The owners of Gus’ Sir Beef — a Southern home cooking restaurant that’s become a Charlotte institution known for its quirky name and "Fresh My Farm Vegetables" sign — announced Monday night that the restaurant is closing for good.
It opened in 1957 and has been at its Monroe Road location for 55 years.
The owners’ Facebook post says the restaurant survived the COVID-19 outbreak with depleted resources, and bad weather this winter led to roof damage that they can’t afford to repair. It says the restaurant, “will not reopen without a blessing from God’s hands.”
Thrace Bacogeorge, the restaurant's primary owner and son of the late Gus' founder Constantine “Gus” Bacogeorge, had closed the restaurant in January while he dealt with a knee injury. He said Monday that he would not be able to reopen the restaurant despite his hopes to do so.
As Charlotte changed around it, Gus' remained the same. Here's an excerpt from a 2021 Charlotte Magazine story about the restaurant:
"There are so many things to know about Gus’. There’s that slogan, “Fresh My Farm,” Gus’s Greek-accented way of saying he grew a lot of the vegetables he served. There’s the fried squash (seriously, who goes without getting fried squash?), with a golden crust that clings to soft, hot circles of yellow summer squash. (Thrace is bound by a family contract never to reveal the recipe. We are bound to suggest you get a side of ranch for dipping.) Thrace calls the most popular order “13-7-11” from the daily specials menu: beef tips, collards, and fried squash.
There are the legends, like the time in 1991 when Elizabeth Taylor came to Gus’. She was at Carolina Place to promote her White Diamonds perfume and told police officer Dennie Crowder, who was moonlighting as her security guard, that she wanted fried chicken. Crowder took Liz and her seventh husband, Larry Fortensky, straight to Gus’."
Read the whole Charlotte Magazine story here: