Howdy Diner is planned for 902 E. Broadway, a site with a long restaurant history. Owner Sally Kane plans to retain the building’s facade and update its booths, while converting a previously non-customer area into space for a counter, bar and patio, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The paper reports a planned capacity of 130 people and breakfast, lunch and dinner service seven days a week.
A restaurant address with a layered history
The building opened in 1964 as a Sambo’s Pancake House and was designed in the Googie style by Santa Barbara architect Ronald Bergquist, according to the Star’s account of the building. It later housed the Country House and Chaffin’s Diner, then Welcome Diner, which opened in 2016 and closed in 2020, the newspaper reported. Howdy’s proposal would continue the property’s restaurant use while adapting its interior.
The Sunshine Mile boundary is nearby
The address sits in a Broadway corridor with documented historic context, but that context should not be mistaken for a designation of this building. The National Register nomination describes the Sunshine Mile Historic District as extending along Broadway from Country Club Road to just west of Euclid Avenue. It counts 203 resources across the district—149 contributors and 54 non-contributors—but those district-wide figures do not establish the Howdy Diner parcel’s status.
Broadway has also seen major corridor work: RTA Mobility reported that the widening project had reached substantial completion in October 2022. That update concerns the broader project; it does not document a specific effect on the diner, its access or its customers.
Lease and planned service
Kane leased the 3,929-square-foot space at Broadway and Euclid, with Dave Hammack and Rob Tomlinson of Picor handling the lease, the Star reported. A Real Estate Daily News lease roundup also lists Howdy Diner at the address for that amount of retail space. The published plans describe a mix of table service and counter ordering; the reporting reviewed here does not establish an opening date.
