Former Food Network staple Paula Deen announced Friday the closure of the Savannah, Ga., restaurant that launched her popularity with its Southern-inspired menus.
Deen ran The Lady & Sons restaurant with her two sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, for about 30 years. The Food Network canceled her show, “Paula’s Home Cooking,” in 2013.
Deen announced the closures on her social-media accounts and The Lady & Sons website.
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Deen, 78, said The Lady & Sons closed along with The Chicken Box, which was next to the restaurant and sold takeout lunches. A statement posted on Deen’s website and social media accounts didn’t say why she had closed the restaurants.
“Hey, y’all, my sons and I made the heartfelt decision that Thursday, July 31, was the last day of service for The Lady & Sons and The Chicken Box,” Deen said.
“Thank you for all the great memories and for your loyalty over the past 36 years,” she said. “We have endless love and gratitude for every customer who has walked through our doors.”
Deen said her four Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen restaurants outside Savannah will remain open. They are located in Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tenn.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and Branson, Mo. She will be making appearances at those locations.
Deen moved to Savannah with her sons in 1989 and started a catering business called The Bag Lady. She opened her first restaurant a few years later at a Best Western hotel, then started The Lady & Sons in downtown Savannah in 1996.
The Food Network canceled Deen’s show in 2013 amid fallout from a lawsuit by a former employee. Deen, in answering questions under oath in a legal deposition, acknowledged that she had used derogatory racial terms.
Deen appeared on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” on chef Gordon Ramsay’s “MasterChef: Legends” on Fox, and on Fox Nation, which began streaming “At Home With Paula Deen.” She also posts to her YouTube channel, which has more than 583,000 subscribers.
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