Paula Deen to Open New Restaurant April 27
[Photo: Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen/Facebook]
Watch out Pigeon Forge, Tennessee: Disgraced former Food Network star Paula Deen plans to start shoving butter down your gullets when her new restaurant opens April 27. According to a press release, the restaurant — called Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen — will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Located on the Island in Pigeon Forge, it’s a neighbor to the famed Dollywood theme park — perfect for thrill seekers if Deen’s gut-busting food didn’t give their stomachs enough of a ride.
The 300-seat restaurant offers guests a view of the Great Smoky Mountains and the 200-foot Great Smoky Mountain Wheel, “an observation wheel attraction reminiscent of the famed London Eye.” As for the menu, Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen appears to just be a recycled version of her Georgia restaurant, The Lady & Sons: Deen notes in the press release that she “can hardly wait to bring some of my favorite Southern dishes from my Savannah restaurant, The Lady & Sons, to the Great Smoky Mountains.” This Pigeon Forge should brace for family style meals of “big ol’ bowls on the table” featuring items like fried chicken, fried okra, corn, sweet potatoes, and most likely, heaps of butter.
Deep fryer overlord Deen creepily tells E! News that with the new restaurant she wants to “to fill [the] souls as well as bellies” of her unsuspecting customers. The 20,000 square foot space also includes The Paula Deen Store for customers’ branded merchandise needs. Hey, where else are is someone going to pick up a pair of Paula Deen spectacles?
Deen — who appears determined to make a comeback with a podcast, a digital network, and a mobile game — hasn’t always had great luck with restaurants. Last April, Deen suddenly shuttered her Savannah restaurant Uncle Bubba’s Seafood & Oyster House — the place where her racism scandal kicked off.
