05-22 “celebrating our 1 year anniversary of being open for business.” ↩