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Jamie Deen takes you from the humble beginnings of the Bag Lady to the Lady and Sons restaurant today. (Originally released February 23, 2010 on http://thedeenbros.com)
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20 years ago I was living in Yellowstone
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National Park and mama called me home to
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Savannah Georgia and said we going to
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start a business uh we're going to be
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working out of our house I'm not going
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to be able to pay you it's just the
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three of us and we're going to call it
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the bag lady the bag
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lady what in the world is a bag lady
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well we're going to do fresh lunches and
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deliver them around town well Mama where
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we going to go oh here and there I will
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never forget the first door that I
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knocked on and basically begged them if
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they wanted lunch I remember that and I
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remember at any given moment my mama or
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Aunt Peggy would be in the kitchen with
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underwear on their head as a
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hairnet 6th Street is the place that I
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thought good gracious alive what are we
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going to do now I am working for my mama
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I'm living at my mama's house we got
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discovered operating in illegal business
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and had to move so we did what every
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respectable business does we moved into
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a motel we turned from the bag lady
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catering business into the lady eating
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house serving Fine Food we wound up on
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the south side of Savannah at the Best
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Western motel I thought working at the
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house was hard but I had no idea what I
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was in for when we started our time at
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the Best Western we worked 7 days a week
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365 days a year three meals a day I had
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a chance to go in the old place last
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week and I tell you stepping into that
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place was just like stepping back into
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time I remember being a young man and
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working with Mama and and Bobby and had
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much changed around there except the
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attitude I felt a lot better walking in
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today than I did 20 years
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ago we did what we could we' never done
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breakfast before and this was the place
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that gave us the opportunity to do
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breakfast lunch and dinner all year
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long about halfway through our time here
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we decided we start doing the hump day
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buff on Wednesdays that's where we fixed
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our granny Paul's meals at and we did it
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all out of this little kitchen it's
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hardly bigger than the bathroom at the
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house me and Mama like to killed each
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other in this kitchen didn't take long
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before we outgrew the kitchen and we
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outgrew the handwritten special menus
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mom used to sit down and write them
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every day and whatever we had is what we
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sold we had a chance to move downtown
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and boy howy was I happy to get out of
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the Best Western we found oursel
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downtown on Congress Street which is
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just across the street from City Market
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in beautiful historic Savannah we went
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into the Barnet education Supply
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building and we didn't have enough money
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to do anything but for ourselves so
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that's what we did we put up the ladders
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we started painting and scraping and
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doing everything we could to turn an old
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education supply house into the newest
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business located downtown in
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Savannah we did it too the three of us
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did it we turned it around and on
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January the 8th of
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1996 we opened the lady and Son's
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restaurant paper even did did a story on
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[Music]
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us we were glad to be out of the Best
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Western and happy to be at 311 West
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Congress
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[Music]
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Street this room is some of the happiest
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memories I ever
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had we had a time to come together as a
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family and grow into our business we had
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a big family table in the back that
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that's where Mama met Michael and we'd
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get together four or five times a week
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and share a meal around this big table
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These Old Creek floors my brother used
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to mop them every Sunday SP and
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span this was a good place for us we had
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fun
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[Music]
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[Music]
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together the spot on the wall where the
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old fireplace is this is where we had
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our first photo shoot I put on my good
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shirt the place here where I stood and I
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saw Mama come out of our little halfdo
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office that we had on the dining room
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floor and said that Random House in New
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York City was interested in looking at
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our cookbook that we self-published I
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could not hardly believe it but it
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wasn't long and they put out the lady
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and Sun Savannah Country
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Cookbook I never thought I'd see the day
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that my little Mama went and did a book
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signing she did it
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up here in the front of the restaurants
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where we met Gordon Elliott and Gordon
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said oh Paula you would just be
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fantastic on my television show and I
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thought huh New York City
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guy we managed to grow into our business
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we had 30 or 40 employees and every day
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brought a new challenge but we felt like
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we were doing something at least we
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weren't at the house or at the Best
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Western anymore this is where we grew up
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and grew together
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[Music]
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just like before we'd outgrown this
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space and it was time to move again so
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we did but we stayed on Congress Street
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the restaurant now is at 102 West
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Congress Street in beautiful Downtown
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Savannah Georgia in the Historic
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Landmark white Hardware building one
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week before Thanksgiving in 2003 we
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opened the Lady and Sons restaurant
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again this is home this is where we'll
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always be we've got 350 employees and we
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spent two weeks hands on mom was there
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Bobby and myself not only were we
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training all of our new employees we
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were training ourselves we'd never
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worked in a split level business before
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we had three stories and it took us
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almost two weeks to figure out that we
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needed handheld radios and
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walkie-talkies to talk to each
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other it's hard to believe in 20 years
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we've gone from three people to
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350 we made some good friends and we've
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really built up a good
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business my mom's wedding reception was
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in this building my rehearsal dinner was
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in this building when Brooke and I got
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[Music]
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married we went from a little chicken CP
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store into the full-fledged Pine store
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this is where all the things that Mama
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enjoys doing you can find in one spot
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off spices pots and pans
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cookbooks yep lot here has changed in 20
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years we've got our awning from The Lady
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and Sons restaurant hanging upstairs on
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the third floor and mama said you know
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what boys I'll tear that Suns off of
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that sign in a second if I think y'all
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aren't going to work as hard as you
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should but she never had
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to we made it and we stayed together all
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this time still The Lady and
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Sons and no matter what we've been
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through or what we've
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done or what the address has
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been we've always been there for each
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[Music]
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other and that's been enough
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[Music]
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