Eye Sore No More? Call it Progress at Pizza Verdura

Contribued by John Fleming and the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization 

If you have passed by the old Zesto building at the corner of McLendon and Moreland, you may have noticed some welcomed activity. 

Workers have been in and out of the property (slated to become Pizza Verdura Sincera, a vegan establishment) and the chain link fence has been removed. The too-full dumpster, heaped with all manner of debris, including mattresses, has been emptied at least once. The tags and the overall unkemptness remain, but if you squint your eyes a bit, you can see how things are being tugged in a happy direction. 

But what, you might ask, is the ultimate destination of this place? What will it be, and perhaps more importantly, when will it arrive?  

Well, that's what we've been trying to confirm for a while now. That is to say, the CPNO seeks to understand what Pizza Verdura will be like and when it will open its doors, or at least when a thoroughly unappealing local building might be made shiny again. 

Recently, after banging on some virtual doors and making a few phone calls, Verdura co-owner David Smith agreed to show this reporter around the property, detailing improvements, detailing frustrations with various permitting departments and overall bureaucracy and venturing a timeline for opening the restaurant. 

If it were up to him, Smith said, his work would be complete and he would be ready to open in a matter of weeks. 

“But the bureaucracy is a different story. That can mean a delay of weeks or months,” he said. After a pause, he added, “sometime in 2024.” 

That, of course, was the big question of the day. The other one put to Smith was why the property had been allowed to fester since he and business partner Paul Jones went under contract in 2021.

Complaints from neighborhood residents have been many and loud, voiced both casually and during CPNO Member Meetings. 

When Smith appeared before CPNO members in the summer, seeking support for a liquor license, he was peppered with questions and comments about the appalling condition of the property, with some residents pointing out the lack of work happening at the site. For many residents, the wait has stretched toward eternity. 

But in the restaurant world, what is a reasonable amount of time for an owner to renovate a building and get the required permits? In other words, has Smith’s and Jones’ journey to get Verdura off the ground been typical? 

In short, no. 

Of Permits and Grease Traps
“This is not typical,” Karen Bremer, the president and CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association, said. 

However, she also pointed out that since the pandemic, many “city and county government agencies are trying to get back on track.” Additionally, she said there is an effort to streamline the permitting process at the city, county and state levels and this has actually led to further delays for a lot of business owners. 

“I am a former restauranteur,”  she said. “The permitting and licensing in Georgia has always been challenging.”

Still, Bremer said it should not have taken this long. 

It’s that bureaucratic complexity, the pushback, that Smith blames for the property sitting idle for so long.

His answer during this summer’s Members’ Meeting was and remains: “Without building permits, we couldn’t do anything.” 

This story of bureaucratic frustration is long and complicated, involving the City of Atlanta, (which Smith describes as, “passable, but unspectacular, in terms of the timing of inspections for construction”) but also DeKalb County and a particular office there that looks after grease traps. 

Smith explained that the new restaurant will have no gas appliances, will cook no animal products and will use one large electric oven to prepare its all-vegan dishes. Therefore, he said, there will be no need for a grease trap. 

This, apparently, led to much confusion with the county, which looked at the former restaurant — a burger and fries landmark — and incorrectly assumed the grease traps would stay. 

“We don’t need them, but it was impossible to convince Dekalb County of that because Zesto had them.

“I know how frustrated the neighborhood was about the delay, “ he said. We were frustrated too. It cost us $10,000 a month to keep this project going.”

(In case you want to have a closer look at what is involved: Here’s all you need to know about grease trap permitting in
DeKalb County.)

Casual Craft
So then, what about the new restaurant? 

Smith and his partner are not new to the restaurant business. In the past, they have joined forces to create El Super Pan at Ponce City Market and SmoQ’n Hot Grill in Midtown, among others. The new restaurant, Smith says, will be Italian, something he’s calling “casual craft food.” 

“This is not going to be a place for cheap PBRs,” he said. “You will see certified organic, certified non-GMO and kosher [options].” For drinks, craft beers will be on offer, along with Italian wines, “reds, pinks, whites and fizzies.”

As for the new space, Smith explained that Zesto was a take-out restaurant, with a counter close to the front windows. Decatur architect Jay George drew a design for Pizza Verdura that will seat more than 40 people and will “triple the perceived volume with the new design,” according to Smith. This, he said, was achieved by having seating on the perimeter, a few seats at a small bar at the chef’s station and raising the ceilings.

Before the purchase, Zesto was severely damaged by a fallen tree. The rear, southeast wall was crushed and the roof was punctured in numerous places. Those repairs were made many months ago. Other improvements include making the bathrooms ADA compliant and installing new HVAC, electrical and plumbing systems, plus improving the drainage on the mostly flat roof. 

As he walked out into a sunny day and stood on the corner of Moreland and McLendon, Smith detailed the permitting process and his frustrations, but also how much he had learned about the area. 

“We learned so much about this part of town, especially when we went through the liquor license process and we had to talk to Candler Park and Inman Park. That process was a good reminder to me that this area is more than just Little Five Points. It’s the neighborhoods too and they have different wants and personalities.” 

So, has it been worth the $10K per month, the tussles over the non-existent grease traps, the constant permitting? 

“We feel as good or better about our decision to purchase this property today as we did when we put the earnest money down,” Smith said.