PARIS — Just two months after closing doors which had stood open to the public for three decades, hundreds turned out for an auction at Shaner’s Restaurant on Tuesday.

The sale featured more than 500 items, from plates, pots and pans to full range grills, mid-century cash registers, industrial meat grinders, signs and mementos from the 29 years the restaurant was in business.

The restaurant, which announced in January it was closing, is slated for demolition and a new, stand-alone Family Dollar store will be built in its place.

Locals and visitors packed the building amidst heaps of white plates, coffee dispensers and serving trays. Outside, cars filled the parking lot, spilling over into neighboring Goodwins Motor Inn.

Bruce Scrimger of Conway, N.H., owns a restaurant equipment supply business and has been servicing Shaner’s for years. Like everyone else, Scrimger said he was looking for a good deal, though he didn’t expect to see so many people.

“I know the items are in good shape. Jack was meticulous about keeping up equipment,’ Scrimger said.

“It’s not the most I’ve ever seen, but for this size of a space it’s a lot of people,’ he said.

South Portland-based Keenan Auction Co. was registering prospective bidders at the door. A representative estimated it would take six to seven hours to sell most of the items.

Outside toward the rear of the building, Belly Busters Food Concessions was grilling food in a converted food truck so people attending didn’t have to travel off-site. When she learned about the event, proprietor Nancy Guptill contacted the auctioneers about catering.

“We had a feeling a lot of people would show up,’ Guptill said.

Assisting Guptill was Oxford resident Barbara Flagg, who believed many locals attended simply to purchase a keepsake from the restaurant’s history.

“It’s always been here. I remember always seeing it growing up,” she said.