When Jimmy Loup and Jim Saunders bought a slice of downtown Maryville in the form of staple restaurant Bella earlier this year, they knew they wanted to give back to the community.
“We just want to be involved with all those things that make Maryville really different and unique,” Saunders told The Daily Times Monday afternoon, Aug. 5.
From a table at the restaurant’s front windows, the pair discussed their history together, other restaurant endeavors and some of their plans for the future of the Broadway establishment. The two acquired Bella in February, but they’ve been in the business together for years, working in anything from steak to burgers.
When Loup found himself looking at the possibility of running Bella, he knew he had to call Saunders. Although the pair have both worked out of Texas for years, Saunders has Tennessee connections through his wife’s family.
“This opportunity came up, and we came and saw the place and loved it,” he said. “I called him and said, ‘I’m not going to do it if you don’t do it with me.’”
Personal touches
This is their first Italian restaurant, but the new owners have kept most of the food menu the same, opting instead to redo a large portion of the bar menu instead. A few of the staple cocktails, such as the old fashioned, have remained the same.
For familiarity’s sake, the new owners haven’t done much to change the restaurant’s interior. They have, however, added a catering option, with service across the entirety of Maryville and even some other areas, such as downtown and West Knoxville.
Instead of shaking things up at the establishment, Saunders said they’ve focused on “elevating” the Bella experience. The two have been working with a chef out of Texas to pack more flavor into the restaurant’s menu — while being careful not to change the tastes guests have grown to love. Menu items like the best-selling Tuscan shrimp pasta, Saunders said, are why people love Bella, but that doesn’t mean they can’t fit some more flavor in tried and true options like the restaurant’s shareable meatballs.
About 99% of the food that goes to the table at Bella was made from scratch on-site.
“The quality aspect is really important to us,” Loup said. “We want to make sure the protein is the right protein, the pasta is cooked the right way and the sauce is seasoned the right way. All those things are really important.”
Community
Some of those Bella flavors come from local sources as well. After eating a meal hosted by local nonprofit Special Growers, Saunders said he immediately began working to get the group’s herbs featured in Bella’s dishes.
As a local employer with about 50 employees, Loup said Bella has an opportunity to give back not only to its community but also to its employees. Restaurant work is often a worker’s first job or one of multiple they’re working at the same time.
“We’ve been in business for such a long time,” he said. “If we can teach and coach them and they leave here with a set of skills that perhaps they didn’t have when they joined us, that’s a really important opportunity for us.”
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