INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The scene sent shock waves through one local community.

The iconic Kountry Kitchen restaurant in the Kennedy-King neighborhood just north of downtown burned for more than an hour just after midnight Friday.

The big question many are asking: What happens to the restaurant now?

“This is rough and until you go through it, you really don’t know. It’s rough, it’s been hard on us,” said Cynthia Wright-Wilson, owner of Kountry Kitchen Soul Food Place.

More than 30 years of memories fill the Kountry Kitchen.

“We have people that come just to eat from Ohio. We have people that travel from Chicago just to eat,” Wright-Wilson said. “They’re important to us.”

Known for their pork chops, neck bones and fried chicken, this soul food place has been around since 1988. Celebrities including then-Sen. Barack Obama and “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon have dined at the restaurant. Just a couple weeks ago, the staff fed the needy on Christmas Day.

“We turn to God,” Wright-Wilson said. “He’s going to be our strength.”

Early Saturday morning, Wright-Wilson and her husband, Isaac, got the call that their restaurant was on fire.

“Thank God the employees weren’t there,” Wright-Wilson said. “That’s our main concern.”

The fire damage was extensive, and the cause isn’t clear yet.

“I was just so glad when the investigators did say it didn’t look like foul play,” Wright-Wilson said.

The owners Monday spoke with their insurance agent and a firefighter.

Through the devastation, the owners feel community support.

“It’s hard to say how much we appreciate it, because it’s so devastating the things that happened,” said Isaac Wilson, the other owner of Kountry Kitchen.

“We’re just so glad that people are supporting us,” Wright-Wilson said.

The family vows to rebuild at their same College Avenue location.

“We’re not going to stop here,” Wilson said. “We’re going to take it to another level.”

“I hate that it happened this way, but, like they said, we’ll be back better, bigger and stronger,” said Perez Wright, the general manager and the son of Isaac and Cynthia.

The owners said it will take at least six months to rebuild the restaurant.