Diner fills vacant Wendy’s location
Staff writer
Nearly two years after Wendy’s closed in Hillsboro, D Street Diner opened last weekend in the former fast-food building.
Owner Kevin Koehn and his family moved to Hillsboro from Utah in August after he accepted a position making cheese at Jason Wiebe Dairy.
The restaurant business is not new to him.
Koehn previously owned and operated a restaurant in the small Idaho town where he grew up, running the business for 6½ years before moving to Utah in 2014.
When he moved to Hillsboro, he learned the former Wendy’s building was available and saw an opportunity.
“When I saw that building there, and then I saw it come up for sale, I called the Realtor and started looking into it,” Koehn said. “It kind of just evolved from there.”
The building has been the subject of speculation since Wendy’s closed its Hillsboro location late in 2024. At one point, discussion focused on the possibility that owners of 56 Family Restaurant in Galva might expand into the property. Koehn heard similar reports but was not involved with those plans.
Instead, he saw an opening for a type of restaurant he thought Hillsboro lacked.
“The older generation especially, they want a place they can go sit down and eat some American food,” Koehn said.
D Street Diner serves breakfast and lunch. On theimenu is Midwestern comfort food and traditional diner staples.
Breakfast selections include eggs, hash browns, pancakes, waffles, omelets, biscuits and gravy, and chicken-fried steak, while lunch features roast beef, hamburgers, open-faced sandwiches, and other familiar American eats.
Many of the offerings are based on dishes served at his previous restaurant in Idaho, though the focus remains on simple, recognizable meals rather than specialty cuisine, Koehn said.
Koehn hopes to eventually expand into dinner service as operations become established and staffing needs are met.
Community interest has been strong since opening, he said, though the restaurant is still working through the challenges that come with launching a new business.
“There are so many people that were excited about it, and they all wanted to come in right away and try the place,” Koehn said. “We’ve just got to tell them, ‘Hey, we’re limited here. It’s going to take us a while to get the food out.’”
For now, Koehn’s goals are simple.
“Happy employees and happy customers, and enough money to cover the bills, at least,” he said.
D Street Diner is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday.