Amy Fuentes and her husband, Bert, are working to renovate the former In and Out Pizza — later Rocky’s Jamaica Sunrise — building owned by George Ling on Cusick Street across from the Blount County Public Library to open Rustic Sunrise Restaurant this summer.
“It’s going to be a full-service, homemade comfort food restaurant,” Fuentes said. Her husband’s Puerto Rican recipes may also appear on the menu, she added.
“We’ve been looking at this building for two years,” Fuentes said, sharing childhood memories of the area where she grew up.
This is the couple’s second restaurant venture. They started with 254 Underground Kitchen, which later became Bert’s Family Kitchen, in Foothills Mall. They outgrew that space and moved into a former Buddie’s Barbecue location on Alcoa Highway, where they learned their hardest lessons.
“I was in love with that space,” she said of the Alcoa Highway location, where they operated for only one year. “We thought it was going to be amazing, but nobody stops on Alcoa Highway. It took all of our money. Yeah, it was a bad move.”
Battle-hardened, the couple is now working through plumbing problems at their new location and establishing the look and feel of the restaurant. They hope to open by June 1.
