The Snack Shack on Johnson Drive

The Snack Shack on Johnson Drive is a family-run smash-burger stand in downtown Mission, in the little Valentine diner at Johnson Drive and Beverly that has sold burgers since the 1960s — Whopper Burger, then Town Topic from 1985 to 2020. Matt Tolle and Rayna Andrew-Tolle opened the original Snack Shack on Santa Fe Drive in downtown Overland Park in 2011, bought the Mission building when Town Topic did not reopen after the pandemic, and moved the whole operation — flat-top, jukebox and memorabilia — three miles north in April 2022. Diner-style smash burgers with diced onion, fries, onion rings, deep-fried “Sweet Corn Nuggets,” shakes and floats, under a 20-foot pole sign the city has designated historic.

Description

The building is the reason to start here. It is a Valentine Diner — one of the prefabricated steel diners built in Wichita — and still carries the plaque inside that marks it as a historic structure; city documents trace a burger stand on the corner to at least 1968, when it was Whopper Burger, and Town Topic ran its Mission satellite there from 1985 until the pandemic closed it in 2020.¹² Town Topic’s owner Scot Sparks told the city the 20-foot pole sign out front had never been altered beyond the vinyl in its frame, and that the diner kept its Valentine wall safe, counter and stools, and jukebox; the Mission Planning Commission granted the sign historic designation in May 2022, and it now reads Snack Shack.²¹

KC Magazine’s Martin Cizmar, writing just after the move: the Tolles “brought not only their own memorabilia, but their own well-seasoned flat top to the space which has the feel of a classic small-town burger joint. Sipping a caramel shake and smashing one of their diner-style burgers while the jukebox plays ‘River of Dreams’ or ‘Midnight Train to Georgia,’ you’d think Snack Shack has already been there for a generation.”³ The smash burger comes with lettuce, diced onion, tomato, pickle and — for fifty cents — cheese, with ketchup and mustard on request; KC Magazine’s 2025 smash-burger roundup singled out the diced onions for “equal distribution.”⁴ The Sweet Corn Nuggets (“think: deep-fried corn pudding”), fries, onion rings, ice cream, shakes and floats carried over from the Overland Park menu; the old “sassy burger” was dropped as a menu item but can be assembled by adding mushrooms and Swiss.³[^jcp-2021]⁵ Supply-chain trouble in 2022 pushed Tolle to source beef from Hertzog Beef, a ranch south of the city — reconnecting, through a retired member of the McGonigle family, with the rancher who had supplied the old McGonigle’s market in the Shack’s early days.³

Ownership and history

We are thrilled to kind of continue the legacy of that.”[^jcp-2021] Pandemic-era back-orders pushed the opening past a late-2021 target, and by March 2022 the plan had changed — the Santa Fe lease talks had stalled because the landlords wanted to sell the building, so the Snack Shack moved entirely to Mission.⁶⁵ After a late-March soft opening it opened officially in early April 2022; Jack Tolle, the manager, said the Mission room gave a better kitchen flow, more lobby space and a walk-up window, and promised, “this is not the last we’ll see of the Snack Shack in Overland Park.”⁵ The Santa Fe Drive storefront became Hummus & Pita that summer.⁷

Cizmar noted that the three-mile move produced two new audiences: loyal Overland Park customers who had never been to Mission, and Mission neighbors who had never heard of the original.³ The sign designation followed in May 2022; Andrew-Tolle wrote in the application that “Snack Shack continues to offer a nostalgic vibe that fits nicely within Mission’s unique culture.”¹ In 2025 KC Magazine put the Shack on its list of the city’s best smash burgers.⁴

Links

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Snack-Shack-on-Johnson-Drive-61556626453596/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesnackshackonjohnsondrive/
• KC2026 directory listing: https://www.kc2026.com/listing/the-snack-shack-on-johnson-drive/18118/

Menu

Status: unverified. No first-party menu is published online (the restaurant posts on Facebook; the former thesnackshackonsantafe.com domain now serves an unrelated site). Items named above are as reported by the Johnson County Post and Kansas City Magazine, without prices.[^jcp-2021]³⁴

Sources

Footnotes

1. “‘Iconic’ Johnson Drive sign that now bears Snack Shack name granted historic designation,” Johnson County Post, 2022-05-25 — Confirms: Mission Planning Commission approval; Valentine Diner origin and plaque; Whopper Burger by 1968; Town Topic purchase 1985 and closure 2020; sign included in the building purchase per Scott Sparks; 20-foot sign “an iconic way finder”; Andrew-Tolle quote. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Sydnie Savage, “Snack Shack seeks historic recognition for burger stand sign,” FOX4 KC, 2022-05-20 — Confirms: address 6018 Johnson Drive, northeast corner of Johnson Drive and Beverly Avenue; owners Rayna Andrew-Tolle and Matt Tolle; Valentine Diner plaque; Whopper Burger ~20 years; Town Topic 1985–2020; building purchased by the Tolles; reopened April 2022; Scot Sparks letter (unaltered sign, wall safe, counter and stools, jukebox). ↩ ↩²

3. Martin Cizmar, “Snack Shack Works Hard to Keep Everything The Same,” Kansas City Magazine, 2022-05-31 — Confirms: 6018 Johnson Dr., 913-381-3200; move from downtown Overland Park into the former Town Topic; owners Matt Tolle and Rayna Andrew; own flat top and memorabilia; jukebox; caramel shake; Sweet Corn Nuggets; Hertzog Beef sourcing and the McGonigle’s connection; customer-crossover observation. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. “Join the revival: slam your way through KC’s best smash burgers,” Kansas City Magazine, 2025-03-07 — Confirms: The Snack Shack on Johnson Drive, 6018 Johnson Drive, Mission, on the list; toppings (lettuce, onions, tomatoes, pickles; cheese +$0.50); diced onions; Facebook link; active March 2025. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. “The Snack Shack on Johnson Drive in Mission officially opens, leaving Overland Park for now,” Johnson County Post, 2022-04-06 — Confirms: official opening after a soft opening; Jack Tolle as manager; better kitchen flow, larger lobby, walk-up window; Santa Fe lease negotiations stalled, landlords wanted to sell; hours Tue–Sun, closed Mondays, posted daily on Facebook; “sassy burger” dropped; quote. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. “Snack Shack moving from downtown Overland Park to Johnson Drive in Mission,” Johnson County Post, 2022-03-01 — Confirms: operations moving entirely to Mission; early-April 2022 opening target; delays from back-ordered equipment; same menu and atmosphere, slightly more room; Matt Tolle quotes. ↩

7. “New Mediterranean restaurant coming to former Snack Shack space in downtown OP,” Johnson County Post, 2022-06-17 — Confirms: Hummus and Pita taking the former Snack Shack space at 8039 Santa Fe Drive in 2022. ↩