Another Door Opens Downtown: Bustin’ A Gut, 135 SE Main Street

Recently, I had what I call a ‘Stepheny kind of day.’

I loved my time with Tanika Bryant, Downtown Development Manager, who gave me a thoughtful tour of the new businesses that have been opening, and those soon to open on Main Street and beyond.

In this blog and upcoming ones, I want to tell you about the doorways I stepped through, the owners I met, the preservation of commercial architecture that is being repurposed.

Prior to this tour I was taking photos on a block I have become interested in. I was thinking of sitting on the curb in front of some boarded up storefronts to have a good cry for myself. (I get impatient and want things to happen yesterday.)

But then Tanika’s good news changed all that. Though I am an inch shorter after the walking, I came away encouraged. Truly encouraged.

What I saw are not tentative efforts, but people, with their new businesses, who have chosen to plant their flag on Main Street, and beyond, with care, energy, and belief.

Now we must do everything we can to support them.

At 135 SE Main Street, Bustin’ A Gut, a Maryland seafood restaurant, has opened its doors. We had lunch there at the end of the tour. I brought my camera in with me, ordered the catfish, and settled in to see what has taken root inside one of Main Street’s early buildings.

I meet the owner, Lamar Blakney, a great addition to the business community. I will meet his partner, Marilyn Bryant, another day.

The catfish was wonderful. The Sweet tea makes my high standard list. This was the kind of meal I could pause between bites, enjoy conversation with Tanika, and appreciate the repurposing of a Main Street historical building.

The place was full, though I took this photograph after folks were gone, as we remained talking. It had been a great showing for a rather new port of call.

The restaurant has already found its rhythm. People have found a nice atmosphere and good food and another brick wall to love.

Consider this my five star review. I’ll be back for sure.

The building itself dates to around 1912, part of a row of early twentieth century commercial structures that gave shape to Main Street as we know it.

Look up, and you will see what time has preserved more faithfully than anything at street level: second story windows set in gentle arches, each one anchored by a granite keystone. Along the roofline, a corbelled brick cornice remains, like a steady line drawn across the years.

There was once a prefabricated metal storefront below, likely from the Mesker Ironworks Company, a name that connected towns like Rocky Mount to a wider national pattern of design. Only fragments remain today, but even those fragments remind us that this street was never standing alone.

The building was known as the Kyser Drugstore. A place of prescriptions, conversations, and the daily rhythms of a town. The family name carries further than one might expect, connected to Kay Kyser, whose music would travel well beyond Rocky Mount.

A drugstore becomes a restaurant. A historic building is saved. Main Street welcomes a new stakeholder in the future of Rocky Mount.

Today, at 135 SE Main Street, I walked through an opened door with thanksgiving for the new life that has been brought to an old building.

We should all be thankful for this good food, a full room, and the unmistakable evidence that things ARE happening one doorway at a time on Main Street and beyond.