Zesto, 2300 Decker Boulevard: Mid 2000s 10 comments
I believe this restaurant, on Decker Boulevard in the plaza with Rite Aid and Food Lion, was originally a Burger King. As I mentioned in discussing the vanished USC Burger King, once upon a time, all Columbia area Burger Kings were closed in a franchisee/corporate dispute. I believe that this one closed then and never re-opened.
After Burger King imploded, a Zesto's set up shop. Zesto is a local, greek-influenced fast-food outfit that has a number of locations in town. I believe chicken is their big selling point, but for me it will always be the chocolate dipped soft-serve cones. During the ongoing general flight from the Decker Corridor, this Zesto joined many other Decker restaurants and moved out on Two Notch road. Evidently they did not move far enough out, and with their new fortunes tied to a dying strip-mall, they did not last too long (that building is now a matress store).
Anyway, a couple of years after Zesto left, the current occupant, a Vietnamese "Pho" restaurant set up shop in the building. I've eaten there once, and found the Pho very tasty (admittedly I have no standard of comparison there) though they do limit you to one refill on the ice tea. I could be wrong, but I believe this place may be the only solely Vietnamese restaurant in town.
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UPDATE 4 June 2024: Update tags.
10 Responses to 'Zesto, 2300 Decker Boulevard: Mid 2000s'
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Mr Bill
8 Dec 08 at 3:39 pm
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The Zestos in Lexington just closed -- Food Was Crap!
Kc
8 Dec 08 at 5:25 pm
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Hmm, I didn't even know there was one over there.
ted
8 Dec 08 at 5:30 pm
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I'm an RNE grad from one of the very last classes ('96) allowed to have open-campus lunch. Though I know the campus was closed due to safety concerns, I think it may have contributed to the death of Decker. When I went to RNE there were approximately 1700 students at the school. At that time, if you could find a ride, you could go to any of the fast food joints nearby. BK, Taco Bell, Geno's, and the Egg Roll Station were all popular. The closing of the campus had to have affected their lunch crowds.
aqua-girl
11 Dec 08 at 7:29 pm
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I think kids live much more restricted lives than we did, in the name of making them "safe".
ted
11 Dec 08 at 11:49 pm
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I've always thought that closing the campus probably hurt local business really bad.
Mr Bill
12 Dec 08 at 11:36 am
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What about the old Zestos that was in five points??? Does anyone have photos of it and its big ice cream cone sign?
Melanie Gallant
15 Mar 09 at 10:08 pm
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I plan to do a post on the 5 points Zesto, but I don't have a picture of the old building unfortunately.
However, if you want to see the ice-cream cone -- go to the Triangle City Zesto in Cayce. It's still there!
ted
15 Mar 09 at 10:55 pm
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When that site was a BK, the drive-thru used to be around the building on Sat night, as it was among the very few fast-food places that stayed open really late.
Also, Angelo's Zesto's in Eau Claire was still going strong as of last fall - stopped there on the way to a seminar at Cola College.
doc
31 Oct 09 at 1:19 am
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Angelo's has been there on North Main forever..I know it was there in the early-mid 60's..but does anyone know when it opened? the late 50's or early 60's?
Del
31 Oct 09 at 9:51 am
yep this Burger King served Richland Northeast students well. They closed when all the other BKs did. Zestos didn't last long. For many years RNE had an open campus and this was one of the main hangouts for the students.