The family of The Grinder Man founder Paul Doyon plans to keep the restaurant going following Doyon’s death at age 89 in late April.
But they’re still figuring out the details: The restaurant is tied up in probate for now, and while the family works with an attorney to sort that out, the restaurant’s manager of 42 years will keep The Grinder Man going.
“I just want to see the legacy go longer than what it did,” said Doyon’s youngest son, Bryan. “I’d like to at least see it go until he would have turned 100 or something.”
At its height in the 1980s, The Grinder Man had restaurants all over Wichita as well as in Arkansas City, Winfield, Lawrence and Ponca City, Oklahoma. Derby also had one at 130 N. Baltimore in the mid-1970s. The Pawnee restaurant opened in 1981 and occupies one of only two still-operating Valentine Diners in Wichita. (The other is Sport Burger at 134 N. Hillside.)…