Zesto's and Little Five Points (Clermont, Buckhead: how much, hotel, house)

[2peaches2oranges]

I finished high school at Bass High in L5P in 1986 and used to walk to Zestos for lunch every once in a while, other days I would browse Sevanada and the many thrift stores there. Wow!

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by rswlguy

Thanks ... thought I'd missed something. Last time I drove by I just didn't see the sign. Wasn't it across from the old "Gold Club"?

The Zesto on Ponce was the "diner" style we called "Deco Zesto". Always a hoot after hours.

AS WAS the Dunk 'n Dine (a.k.a. Drunken Swine) on Cheshire Bridge. Think that is gone as well

Fun to reminisce about who/what/when and where!

The Drunken-Dine is now a Landmark Diner...I miss going in there at 4 AM and seeing the drag queens having their coffee and pancakes after the show...

[rackensack]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

The building is there, but it's not Zesto...it's a burrito restaurant, and apparently scheduled for demolition in the Lindbergh Center master plan.

Sorry, but I'm sticking to my guns on this one. The location in question was, as I said above, rebranded as a "Burrito Brothers" a few years ago. They continued to serve Zesto's ice cream items, but downplayed that on their menu and signage and reworked the exterior so that it no longer featured the Zesto logo. As of several months ago, however, they have rebranded it again, going back to the Zesto name and logo. They still have some if not all of the "Burrito Brothers" menu items (as do the other Atlanta area Zestos), as well as the familiar Zesto Chubby Decker, etc. My wife and kids and I stopped in there just six weeks or so ago.

If you need further validation, there's this text from the Zesto Atlanta web site:

We would also like to take this opportunity to announce that the Burrito Brothers restaurant on Piedmont Road is back together with Zesto! Bring the whole family for Chubby Deckers, Burritos, Broasted Chicken or Tacos and we look forward to seeing your bright, smiling faces ordering a banana split as we head into the summer!

As for its status under the Lindbergh Center master plan, I have no information.

[rackensack]

Originally Posted by AllenKarber

Oh,and I've heard Ponce De Leon is not a good place to be!

Depends. While I'm in the burbs now, I lived just down the street for several years, and other than panhandlers never had a problem. But there are lots of folks on Ponce who are failing, in varying degrees, to comport themselves in accordance with conventional notions of hygiene, conduct, and personal responsibility. From Peachtree Road east to the Krispy Kreme at Argonne (? is that right ?) it's fine. From there east to Boulevard/Monroe it's a little dicey. The area immediately around Ponce and Boulevard/Monroe, including the Zesto's, can seem a little off but isn't terrible -- you're going to have some street people around, but you're at least a couple of blocks north of any real trouble. From Zestos eastward you're into relatively new shopping/restaurants/bars/residences on the north side of the street until you hit Barnett. From Barnett eastward, it's increasingly safe (albeit still with lots of oddballs and panhandlers, especially around the Majestic and the Plaza shopping center).

I suppose my tolerance is pretty well developed, but I don't worry about hitting the Zestos on Ponce with my wife and three pre-teen kids, especially in the daytime or early evening hours. Of course, we're driving there and parking in the Zesto's parking lot ten steps from the door, not wandering up and down Ponce.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by rackensack

Sorry, but I'm sticking to my guns on this one. The location in question was, as I said above, rebranded as a "Burrito Brothers" a few years ago. They continued to serve Zesto's ice cream items, but downplayed that on their menu and signage and reworked the exterior so that it no longer featured the Zesto logo. As of several months ago, however, they have rebranded it again, going back to the Zesto name and logo. They still have some if not all of the "Burrito Brothers" menu items (as do the other Atlanta area Zestos), as well as the familiar Zesto Chubby Decker, etc. My wife and kids and I stopped in there just six weeks or so ago.

If you need further validation, there's this text from the Zesto Atlanta web site:



As for its status under the Lindbergh Center master plan, I have no information.

Well, learn something new every day...I stand corrected.
The info re: demolition I got from a condo sales office which has an enormous map of the LC master plan. The entire commercial strip along Piedmont is supposed to go, but they did not offer a timetable on when that would occur.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by AllenKarber

Is the Vortex friendly to "touristy" types? My wife and I are in our mid-to-late thirties,and I think we're still pretty cool. If we will be out of place or looked down on for being uncool,I don't want to go.

