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Savannah’s celebrity chef, her left foot in an orthopedic boot, used her cane to hobble up to the podium Thursday at the Tourism Leadership Council’s monthly lunch meeting.
“What a great opportunity this is for all of us to get together,” Paula Deen told the record TLC crowd of several hundred gathered at the new Embassy Suites Hotel on West Oglethorpe Avenue in downtown Savannah.
“We all have one common denominator,” she said. “And that’s to promote our wonderful city and keep making her better and better.
“But, before I go on, I want to tell everybody — at one time — why I’m in a boot and traveling with a cane.”
With that, Deen launched into the story of Gus, the golden retriever-poodle pup that she and husband, Michael Groover, adopted last summer.
“Gus adores me and I adore him,” she said. “He saw me walking into the house the other night and thought I might get in the door without him. So he moved it up to high gear, came behind me, at my knees full speed ahead. My toes went in one direction and my foot in another.
“So, I’m lying on the floor of the porch and Gus is sitting there looking at Michael and I could almost hear him saying, ‘Listen, I really screwed up here and I’m really sorry.’
“He broke my foot, but it’s OK — it could have been my head,” she said, laughing.
“So I’ll be dragging this boot around for another six to eight weeks. And, though I’m not here to talk about my foot, I did want to tell you what happened before the National Enquirer writes a story about how Michael sent me flying in a fit of rage,” she said, laughing.
Back to her topic, Deen said she knew from the beginning that tourism was important to Savannah, but had no idea how important it would become to her.
“Those first five years, battling it out as the Bag Lady at the Best Western on the corner of Eisenhower and Abercorn, we didn’t know what a tourist was out there.
“Even as Savannah’s tourism industry grew, I realized they weren’t coming out my way. I knew we really needed to be downtown.
After five years, we finally found a way. We moved to 311 West Congress Street, and it didn’t take the tourists long to find us,” she said.
“Now you all know I love my locals,” she said. “Thank God for the locals — they’re the ones that built us. But in order to survive, you need the tourists. They’re the cream cheese frosting on the carrot cake muffin, and I wanted to try to achieve the best of both worlds.
“That was when I began to realize what tourism could be for a simple little restaurant.”
Deen recalled her first national publicity — an award from USA Today.
“That kind of press was so important, not just to us, but to all the other businesses — the gift shops, the hotels, other restaurants. Because people don’t come to town just to eat at my place. They are coming to enjoy the total experience that is Savannah. I truly think we have everything to offer.
“As for me, I’m sure you read in the paper that a man named John Najafi from Phoenix, Arizona, still felt that I have value. And he has offered to contribute $75 million to $100 million to the Paula Deen brand, now known as Paula Deen Ventures,” she said.
“And to think it all started with a very humble tuna sandwich.”
