SOUTH KNOXVILLE — Gary Pitner, 61, told a pizza driver on Tuesday to turn in at the Jungle Arby’s, the way he has told every driver since he moved off Chapman Highway, and the driver asked where the jungle was.
“It’s the one by the Arby’s,” Pitner said. “Well, it’s the Arby’s. They took the kudzu out. I knew that, I drove past it. I said you’ll see the Arby’s, and he said there’s two of them, and I said not on this side.”
City Public Works finished clearing the lot behind the restaurant earlier this month, at a cost the city described as thousands of dollars. The work order is listed as closed. A woman called the department Monday and asked whether the city had a photograph of the lot she could print, because she was giving her brother directions and he doesn’t trust his phone.
The clerk who took the call, who asked not to be named because she doesn’t speak for the department, pulled the completion photo off the work order. It shows bare dirt and part of a chain-link fence.
“She wanted me to put an arrow on it, where the jungle was,” the clerk said. “I told her I don’t think we can edit the photo, it’s attached to the work order. She said okay, she’d print it and draw it on.”
Pitner has started telling drivers to look for the Arby’s that used to be the Jungle Arby’s, and said the last one found it on the first try.