Sweet P's Uptown Corner has had a rough go of it.

The full-service restaurant opened in 2021 coming right off of the scariest part of COVID-19 pandemic. The owners and staff worked for a year to find their footing, until a car crashed into the corner of the restaurant in August 2022. The extensive damage was too much - the owners decided to close.

Nine months later, repairs are nearly complete and the 3029 Tazewell Pike location in Fountain City will reopen by the end of June.

"We really tried to use the time to reflect like, 'OK, let's let's make it better. Let's take care of our customers better,'" owner Chris Ford said. "Since (we) had that hindsight, we've had a chance to try to fix what we think are some things we can do better."

Repairing the corner of Sweet P's Uptown Corner

One of the major renovations to the building was making the now infamous corner safer.

New concrete pylons and a concrete planter have been placed between the building and the road. Ford said a driver now has to "go through the concrete pylons, into a concrete barrier and then into earth" before it touches the building.

Another safety precaution resulted in moving the wall inward by 4 feet. Although it's safer, it resulted in a longer repair schedule.

"It was one of those things where we were pulling a thread on a sweater," Ford told Knox News. "Once we changed the footprint, we had to go through all kinds of inspections with the city, we had an engineer come out, we had to redo the roof. …. It just took a lot longer."

The silver lining? The accident unveiled part of the old brick with "Smithwood Drug Store" painted on it. Sweet P's is incorporating that history into the front of the building.

All that's left now is to finish the new awning, insert the new windows, clean up the inside, set the tables and reopen for business.

Revamping Sweet P's for its reopening

Ford said being closed that long was "taxing" trying to keep everything afloat financially while operating the downtown location, repairing the Fountain City restaurant and training new hires.

"Juggling funds really was the most difficult part of it. Trying to keep our people, trying to keep them working, dealing with insurance hasn't been great, getting paid has been difficult. It's been stressful to say the least," Ford said.

Sweet P's was able to isolate and reopen the kitchen for catering. They helped train staff and provide funds for the building and employee wages. However, Ford said he could always use more cooks.

An aspect Sweet P's is addressing is the menu. There won't be any subtractions, but there will be some additions only in Fountain City. A few new items are sandwiches including a smoked bologna sandwich, salads and brunch. The repair time helped Sweet P's reach consistency with its food and "figure out what Fountain City needs and wants."

Sweet P's moving forward

Ford said the plan is to get Uptown Corner open first and foremost. There aren't any plans for another location, at least for the next two years after both locations are running like a well-oiled machine.

Eyeing the end of June, Ford hopes to see familiar faces at the new and improved Sweet P's Uptown Corner.

"I'm just hoping that we can get some roots here in the community," Ford said. "It's a tight community. We love it. We love this building. We love our landlords. And yeah, we want to be here for 10 years."

Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com. Twitter @specialk2real.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing to knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Sweet P's Uptown Corner reopening soon in Knoxville's Fountain City