WICHITA — Alfredo Cruz Nino is opening his new El Maya in the former Dyne Quik space at 1202 N. Broadway today.
The restaurant is one of the city’s few remaining Valentine buildings– metal, mobile diners that Wichita’s Valentine Manufacturing built between 1938 and 1971.
As Nino told Have You Heard? last month, he plans to serve traditional Mexican fare plus other dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Sundays will have an abbreviated schedule.
WICHITA — There’s good news and bad news on North Broadway, depending on your perspective.
If you like Mexican food, you’re in luck. Alfredo Cruz Nino is opening El Maya in the former Dyne Quik space at 1202 N. Broadway.
Richard Jack closed the restaurant in its last incarnation – Lil Joe’s Dyne Quik — in January.
Nino plans to serve traditional Mexican fare plus other dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Sundays will have an abbreviated schedule.
So what’s the bad news?
History buffs may not appreciate that the letters on the old Dyne Quik sign not only are down but also destroyed.
“Yeah, they all broke when we took them off,” says Esteban Tavaros, who will work at the restaurant.
Dyne Quik is one of the city’s few remaining Valentine restaurants – metal, mobile diners that Wichita’s Valentine Manufacturing built between 1938 and 1971.
It’s not clear how old the letters on the sign were, but Tavaros says there wasn’t much hope of saving them.
“They were really, really, really old.”
“I must say I am glad to see a new future for the place that was my grandma’s pride and joy for many years!!!”
– Michael Kasselman’s e-mail about his grandmother, former Dyne Quik owner Marie Shoemaker, and how Richard Jack and his family have restored the restaurant at 1202 N. Broadway
WICHITA — At long last, the Dyne Quik at 1202 N. Broadway is going to reopen.
It’s been closed since 2008.
It looked like it would reopen a couple of times since then, but it didn’t work out.
Now, Richard Jack and his family are planning an April opening.
They’re “shooting for April 1,” he says, “but that might be a pipe dream.”
Jack says they’re “cleaning and repairing . . . and cleaning a little more.”
Dyne Quik is one of the city’s few remaining Valentine restaurants — metal, mobile diners that Wichita’s Valentine Manufacturing built between 1938 and 1971.
“I’m trying to . . . make it original as possible,” Jack says.
He is slightly changing the name, though. He’ll call it Lil Joe’s Dyne Quik after his 7-year-old son.
That’s even though he accidentally filed everything for the business under the name “Quick” instead of “Quik.”
Eventually, Jack will restore the well-known sign in front of the business.
“It’s number 65 on my list to fix.”
Right under the “Dyne Quik,” Jack will restore the words “drive in coffee shop,” which may slightly confuse customers.
WICHITA — Diners are wondering, when will the Dyne Quik at 1202 N. Broadway reopen?
“It should be open by mid-January,” says owner Efrain Torres. “Everything’s ready. It’s ready to go.”
Dyne Quik is one of the city’s few remaining Valentine restaurants — metal, mobile diners that Wichita’s Valentine Manufacturing built between 1938 and 1971.
The last Dyne Quik owner closed in 2008. Efrain has been struggling to reopen it.
“I lost $200 already trying to open it without those rest rooms,” Torres says of some handicap-accessible rest rooms he needed to install.
He says even though the restaurant could open now, he decided not to pay more money only to be licensed for the last part of this year.
“I said, nah, I’ll just wait.”
Torres has surgery scheduled for early January, but he wants to open anyway.
“I might have somebody else just go ahead and run it.”
WICHITA — Efrain Torres, who is reopening the Dyne Quik at 1202 N. Broadway, says he can’t open the restaurant until he upgrades the rest rooms.
He says that contrary to what he said last week, the previous owner simply retired and sold the restaurant. His closing had nothing to do with the rest room situation.
“I don’t want him to be unhappy,” Torres says of the former owner. “We do apologize.”
WICHITA — A year after closing, a new owner is making plans to reopen the Dyne Quik diner at 1202 N. Broadway.
“It’s tradition,” says Efrain Torres. “I used to eat there when I was a little kid.”
Dyne Quik is one of the city’s few remaining Valentine restaurants – metal, mobile diners that Wichita’s Valentine Manufacturing built between 1938 and 1971.
Torres says the restaurant’s previous owners had to close it because the building didn’t have proper restroom facilities. There was only one restroom, and it wasn’t handicapped accessbile.
He says he’s putting in two handicapped-accessible restrooms. Also, Torres says he’ll reupholster Dyne Quik’s dining seats “because they’re so old.”
Otherwise, he says, everything will stay the same.
Look for Dyne Quik to reopen late this year or in early 2010.