Kuntry Kitchen owner: We will rebuild

By: Dave Thompson | The News & Advance
Published: December 31, 2010

RUSTBURG - The structure still stands, but that’s about it.

When a fire ripped through Rustburg’s Kuntry Kitchen restaurant on Thursday night, what wasn’t destroyed by flames was blackened by ashes and warped by heat.

Smoked-up windows now offer no view into the establishment known for its home-cooked style of meals.

But in the back room of the blackened building marked by caution tape, stands a solitary figure – Bernard the butler, a statue that’s been with Josh Hollandsworth since the days of his first restaurant in Glaucester.

“He’s just a good mascot,” Hollandsworth, 31, said.

Bernard is also one of only a few salvageable items from the restaurant, he said. The rest of the décor, which included pictures from his great-grandparents and odds and ends he had picked up from other places, was destroyed.

“The whole front’s gone,” he said. “The roof is still there and the shell is still there.”

The fire broke out about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Campbell County officials said, attributing the cause of the blaze to smoking materials discarded in a trash can in the restaurant.

Hollandsworth had only opened the restaurant just over four months ago.

“It really crushed me pretty bad,” Hollandsworth said.

He already knew his restaurant was popular. Hollandsworth said he would regularly have weekend diners from perhaps an hour away.

But the community reactions, he said, have helped him see just how much his down-home style and welcoming atmosphere have meant.

From other business owners offering to help with cleanup to residents just dropping by the site to see if they could do anything, Hollandsworth said the outpouring has meant a lot to him.

“The community has been very supportive,” he said.

Ken Sowers, of Madison Heights, said he used to eat at the restaurant regularly, when he lived in Rustburg.

Since then, he said, he’s been back a few times.

“It was a good restaurant,” he said, calling it “a landmark in the Rustburg community.”

If Hollandsworth has his way, people won’t be using the word “was” in reference to his restaurant.

“My goal is to get in there and bring it back even better than it was,” he said.

For a timetable, he said, “I’m hoping eight weeks.”

For Hollandsworth, his motivation comes down to his motto: “Live life and love food.”

“I’ve always tried to give people a happy belly,” he said.