With countless cookbooks, food shows, and restaurants to their name, Paula Deen, her brother Bubba Deen, and her sons Jamie and Bobby Deen have proven that cooking talent runs in their family. But unfortunately, so do health code violations! RadarOnline.com has exclusively uncovered a history of violations at both Paula’s Savannah restaurant, Lady & Sons, and her brother, Bubba’s spot, Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House. What inspectors found will shock you! 
 
 Just a few weeks ago, Bubba’s was slapped with a “B” grade and a score of 83 — just 4 points above a “C” — on February 7, 2013. According to state public health records viewed by Radar, the restaurant was cited for having inadequate hand washing facilities and improper cold holding temperatures. 
 
 READ: The Health Inspector Reports Deen Doesn’t Want You To See! 
 
 Specifically, an inspector wrote, “Hand sink used as a dump sink. Repeat violation. .. Observed potentially hazardous food cold held at greater than 41 degrees.” 
 
 According to the inspector, even just the former represented a “known risk factor for food borne illness.” 
 
 Things had not been much better at the restaurant’s previous inspection on June 20, 2013, when it racked up just 84 points and a “B” grade. 
 
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 The inspector’s extensive comments noted “no soap or paper towels located at hand washing sink … dirty knife magnet holder … old food buildup on shelves in coolers [that] dries and falls onto food below … observed build-up of food debris, dust or dirt … [and] dirty dumpster areas.” 
 
 TV chef Paula has typically fared better with inspectors than her brother, but her restaurant Lady & Sons hasn’t been without violations. At the most recent inspection on February 2, 2014, the inspector noted that “Salad bar/buffet plates/bowls [were] not properly protected or inverted to prevent contamination,” and there were “no chemical sanitizer strips available for testing the sanitizer containers.” Those were minimal violations, and the restaurant got a respectable score of 98 and “A” grade. 
 
 But it wasn’t always that way. As recently as 2012, Lady & Sons racked up several violations, including “food-contact surfaces encrusted with grease and/or soil deposits,” “hand wash sink not accessible for employee use at all times,” “grit cakes found stored in walk-in cooler uncovered and subject to contamination,” and more. Employees were also cited for improper personal cleanliness. 
 
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 All told, that added up to a score of 89, or “B.” 
 
 Would you eat at one of the Deen family restaurants? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments! ||||| As long-time employees collected severance checks in the parking lot, Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House announced its closing Thursday morning on its website and Facebook page. 
 
 “Thank you for 10 great years,” the written comment stated, “Uncle Bubba’s is now closed.” 
 
 The Whitemarsh Island restaurant is co-owned by Paula Deen and her younger brother, Earl W. “Bubba” Hiers Jr. 
 
 It was at the center of a storm of negative publicity Deen weathered last year after a former Uncle Bubba’s employee filed a lawsuit alleging racial and sexual discrimination. In a deposition, Deen admitted she had used a racial slur 30 years earlier. 
 
 The claims and lawsuit were eventually dismissed but not before she lost millions in national endorsements and the Food Network announced it would not renew her contract. 
 
 Hiers decided “to close the restaurant in order to explore development options for the waterfront property on which the restaurant is located,” he said in a written statement released through the Key Group Worldwide, a New York-based public relations firm. 
 
 The 350-seat, nearly 10,000-square-foot restaurant sits on 2.7 acres. Its most recent tax assessment puts the property value at $1.5 million. Brother & Sister Enterprises LLC acquired it in 2004 for $2 million, tax records indicate. 
 
 “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,” the prepared statement continued. “The closing is effective today, Thursday, April 3, 2014. Employees will be provided with severance based on position and tenure with the restaurant. All effort will be made to find employees comparable employment with other Savannah restaurant organizations.” 
 
 A spokesman for the New York firm did not respond to the question of how many people were employed by Uncle Bubba’s. 
 
 In Hiers’ deposition in 2013 he testified that he frequently viewed pornography on company-owned sites at work and had a history of cocaine use and alcohol abuse. He admitted taking money from the restaurant in 2010 — allegedly as much as $25,000 to $30,000 a month, a practice Deen eventually discovered. He said his sister was in control of the business but it was never a big moneymaker. 
 
 “The company had never shown a lot of profit,” Hiers testified. 
 
 The health department last inspected Uncle Bubba’s in February. It received a score of 83 with points deducted for repeated violations of proper hand-washing procedures and improper temperature holding of potentially hazardous foods. 
 
