Paula Deen's Restaurant Lady and Sons Is a Ghost Town

The media firestorm continues to swirl around the now ex-Food Network personality Paula Deen, and the usually bustling scene at her Savannah, GA restaurant The Lady and Sons is nonexistent. Eater sent a photographer to scope it out, and above and below are photos from mid-day on Saturday. It is a ghost town.

Normally lines to get into the restaurant, even in the middle of the afternoon, are "always several blocks long" according to Stephen Thurston, photographer and Savannah resident. This is in sharp contrast to a report earlier today by the New York Times that people were lining up to get in this morning.

It's clear that fans, or what's left of them, are not showing up in support of Paula Deen, the embattled television cook who awkwardly apologized on YouTube following the release of testimony in which she admitted to having used racial slurs. Her fans might rabidly post comments or click on a "like" button — see the "We support Paula Deen" Facebook page with 131,000 likes — but they're definitely not showing up in support.

"There was no protest in progress and no signs that there was one earlier," Thurston told Eater. "However, the lineups to get in on a Saturday from mid day on are always several blocks long. Today there was no one. A protest of a different nature perhaps." Here are more photos of the restaurant:

Here is the outdoor host station which is "normally mobbed":

The outdoor host station, normally mobbed. [Photo: Stephen Thurston/Eater]

And here is the store at Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons:

The store at Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons. [Photo: Stephen Thurston/Eater]

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