Love their sandwiches, but I really wish they'd add a grilled chicken sandwich.

So they signed a 2 year lease on one of the highest rent districts in Brooklyn? Never heard of such a thing.

I go to the one on 5th quite a lot, so I'm happy it's staying but it never looks very busy so hoping this consolidates their business.

7th Ave is so depressing it's not even funny. That new Walk In Cookbook place looks like it hasn't had a single person inside since they opened. Doubtful they'll make it even into the new year.

Their chicken parm is grotesquely overrated and the owners started phoning it in at the 7th Ave location as soon as they opened on 5th. Good riddance.

Oh no!!! yeah, the chicken parm was not great, but their other sandwiches were excellent!

And, the one on 5th Avenue doesn't make my fave sandwich, potato and egg

Serious Eats just last week called it the best chicken parm they've ever eaten:

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2013/09/a-sandwich-a-day-chicken-parm-at-zitos.html?ref=title

No matter how you look at it, this is a tragic loss. Can't comment on the chicken parm, but loved the pannelle, the tuna and the eggplant parm. Nice owners, nice ambiance. Agree: Seventh Ave. is depressing in the Union St. to Ninth St. corridor. Can't imagine why they signed a two-year lease: that was an accident waiting to happen.

Their chickpea something-or-other sandwich and the various sides I tried were nothing but mediocre. I love the look and feel of the place, but they never had anything to bring me in.

All that being said, NOOOOOOOOO! Seventh Avenue is slowly morphing into hell on earth and losing one nicely thought-out establishment isn't going to help matters, especially since it will be replaced with some horrible chain establishment to serve the Methodist people with dead palates.

The Methiditiation of Seventh Ave. continues. Can McDonald's be far behind?

Haven't been back to the place since they stopped taking credit cards. If that changes (or has since changed back) I'll come back. But not until then.

@coffee: Aha, so now we know why they REALLY closed. They lost your business! I shoulda known. You can't pay for a $9 sangwish with plastic! Poor business choice on their part. No wonder they closed.

I figured they would keep this one as their flagship as they expanded. Even if it makes fiscal sense it's pretty a depressing development for the immediate neighborhood.

Who cares what those folks down south get? All they need is a solid location where the customer base willing to pay top dollar for a scrumptious chicken parm is. L'IL SLOPE WARZ loves his ricotta balls as well.

I say everyone moves to the better side. Really, who can afford Talde down there? Some great spots on Flatbush, Dale, and less dumpster diving.

Is a McDonalds far behind? HUH? There is already a McDonalds about a 5 minute walk from Zito's on 9th Street.

All the great new businesses are on 5th Avenue and 7th in the North Slope. Olieng is the best Thai in the neighborhood, highly recommended. And Rose of India is damn good too as is Olive Vine and Pharos and Dada Cafe and the new Paper Source. From Union Street southward on 7th is dead and depressing.

MELTKRAFT save us all

i think saying it est itself as one of the best in the city is a bit of a stretch but oh well. seems strange they are done after two years so i am thinking that there is more to the story. noway you lose a lease after two years

@John Wesley, yes that is exactly what I said. Thanks for making it easier for people to understand.

As saw from Melt's lies yesterday about needing to move equipment when in actuality, they were slapped with 60 points in violations from the Health Department, I'm glad we have blogs like this to at least bring out some of the truth to some of these lying establishments.

I agree something fishy is going on here, no way they did ALL THAT RENO for a 2 year lease.

Did they REALLY spell their business' name SHOPPE (like "Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe")? That is a curse in and of itself.

I actually think the 5th ave. location will benefit from this. That seemed to have established itself more as a delivery and takeout hub, with 7h being the more sit-down place. It's entirely possible that we only really need one Zito's in the neighborhood. 5th could use more sit-down customers.

If you find Zito's overrated, honestly, you should just kill yourself since you clearly lack a brain.

Also, here's a scoop about three months before it comes up on here: Gorilla opening a second location in the old Lululemon space.

I have a bigger restaurant scoop, but I'm sworn to secrecy for the moment.

Ted:

Park Slope stoop announced the Gorilla news weeks ago:

http://parkslopestoop.com/blog/news/gorilla-coffee-opening-second-location-on-bergen-street

I hear that Luke's lobster is coming to 5th Ave.

Heard that rumor about Luke's lobster too. Also heard Parm is opening in Williamsburg and looking at other Brooklyn locales (email them if you want one in Park Slope!) and Xian Famous Foods has also been looking around at spaces too.

You need to write these better quality restaurants and let them know you want them here in the neighborhood. Some think of Park Slope as a far off village of vegan only restaurants so you sometimes need to educate them a little bit.

Luke's would be great, love them.

Once Grand Central Oyster Bar opens this winter, restaurants are going to start flocking to Park Slope. You can already see this starting to happen now. The only thing that's going to help 7th Avenue is when 5th Avenue is totally rented out, there will be overflow onto 7th and then we can hopefully expect a little more quality up there. Just need to create a little bit of a buzz around 7th Avenue with 1 or 2 big openings and things will start to change. Already the block of 7th between Berkeley and Union seems to be getting an upgrade, but there are still 2 empty storefronts where Yogo Monster and Chiles and Chocolate were location. One bigger in there and 7th could have a little bit of a resurgence.

Luke's is rumored to be going in next to Le Pain Quotidien.

Being that they're sharing a kiosk with No. 7 Sub in BK Bridge Park, I'm not surprised.

There've been all sorts of rumors of Manhattan crossovers. Some have panned out. Some haven't.

Big Gay Ice Cream Shop was a rumor I heard a while back for the hood, but that hasn't happened.