A sign under the old Zesto sign at 2600 New Walkertown Road says Papa Lee’s Grill is hiring. Owner Lee Price hopes to open March 15.
A new fast-food restaurant is going into the space vacated by Zesto Burgers & Ice Cream at 2600 New Walkertown Road.
Lee Price, a veteran of fast-food restaurants, will be the owner of Papa Lee’s Grill, which he hopes to open March 15.
“It will be fast food. We’ll have hamburgers, footlong hot dogs, five flavors of chicken wings,” he said.
The menu will be broad, like the menu was at Zesto. “It’s going to be a variety of things: birria tacos, fish sandwich, shrimp sandwich. We’ll have vegan burgers, turkey burgers. We’ll have several salads.”
Zesto Burgers & Ice Cream, owned by Goler Community Development Corporation, opened in 2018 but closed during the pandemic. Michael Suggs, the president of Goler, said that Goler still owns the property and thus is the landlord for Papa Lee’s Grill, but it does not have any stake in the new business.
Price said he has known Zesto’s operating manager, Algenon Cash, for years and had helped out at Zesto briefly during its opening months. “We also had worked together years ago at McDonald’s,” Price said.
Price, 52, said, he had been more or less retired before this opportunity came up. He left Bojangles in 2017 after about 10 years with the company. Before that, he worked for McDonald’s for about 20 years.
