Cathy’s Westway Cafe owner Cathy Hetterscheidt to reopen the Breakfast Club

Feb. 27, 201311:05 a.m.

WICHITA — Cathy’s Westway Cafe owner Cathy Hetterscheidt is reopening the Breakfast Club next month.

“I love this,” she says of running restaurants. “My customers are like family. It’s just fun.”

The Breakfast Club, which was at the southeast corner of McCormick and Seneca, closed several months ago.

Hetterscheidt, whose other cafe is near Pawnee and Seneca, has been working with Breakfast Club landlord Craig Gabel to reopen it.

“He’s kind of mentored me through everything,” she says. “I thought I knew everything when I opened the first one.”

Hetterscheidt’s first restaurant was Cathy’s Diner at Kellogg and Market where the Doo Dah Diner is now.

“I’d waited tables for years and kind of thought I was smart about everything,” she says.

Her current cafe has been open since August. Hetterscheidt says business is “really, really, really good.”

At the Breakfast Club, she’ll serve breakfast food and home-style meals from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and be open 24 hours a day on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, the restaurant will close at 2 p.m.

Hetterscheidt says to look for the Breakfast club to open by the third week of March.

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You don’t say

Aug. 6, 20102:23 p.m.

“Mainly it was in honor of my grandpa I wanted to do this.”

– Cathy Hetterscheidt of Cathy’s Diner, who is holding a fundraiser Sunday at her restaurant to raise enough money to send at least one World War II veteran to see the National World War II Memorial in Washington

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Cathy’s Diner moves into Lilli Mae’s space

July 13, 20106:30 a.m.

WICHITA — Cathy Hetterscheidt is back in the former 54 Diner space at 206 E. Kellogg where she and Judi Young briefly had Lilli Mae’s.

The two had a falling out and Hetterscheidt left to start her own place in the former Takhoma Burger space at 816 S. Broadway, but it didn’t work out.

“It was just a lot more than I bargained for there,” Hetterscheidt says of readying the building.

She says Young invited her back to Lilli Mae’s to help out. Soon, though, Young backed out of the business and Hetterscheidt took over.

The new Cathy’s Diner sign should be up soon.

Hetterscheidt’s plans are the same as they were for the Broadway space — a Coca-Cola theme and a little something to attract people of all ages.

She’ll also begin offering a salad bar July 18.

Hetterscheidt hoped Young would stay.

“I was actually going to try to keep her on as a cook,” she says. “She just decided she didn’t want to be there anymore.”

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Cathy’s Diner to open in former Takhoma Burger space

Feb. 16, 20106:40 a.m.

WICHITA — Cathy Hetterscheidt has left Lilli Mae’s to open her own restaurant.

Last fall, Hetterscheidt and Judi Young opened the country cooking Lilli Mae’s in the former 54 Diner space at 206 E. Kellogg.

Hetterscheidt says the arrangement didn’t work well for her, so now she’s opening Cathy’s Diner in the former Takhoma Burger space at 816 S. Broadway.

“I’m going out completely on my own this time,” Hetterscheidt says.

She says a lot of the customers she used to serve when she worked for Piccadilly followed her to Lilli Mae’s, and she thinks they’ll come to the new diner.

“I have a huge following,” she says.

Cathy’s Diner will be open daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Hetterscheidt says she’ll serve traditional breakfasts along with burgers and specials for lunch.

The front part of the restaurant will be a diner, and within a year Hetterscheidt hopes to open a soda fountain in the back.

She plans to open the restaurant by March 1.

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Lilli Mae’s to open in former 54 Diner

Sept. 15, 20093:03 p.m.

WICHITA — A new restaurant is going in the former 54 Diner space at 206 E. Kellogg.

Lilli Mae’s will open Monday.

“It’s going to be country cookin’,” says Cathy Hetterscheidt, who is opening the restaurant with Judi Young.

The diner closed after just a few short, troubled months earlier this year. Owner Robert Potter said he planned to reopen but then died in March.

Previously, he operated his R&S Barbecue in the space.

Hetterscheidt and Young used to work together at Piccadilly, but each wanted her own place.

“Every time I go out to eat, I always think, man, where can I go get some mashed potatoes and real gravy and country cooking?” Hetterscheidt says.

That’s why they’re going to offer what she calls “a country way of cooking.”

Hetterscheidt and Young, who will be the cook, will offer breakfast and lunch from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily in the 65-seat restaurant.

Breakfast will be served the entire day.

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