It's pretty laid back. We went there for burgers last summer, and the waitress we had was very nice. And she had some really cool tattoos, which I appreciate because my wife is into those a little (I think she has five now).

[plessthanpointohfive]

I would have to agree with rackensack on the state of Ponce. I guess it hasn't changed much since he lived there. I live near there now and it's much the same. The area in front of City Hall East is nicer now that they've got that Home Depot/Whole Paycheck shopping center...and will get nicer whenever they get that Ponce Park development going.

Allen,

You should be fine at The Vortex. It's very laid back and all types of people go there. If they were too nichey they wouldn't get such a good rep for their burgers....and they like that rep. It IS advertised rather as a biker bar and a lot of "bikers" go there. I took my parents there last time they visited (they're in their 60s). And I go there with friends and my husband frequently. I am 33, by the way.

I think you'll enjoy Little 5 Points. I live there and have a kid and a real job, etc, and I love it there.

Oh, and if you REALLY want to do something fun...go to the Clermont Lounge. Google it...

[rackensack]

Originally Posted by plessthanpointohfive

I would have to agree with rackensack on the state of Ponce. I guess it hasn't changed much since he lived there. I live near there now and it's much the same. The area in front of City Hall East is nicer now that they've got that Home Depot/Whole Paycheck shopping center...and will get nicer whenever they get that Ponce Park development going.

Oh, it's changed, but mostly for the better. The Home Depot/Whole Foods/Borders shopping center was still The (failing) Great Mall of China then, there were more sketchy bars and such along the western half of Ponce, The Local and the other restaurants between Ponce de Leon Place and and Bonaventure weren't there yet, except for a burrito place and a Chinese buffet place (where The Local is now), and the west end of the block between Bonaventure and Barnett was still old apartment buildings and houses that have since been leveled and redeveloped as that large condo complex. I lived in what's now the one remaining 1920's-era apartment building on that block, next door to the Fashion Care dry cleaners from about 1990 until a fire upstairs forced me to move elsewhere in 1995.

The south side of the street has been more consistent -- the Ford Factory Lofts were newly developed, with the shops and restaurants on the ground floor, and from there east to Barnett it hasn't changed much -- Green's, Dugan's, the Clermont, and then the vacant lot that's now the end point of Freedom Park and its surrounding park. The one building on the southwest corner of Ponce and Barnett that's now Moe's Southwest Grill was first a liquor store, then a check-cashing place. La Fonda Latina was then Fellini's, and there was a Captain D's where the new Fellini's is now.

Map trivia: I've always gotten a kick out of the fact that Maiden Lane still shows up on nearly every map of Atlanta you'll ever see, despite the fact that it doesn't actually exist. Where it would be was actually the driveway from Barnett into the parking area for the apartments I lived in, but from the west edge of that property over to Bonaventure there's no road -- not even an alleyway. The most recent photos suggest that they've opened it up from the back of my old building to the back side of the new condos. Nevertheless, if you look at any map, you'll see Maiden Lane shown as connecting Barnett and Bonaventure and continuing over to Ponce de Leon Place, looking just as viable as any other side street. Looking at the satellite view, you can see that there are vestiges of it all along that route, but in my time there you most definitely couldn't drive it (there were fences across parts of it). I've seen old fire insurance maps from the first couple of decades of the 1900s suggesting that it was actually in use then.

[plessthanpointohfive]

Wow, I loved reading all that history! Thanks for posting that!

I hope to live where I now live for the rest of my life (and be it a long life) so I hope I have some great memories like that.

I ride my bike to Whole Paycheck a couple times a month....next time I'll check out Maiden Lane. I go to Barnett all the time, but on the other side of Ponce, to go to the Blockbuster that's there.

And this is an aside, but I love the name Bonaventure for a road...

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by plessthanpointohfive

Oh, and if you REALLY want to do something fun...go to the Clermont Lounge. Google it...

Heheh. Yes, it's an interesting place. Not typical at all for that type of establishment.