 Late Thursday morning a barrier blocked traffic to the former restaurant’s parking lot where a uniformed police officer turned some vehicles away and let others pass. 
 
 Savannah-Chatham police patrol cars remained in the area for much of the morning; people gathered near the roadblock declined to speak about the establishment’s closing or why a roadblock with police officers was set up. 
 
 Some long-term employees were shocked to discover they no longer had a job and turned to the restaurant’s Facebook page to vent. 
 
 “I’ve been water works all a.m.,” wrote one poster who said she’d been employed there for seven years. “I’ve worked there since I was 16. I woke up this a.m. to no job and no forewarning.” 
 
 Earlier this year Deen signed a deal with Phoenix-based private investment firm Najafi Cos. worth between $75 million and $100 million. Called Paula Deen Ventures, the partnership will be the umbrella name for Deen’s many brands. 
 
 Its first major investment will be Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen, a $20 million, 20,000-square-foot restaurant and retail operation, scheduled to open in late summer in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., home of the Dollywood theme park. 
 
 A statement released by Najafi in February when the partnership was announced praised Deen’s The Lady & Sons as “one of the country’s most popular regional restaurants.” 
 
 It did not mention Uncle Bubba’s. ||||| Food Network personality Paula Deen laughs before throwing out the first pitch prior to the Washington Nationals versus New York Mets MLB baseball game in Washington, May 19, 2010. 
 
 Food Network personality Paula Deen laughs before throwing out the first pitch prior to the Washington Nationals versus New York Mets MLB baseball game in Washington, in this May 19, 2010, file photo. 
 
 ATLANTA Celebrity chef Paula Deen's popular Savannah, Georgia, restaurant, which was at the center of a racially charged lawsuit against her, abruptly closed on Thursday after a decade in business. 
 
 "Thank you for 10 great years," Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, owned by Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, told customers on its website. "Uncle Bubba's is now closed." 
 
 A white employee of Uncle Bubba's sued Deen and her brother claiming she had been the victim of sexual harassment and that there was a pattern of racial discrimination against black employees at the restaurant. 
 
 Deen said in a deposition in the case that she had used a racial slur, which prompted Scripps Networks Interactive Inc to drop her cooking show from its cable television channel, the Food Network. 
 
 The controversy prompted companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Target Corp and Home Depot Inc to stop selling Deen products. 
 
 A federal judge last summer dismissed the lawsuit. 
 
 Hiers closed the restaurant "in order to explore development options for the waterfront property on which the restaurant is located," Jaret Keller, spokesman for the Deen family, said in a written statement. 
 
 "At this point, no specific plans have been announced and a range of uses are under consideration in order to realize the highest and best use for the property." 
 
 Keller declined to comment on whether the restaurant's closure was related to the lawsuit. 
 
 Deen has lately been staging a comeback, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that a private equity firm agreed earlier this year to invest $75 to $100 million in the recently formed Paula Deen Ventures. 
 
 (Editing by Kevin Gray and Richard Chang) ||||| Paula Deen Restaurant Sorry We Screwed You Over ... But Here's Our Card! 
 
 Paula Deen Restaurant Closes -- Sorry We Screwed You Over, But Here's Our Card!
– The restaurant owned by Paula Deen and her brother Bubba continues to be controversial even while shutting down. Uncle Bubba's Oyster House was the Savannah, Georgia, restaurant at the middle of a sexual harassment lawsuit that ultimately sparked Deen's n-word controversy. It closed "abruptly" yesterday after 10 years in business, Reuters reports. There's no official word on whether the closure was related to the lawsuit (which was ultimately dismissed) and ensuing scandal; a family spokesperson says the eatery was closed "in order to explore development options for the waterfront property on which the restaurant is located." But the siblings somehow could not manage to avoid yet more controversy while closing the restaurant: The Savannah Morning News reports that employees were given no warning of the closure and were surprised to show up to work yesterday and discover they no longer had jobs. The paper describes a scene of "long-time employees collect[ing] severance checks in the parking lot" as police officers turned away would-be customers. An official statement from the family says "all effort will be made to find employees comparable employment with other Savannah restaurant organizations," but TMZ reports that so far, all the former employees have received is a list of other restaurants in the area that are hiring. (The last not-so-appealing headline related to Uncle Bubba's involved "old food buildup" and similar grossness.)