Owner, The Grumpy Rabbit
Gina Cox Wiertelak has been called “Sunshine” as far back as she can remember, she said. Now she is shining a light on her hometown of Lonoke through food, community and classic Southern hospitality.
“Until I moved away, I thought everyone grew up like me,” Wiertelak said. “We were not financially wealthy, but we were rich with loving and caring parents who took my brother and me to church each week. We raised a garden, attended Lonoke school activities and sporting events, did our homework, respected our teachers, administrators and others. They taught us the importance of being involved in the community.”
Wiertelak graduated from Lonoke High School, having served as senior class president and a key member of the 1977 state championship basketball team to boot. She is now on the committee working on her class’s 50-year reunion coming up next year. After high school, Wiertelak attended the University of Memphis, and it would be more than four decades spent living in Memphis and Little Rock before she moved back home. She and her husband, Jim, are ambassadors for the University of Memphis, and Wiertelak is also past president of the university’s women’s basketball booster club.
Upon retiring from a 25-year career in the corporate world, Wiertelak returned to Lonoke in 2016 to be closer to her father. Seeing a downtown area in need of revitalization and first-rate dining options, Wiertelak and her husband set out to bring something new to their community, and the seeds for The Grumpy Rabbit — named after Lonoke High School’s mascot, the Jackrabbits, and Jim’s “grandpa name,” Grumpy — were planted. The restaurant’s doors officially opened in 2021, and the establishment has made waves across town and beyond ever since.
“I am very thankful and blessed to be a small-town country girl who has been given the opportunity to go out and see the world through my eyes,” Wiertelak said. “My heart is very happy to come back home and try to help others — hoping I am leading by example.”
