FLORENCE — Miss Florence Diner may be for sale, but it isn’t going away.
“In no way is the diner closing,” manager and co-owner John Zantouliadis said Monday at the historic diner.
Zantouliadis said he has wanted to sell the business for a while and that the final decision to do so was an emotional one.
“I was looking to leave this industry years ago,” he said.
Zantouliadis and his parents, Jimmy and Lia Zantouliadis, have run the business, at 99 North Main St. in Florence, since 2003. As of late, the elder Zantouliadises have been unable to be as involved as they were previously.
“I don’t want to run a business without my team with me,” Zantouliadis said of his parents. “It’s simply too much for one person who has two bad arms to do.”
The listing, which offers the business for $199,000, was posted on BizBuySell, an online business marketplace, on Friday.
Zantouliadis said he already has been contacted by two potential buyers since listing the business.
In addition to prospective buyers, Zantouliadis said he didn’t expect the outpouring of reactions on Facebook about the business going on the market. The listing was shared on numerous Facebook pages over the weekend with many people posting fond memories about the diner and saying they wished they could buy it.
The business is doing great, Zantouliadis said.
“We’ve seen a lot of places come and go over the last 15 years,” he said. “We’ve built a good business. It’s far better off than it was 15 years ago.”
Late Monday morning, almost all the diner’s booths were packed as customers young and old sat down to have a meal.
The diner is open almost year-round, and even when he’s on vacation, Zantouliadis said, he’s never truly away from the business. While the work is ever-present, so are the loyal customers who come in sometimes more than once a day to grab a bite to eat.
“That is going to be hard to live without,” Zantouliadis said of the customers he has seen and known every day for the last 15 years.
“In the end, it’s about the customers, not who is owning it,” he said. “They (the customers) tell you what’s good and what not.”
Zantouliadis said he is no longer able to do everything that needs to be done and the diner needs someone who is capable of handling the business.
The diner, situated inside of a classic 1941 Worcester car, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
The sale includes all furnishings except the juke boxes, as well as four weeks of support and training. The building is not included in the sale. It is owned by Florence Family Enterprises LLC.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.
Editor’s note: The headline on this story has been updated to clarify that the building is not included in the sale.