Comfort food is returning to the old Nichols Lunch location on Wednesday, with a new diner featuring dishes like meatloaf with nostalgia on the side.
Sosa’s 39th Street Diner will carry on a diner tradition that began in 1921, when Frank Nichols opened the restaurant at 39th Street and Southwest Trafficway.
Nichols closed in 2006 and Mama’s Diner operated at the site until it closed this year.
Sosa’s features shiny new kitchen equipment with glistening tables, booths and counter stools. It will also have valet parking and serve liquor by the drink, which the other diners did not have.
Anthony Sosa, an owner of the new restaurant, said he was favored to get a chance to move into the historic spot.
“I was blessed,” he said. “There is no other location like Nichols Lunch.”
For decades the original Nichols served breakfasts to crowds that ranged from Sunday church goers to people still celebrating Saturday night. Working people went there for lunches and dinners they could afford.
Co-owner Laura Weiss said they would invoke the nostalgia of Nichols and serve breakfast anytime and have a diner menu that will shift with customers’ tastes.
Included will be classics like meatloaf, Italian and Mexican food and things like fried baloney sandwiches, Spam, and liver and onions, she said.
They also would like to display more historic photographs. They ask people who have photos of the old Nichols Lunch diner or other Midtown history to bring them copies for their walls.
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