Remembering Zesto

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Here's the text about Zesto from my book "The Baby Boomer's Guide to Growing Up in the Rocket City."

Zesto - The greatest feature of the Five Points Shopping Center was Zesto. I remember ordering “dip dogs” at the side window and standing there while they cooked in the deep fat fryers. The heat and smell and vaporized grease rolled out the window and into my face as I waited. It didn’t take most people long to figure out you needed to let the things cool down some before you bit into them.  

Roy Jones started Zesto in 1948, but most of us remember Houston and Alma Goodson, who owned Zesto from 1950 to 1975. Mr. Goodson coined the names of the ever famous "dip dog" and the "Zesto burger." They served the first soft serve ice cream in Huntsville, and there were lines that wrapped around the block to sample this wonderful new treat when it first appeared. The soft serve ice cream cones that were dipped into chocolate to make a hard chocolate shell were called “dip cones.” 

I don’t think that I ever thought about Zesto being a franchise, but it was. Around 1946, L.A.M. Phelan developed the Zest-O-Mat freezer for Zesto Dairy Products. The first Zesto Frozen Custard store opened in Evansville, Indiana in 1949. The freezer that made the soft serve ice cream was the source for the franchise name. At one time there were 50 Zesto locations throughout the United States. While it was franchised for the soft serve ice cream, the rest of the menu that we loved originated in our Huntsville Zesto. 

The 1955 Sesquicentennial Commemorative Album says, “The Zesto Drive-In is located at 719 Pratt Avenue. Here ice-cream, sandwiches, cold drinks, and other snacks are sold to patrons. As a special feature, picnic tables and benches beneath tall trees are available to accommodate customers.”

It started out with only walk-up service and had two windows on the front and one on the side. He got the idea for the outside tables and chairs after a visit to Paris, and came up with his version of sidewalk cafes. 

  Dip dogs and Zestoburgers cost 15 cents each in those days. Jim McBride remembers that Zesto was the first stop on his paper route and he never collected one dime from them. “I may have been the only 12-year-old with a tab back then,” reflects Jim. At the end of the week he usually owed them more than the 40 cents the paper cost. 

Pat Goodson says, “I worked at Zesto in the summers during junior high with my dad, Houston Goodson.  The Lee High band members would come by after practice and I had fun flirting with them.  Dad was a tease and had great fun telling customers that he couldn’t marry me off (at age 14!)”

Pat says her dad was always trying new things.  At one point he sold frozen cupsicles, which were made of Kool-Aid frozen in a cone-shaped cup.  He advertised that he would put wrapped-up silver dollars in some of them. The Health Department soon stopped that!

Pat loved Zesto burgers (hamburgers on a stick with mustard) and onion rings.  However, by far the best seller and most famous was the dip dogs.  Her dad had figured out his own recipe for them after quitting the Kwiki Dog franchise.  Pat’s brother Bill, who worked at Zesto in the early days, remembers a man in a suit coming up one day and ordering a Kwiki dog.  Bill, having been well coached, responded, “We don’t have Kwiki Dogs, but we do have dip dogs!”  Bill is sure that the man had been a Kwiki dog representative.

On New Years Eve of 1965, while Pat was still in high school, a fire started in a deep-fat fryer and burned Zesto, doing about $10,000 damage.  Her dad left a sign on the door saying, “You’ll miss these dipped dogs and I’ll miss you.”  He reopened an enlarged Zesto in April of 1966 with added counter service and inside booths.  He dropped the Zesto franchise, since he had been paying them 20 cents for every gallon of ice cream he sold, and bought a new ice cream maker.

The Wayback Machine

Here's my musical tribute to Zesto.

"Dip Dogs From Zesto's"

Music Created By Tommy Towery With AI Music Generator

[Verse]

Zesto's sign flickers neon blue

Soft serve dreams in a cone for two

Dip-dogs served hot on a stick

Oh so true

[Chorus]

Zesto's at Five Points

On summer hot days

Dip Dogs and fries was an appetite crave

They're gone forever

But I can still taste

Dip Dog memories I can't erase

[Verse 2]

After school

We'd gather there

Hamburgers sizzled in the afternoon air

On a date

We'd laugh without a care

[Prechorus]

Cokes and shakes

And a ice cream swirl

French fries shared with the prettiest girl

[Chorus]

Zesto's at Five Points

On summer hot days

Dip Dogs and fries was an appetite crave

They're gone forever

But I can still taste

Dip Dog memories I can't erase

[Bridge]

The jukebox played

Our favorite track

Time froze

But it never came back

Outside tables

Ketchup stains

Echoes of great times there still remain

I asked you to rate a song last week and 19 out of the 306 emails I sent out responded. The highest rating of 10 was made by 42% of the responders, with no one giving it a one, but 2, 3, and 4, got one response each. You will see above that I have continued with my AI songs this week, so we will see how it does. 

I want to emphasize that these songs are done for fun and not meant to be serious. Think back about songs like "Witch Doctor", "Purple-People Eater", "Haunted House", and "Monster Mash". They were fun songs and never meant to compete with the serious ones we listened to.

Last Week's Song Rating

"Bench Seats and Moonlight"

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Richard "Ricky" Simmons, LHS ‘64, "My first car was also a 1953 Ford, 2 door sedan, with flat-head V8, 3 speed with over drive.    Had to repaint a rusted hood (with a brush) and put in some floor, recover the seats. Not much of a looker but it was mine."

Anonymous, '66, "All around great issue!!"

Darla Steinberg , LHS ‘66, "I must admit the possibilities of AI frighten me. Yes, it has wonderful possibilities. But… both of my daughters are teachers…one high school, one college…and they are already dealing with issues with their students using Ai improperly. Who knows what problems will rear their ugly heads with this powerful tool?"

Delores McBride Kilgore, LHS '66,  "Thank you, Tommy! Our memories are golden! I loved the A-I song! That was amazing!"