Atlanta residents say goodbye to iconic Buckhead Zesto on Piedmont Road

ATLANTA – An iconic restaurant in Buckhead has shut its doorways for good after serving the neighborhood for greater than six a long time.

Giant crowds gathered outdoors the Zesto on Piedmont Highway Sunday for one remaining goodbye.

Homeowners Jimbo and Leigh Ann Livaditis offered the property to an undisclosed purchaser after they confronted some difficulties staying open – together with the continuing labor scarcity.

“I have been consuming at Zesto since 1959 because it was down there the place the fuel station is now,” longtime buyer Winstone Elston mentioned. “Their foot-longs made me who I’m as we speak.”

This closure follows one other closure of the Atlanta fast-food chain final December. In that scenario, the Zesto on Moreland Avenue in Little 5 Factors closed for good after briefly closing earlier that yr when a big tree fell onto the restaurant.

“We have been right here  the longest of anyone repeatedly working, so I feel everybody simply needs to get one final style of nostalgia,” proprietor Jimbo Livaditis mentioned on Sunday.

Zesto began in 1945 as a subsidiary of the Taylor Freezer Company in Illinois. Named after the corporate’s “Zest-O-Mat” delicate serve machines, John Livaditis opened the chain’s first Atlanta location on Peachtree Highway in 1949 and expanded the menu to incorporate hamburgers – together with its well-known Double Decker.

The house owners say the Zesto situated on United Avenue will stay open.