A new fast-food, drive-thru restaurant will make its debut next week in Brainerd.
Will Garrett and Grady Williams Jr., the local franchisees of three area Guthrie's restaurants, are trying their own restaurant concept on the site of one their former Guthrie's ToGo sites at 5203 Brainerd Road.
Over the past month, the pair have revamped the 1,300-square-foot facility to open their new concept at 10:30 a.m. Monday. The new Time-2-Eat! will offer hamburgers, pita sandwiches, chicken wings, catfish, chicken sandwiches, chicken planks and three different kinds of salad, served in a variety of meal and single-serving options.
Entrees will be priced from $4.99 up to $7.89 and will also include family packs and buckets of wings for group meals. The meals will include options for hush puppies, corn fritters, Texas toast, french fries, cole slaw, banana pudding, cold pies and gallons of tea.
"It's good Southern comfort food served fresh and fast," Garrett said. "This is our own concept we've been working on for some time and we think we should be appealing to a lot of people. Time-2-Eat! means when you are ready to eat, we'll have a great meal for you here."
The menu is bigger than many of the 10 other fast-food restaurants within a block either side of the new restaurant on Brainerd Road.
"There's probably 20 other restaurants all along Brainerd Road, but we think this is unique," Williams said.
Garrett and Williams also operate Guthrie's chicken restaurants on Signal Mountain and in Trenton and Ringgold, Ga. The Brainerd Guthrie's, which opened last year, shut down last month.
The new Time-2-Eat! restaurant is strictly a drive-thru or walk-up restaurant with no indoor seating and it will be open every day from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. with a staff of about 15 employees.
"If this is successful, we hope to try this concept at other locations," Garrett said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.