AMERICUS — Willie and Martha Cutts took a break from service Saturday to hold a ceremony to celebrate the re-opening of Cutts Restaurant. The family-owned and operated eatery was ravaged by fire March 31 and has been closed until about two weeks ago. The fire started after business hours, destroying the kitchen, sweeping into the attic and dining room and leaving the restaurant devastated.  

At around 11 a.m. Saturday, after the morning’s last few breakfast customers were served, family, friends, employees and patrons gathered on the porch  for a moment to reflect on the hardship of the last months and express appreciation for the support from the community. After an invocation, Robert Clay, a friend of Willie “Green” Cutts from his days growing up in Lee County, offered some kind words, commending Cutts on his character and success in life.

Clay told the audience of Cutts’ formative years trading with pennies and nickels at the country store and driving a wagon for a midwife.

“He learned how to be street smart,” Clay said.

Clay said Cutts became one of the biggest farmers in this area of the state and went to Washington D.C. to testify before congress about peanut farming in southern Georgia.

“But like many people, Willie had to give up farming,” Clay continued. “And he started a produce stand.”

That produce stand would evolve into a restaurant where Cutts, along with his wife, would begin serving home-cooked southern food for loyal patrons at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“It’s the biggest business to come to DeSoto since they built the gin 30 or 40 years ago,” Clay said.

Now, five months after the fire, Cutts Restaurant reemerges as a new restaurant in essence. A renovated kitchen full of new equipment and a completely new dining room provide a comfortable atmosphere for loyal customers to dine on the Cutts’ signature southern fare.

Cutts is glad to be back serving the public and making sure that he and his wife are presenting quality food to the people.

“No restaurant operates like we do,” Cutts said. “We get it right out of the garden and it goes into the pot.”

Two good friends to Cutts, Billy Ferguson and Thad Wilkerson Jr., have supplied some land in back of the restaurant where vegetables can be grown. Collards, turnips, okra, jalapeno peppers, peas and butter beans are grown in a garden right outside of the kitchen door.

That is how Cutts got into the restaurant business to begin with. He needed a way to get rid of the home grown produce that he was not selling so, he decided to start cooking and selling it.

“It’s all about quality,” he said.

Now just back into operation, Cutts says that they are still putting the finishing touches on the place, but everything is running smoothly.

“It’s jam up,” Cutts said.