SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Former Meals Community star Paula Deen introduced Friday the abrupt closure of the Savannah restaurant that launched her to fame with its menu of fried rooster, banana pudding and different indulgent Southern dishes.
Deen ran The Woman & Sons restaurant together with her two sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, for almost three many years. Loyal followers visiting Savannah continued to line up for Deen’s buffet lengthy after the Meals Community canceled her present, “Paula’s Home Cooking,” in 2013.
However 78-year-old Deen mentioned Friday that The Woman & Sons closed for good together with The Rooster Field, which bought takeout lunches behind the principle restaurant. A press release posted on Deen’s web site and social media accounts did not say why the eating places had shut down.
“Hey, y’all, my sons and I made the heartfelt decision that Thursday, July 31st, was the last day of service for The Lady & Sons and The Chicken Box,” Deen’s assertion mentioned.
“Thank you for all the great memories and for your loyalty over the past 36 years,” she mentioned. “We have endless love and gratitude for every customer who has walked through our doors.”
Deen mentioned her 4 eating places outdoors Savannah will stay open. They’re positioned in Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Myrtle Seaside, South Carolina; and Branson, Missouri.
Home windows at The Woman & Sons have been coated with brown paper Friday. Indicators posted on the entrance entrance learn: “It is with heavy hearts and tremendous gratitude that we announce that we have retired and closed.”
Deen’s restaurant appeared `packed’ till it closed
Adrienne Morton and her household, visiting Savannah from Cincinatti, had made dinner reservations at Deen’s restaurant for five:45 p.m. Friday.
Morton mentioned she acquired a textual content message Friday morning saying her reservation had been canceled.
“I assumed this have to be a mistake or possibly they deliberate to shut and we don’t dwell right here and simply weren’t on top of things, however no,” Morton said. “We wish them the best. Hopefully everything turns out.”
Martin Rowe works in a downtown workplace throughout the road from Deen’s restaurant. He mentioned enterprise appeared to be going sturdy up till it closed.
“Nobody knew anything was wrong,” Rowe mentioned. “I walk by there two or three times a week at lunch, and it was always packed.”
Deen went from almost broke to Meals Community fame in Savanah
Deen was divorced and almost broke when she moved to Savannah together with her boys in 1989 and began a catering enterprise referred to as The Bag Woman. She opened her first restaurant a couple of years later at a neighborhood Finest Western resort, then began The Woman & Sons in downtown Savannah in 1996.
The restaurant quickly had traces out the door and served roughly 1,100 diners per day on the peak of Deen’s reputation. A USA At present meals critic awarded The Woman & Sons his “meal of the year” in 1999.
Deen moved her Savannah restaurant to a bigger constructing close by the 12 months after The Meals Community debuted “Paula’s Home Cooking” in 2002. Filmed principally in her residence kitchen, Deen taped greater than 200 episodes over the following decade.
The Meals Community canceled Deen’s present in 2013 amid fallout from a lawsuit by a former worker. A transcript of Deen answering questions underneath oath in a authorized deposition turned public that included Deen’s awkward responses to questions on race.
Requested if she had ever used the N-word, Deen mentioned, “Yes, of course,” although she added: “It’s been a very long time.”
Deen returned to tv on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” on chef Gordon Ramsay’s Fox present “MasterChef: Legends,” and on Fox Nation, which started streaming “At Home With Paula Deen” in 2020. She additionally posts cooking movies to a YouTube channel that has greater than 520,000 subscribers.
