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Saturday, April 05, 2014

Restaurant That Brought Down Paula Deen’s Empire Closes, Doesn’t Tell Employees

“Thank you for 10 great years. Uncle Bubba’s is now closed.” That’s the message the restaurant at the center of the controversy that broughtPaula Deen’s empire crumbling down last yearhas posted on its website, which was reportedly echoed on its Facebook page. And according to some of the restaurant’s employees, that’s the only way they found out that they no longer had jobs.

Uncle Bubba’s Seafood & Oyster House in Savannah, GA was the defendant in a lawsuit from employees claiming the restaurant fostered a racist environment. During the course of that suit, Deen, a co-owner along with her brother, the “Bubba” part of the equation, admitted to using racist language, and saw her business deals with retailers vanish as a result.

The restaurant is closed as of yesterday, it said in a statement.

“Since its opening in 2004, Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House has been a destination for residents and tourists in Savannah, offering the region’s freshest seafood and oysters. However, the restaurant’s owner and operator, Bubba Hiers, has made the decision to close the restaurant in order to explore development options for the waterfront property on which the restaurant is located. At this point, no specific plans have been announced and a range of uses are under consideration in order realize the highest and best use for the property.”

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute... The workers at a restaurant owned by Paula Deen sued her for using some bad words, cost her a bundle of money as a result of the publicity, are now former workers of that restaurant?

I'm glad to see that the workers weren't fired out of retaliation.

Anonymous said...

Nothing like a racist government indirectly forcing employers out of business because of their excessive us of dropping the race card and encouraging bums to do the same thing.

Anonymous said...

So am I 8:17. It would be terrible to see they got what they deserved. LOL (not to mention the language cited was used 20 years ago!)
It's kinda like the liberal Government doing what they do with the IRS or EPA if you don't conform to the current regime's beliefs system or liberal/Communist unions closing down a corporation because they wanted more pay.

Anonymous said...

"retaliation" 8:17? Don't kid yourself. If there were a profit to be made this restaurant wouldn't be closing. Money rules and is the biggest motivator under the sun, and don't you ever forget it and don't let anyone ever tell you different.

Anonymous said...

Good for her. If anyone is to blame it's the employee who sued her. This particular restaurant (which she co-owned w/her brother) was never profitable according to court docs from the lawsuit, which was dismissed. It was only out of the goodness of her heart that this restaurant remained opened as long at is did and wouldn't have if she hadn't kept dumping more of her money from other ventures into it.
Incidentally she just signed a 75-100 million dollar partnership deal w/an investment company for her brand.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like an asset seizure. If you read the provided link and then go on to read more provided links from that article, Deen's brother co-owned with her and managed this restaurant. According to depositions from the law suit (which was dismissed) he was taking $20,000-$30,000/a month for some time from the restaurant. Now of course he wasn't paying taxes and on the restaurant's FB employees reported the equipment was being hauled out of the place and there were LE barricades.

Anonymous said...

Every Dog gets his day! Go after your employer in a lawsuit that is just plain ignorant and expect them not to come up with a solution? This is their So now every employee of that once good business is looking for a job?