Food Network star Paula Deen abruptly shutters Georgia restaurant

Deen opened the Savannah, Georgia restaurant in 1996

Former Food Network star Paula Deen has abruptly shuttered her Georgia restaurant that catapulted her to fame.

Deen, 78, who starred on Food Network’s Paula’s Home Cooking, shared news of the closures Friday with a social media post.

“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 statement 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 ran The Lady & Sons restaurant with her two sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, for nearly three decades. Loyal fans visiting Savannah continued to line up for Deen's buffet long after the Food Network canceled Paula's Home Cooking in 2013.

Paula Deen has abruptly shuttered her famous Georgia restaurant (Getty)

Deen said her four restaurants outside Savannah will remain open. They're located in Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Branson, Missouri.

Windows at The Lady & Sons were covered with brown paper Friday. Signs posted at the front entrance read: “It is with heavy hearts and tremendous gratitude that we announce that we have retired and closed.”

Further information on what prompted the closure wasn’t revealed.

Deen went from nearly broke to Food Network fame in Savannah. She moved to the Georgia city with her boys in 1989 and started a catering business called The Bag Lady. She opened her first restaurant a few years later at a local Best Western hotel, then started The Lady & Sons in downtown Savannah in 1996.

The restaurant soon had lines out the door and served roughly 1,100 diners per day at the height of Deen's popularity. A USA Today food critic awarded The Lady & Sons his “meal of the year” in 1999.

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Deen moved her Savannah restaurant to a larger building nearby the year after Food Network debuted Paula's Home Cooking in 2002. Filmed mostly in her home kitchen, Deen taped more than 200 episodes over the next decade.

The Food Network canceled Deen's show in 2013 amid fallout from a lawsuit by a former employee. A transcript of Deen answering questions under oath in a legal deposition became public that included Deen's awkward responses to questions about race.

Asked if she had ever used the N-word, Deen said, “Yes, of course,” though she added: “It’s been a very long time.”

Deen returned to television on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, on chef Gordon Ramsay’s Fox show MasterChef: Legends, and on Fox Nation, which began streaming At Home With Paula Deen in 2020. She also posts cooking videos to a YouTube channel that has more than 520,000 subscribers.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press