Kountry Kitchen to rebuild on College Ave after devastating 2020 fire

INDIANAPOLIS — More than two years after a fire destroyed its original location, Kountry Kitchen is getting ready to break ground on a new building on the north side of Indianapolis.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday near East 19th Street and North College Avenue. Construction is expected to last about eight months.

In January 2020, a two-alarm fire badly damaged the restaurant at 1831 N. College Ave. The owners, Cynthia and Isaac Wilson, were forced to close the North College Avenue location.

But in November 2020, they reopened catering and carryout from inside the Ruckus Building at Massachusetts Avenue.

In 2016 - four years before the fire - Kountry Kitchen received a grant from Insight Development for $400,000 for the expansion of their restaurant - which included adding jobs.

Insight Development is the charitable arm of the Indianapolis Housing Agency.

Kountry Kitchen says nearly $200,000 of that grant went unspent and they will use that money now for the new project.

In January 2020, a GoFundMe raised tens of thousands of dollars, including about $40,000 from Colts Owner Jim Irsay, to help reopen.