Sweet Tea Restaurant, a meat-and-three cafeteria-style restaurant with a Greek flair in Birmingham’s Midtown district near UAB, has closed for good.

The restaurant announced on March 23, 2020, that it was closing temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, but it never reopened.

In recent weeks, the building at 2205 Third Ave. South has been posted with signs that say it is available for leasing.

Its fans long held out hope that it would re-open, but that’s not going to happen.

“They shut down during COVID, then started to renovate, then decided to sell it,” said Champ Stewart, associate broker and a sales and leasing representative for Longleaf Realty Partners.

Claude Tindle, managing partner of Longleaf, and a business partner bought the Sweet Tea building and plan to lease it out, Stewart said.

Greek-born restauranteur Chris Tomaras opened Sweet Tea Restaurant in 2011 at the corner of Third Avenue South and 22nd Street. It quickly became known for quick and efficient service and a wide variety of Southern dishes and desserts. Its meat-and-vegetables steam table, with favorites like Greek-style baked chicken, reminded many fans of the fare at Niki’s West, one of Birmingham’s most popular restaurants on Finley Boulevard, but diners could get to it without leaving the UAB area.