Local bowl, wrap, and salad spot Gusto! has closed its location in West Midtown after about seven and a half years in business. The restaurant, located behind IKEA near the intersection of Northside Drive and 17th Street in West Midtown Center (530 17th Street), officially closed July 31.
The restaurant informed patrons the day of the closure. No reason was provided.
When the roughly 1,400 square foot restaurant first opened on January 15, 2019, it was to be joined not only by other shops and restaurants, but by a large-format Kroger grocery store. The West Midtown location was incredibly compact in comparison to other locations and piloted the chain's controversial move to prepackaged chips. The grocery was delayed several times before being scrapped altogether with Kroger selling the property to a multifamily developer.
The West Midtown unit marks the second closure since March 2025 for the Atlanta-based brand. The company closed its custom-built, drive-thru location in Athens on March 15, 2025 after opening it April 28, 2022. It was later replaced by a Shake Shack.
Nate Hybl opened the first Gusto! at 1935 Peachtree Road in Brookwood Village shopping center on October 31, 2014. In the years since, the brand expanded to a peak of fourteen traditional locations in Georgia plus a ghost kitchen in Dallas, Texas.
In addition to the Athens and West Midtown closures, it seems that the ghost kitchen unit which opened in August 2024 within Commerce Fork Food Co. has also closed.
Overall, the value proposition at Gusto! has deteriorated over the years, highlighted by the fact that the standard bowl once included fresh chips, then prepackaged chips, but is now sold as just the bowl with the (prepackaged) chips available for an additional 75 cents. The bowl category in general has also become incredibly crowded with many concepts vying for the same business.
Following Gusto's closure, West Midtown Center is still home to several food options including McAlister's Deli, Zaxby's, Blaze Pizza, Chipotle, and Dunkin'.
For its part, Gusto! continues to operate twelve locations across the greater metro Atlanta area including its newest unit in Sharpsburg, which finally opened after several unexplained delays in May 2025.
In metro Atlanta, Gusto's area locations include those on Peachtree Street near Piedmont Hospital, Downtown near Georgia State, and on Ponce de Leon Avenue near Ponce City Market.
Are you surprised to see Gusto! close in West Midtown? What would you most like to see open in place of Gusto! in West Midtown? What are your overall thoughts on the current Gusto!?
Please share your thoughts below.
1 comment:
I never understood how that place still exists!!
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