Pat Neely (born July 20, 1964) is an American

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspe ...

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, and

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. He is the co-owner of Neely's Bar-B-Que restaurant in downtown Memphis,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. He and former wife Gina hosted two

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s, '' Down Home with the Neelys'' and '' Road Tasted with the Neelys''. The pair also co-wrote a cook book. ''Down Home'' became the highest rated debut for a Food Network show within the "In the Kitchen" series, which appear on weekend mornings.

Personal life

Neely was born in

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, according to the Neely's episode of '' Chefography''. He and Gina (née Ervin) dated in high school in the 1980s. While Pat was married to another woman, Pat and Gina reunited at their 10th reunion. Both had been married once before, when the couple wed in 1994. In September 2014, Gina filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Together, they have two daughters: Spenser and Shelbi.

Restaurant

In 1988, Neely and three of his brothers (Gaelin, Tony, and Mark) opened a barbecue restaurant in downtown Memphis, aided by their uncle, Jim Neely, a well-known Memphis restaurateur and owner of Jim Neely's Interstate Bar-B-Que. Jim' Neely's sister, Beverly Neely, is owner of Jay-Bee's Bar-B-Que in Gardena, California, and her son, Curtis Williams, is the general manager. The brothers went on to establish their own reputations separate from their uncle's. The enterprise grew to four Neely’s Bar-B-Que locations: two in Memphis and two in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. On July 9, 2008, the location in Memphis' Mt. Moriah neighborhood caught fire. Pat and Gina Neely, and partner Abraham Merchant, opened a New York City restaurant, initially called Neely’s Pig Parlor. The restaurant eventually opened in 2011 as Neely's Barbecue Parlor. In August 2008, they acquired a space in mid-town Memphis slated to be a corporate headquarters. In 2008, their cousin (Jim Neely's son) opened Ken Neely's Hickory Bar-B-Que in Memphis. The two Memphis locations of Neely's Bar-B-Que closed in 2013.

Television shows

Neely and his then-wife Gina were the hosts of two shows on

: '' Down Home with the Neelys'' and '' Road Tasted with the Neelys''. ''Down Home'' began airing in February 2008. Food Network personality

Paula Deen Paula Ann Hiers Deen (born January 19, 1947) is an American chef, cookbook author, and TV personality. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has pu ...

helped the pair get their first show. During the summer of 2006 her sons, Bobby and Jamie Deen, featured the Neely's Bar-B-Que Nashville location on their show '' Road Tasted''. In September 2006, Paula ate at the Neely's downtown Memphis restaurant and was impressed. In January 2007, the Neelys were invited to appear on ''Paula's Party''. The Neelys taped the sixth season of ''Down Home'', which aired seven days a week on the Food Network. Following the success of ''Down Home'', the Neelys took over the ''Road Tasted'' show from the Deen brothers in July 2008, which was then changed to ''Road Tasted with the Neelys''. Neely hosted Save to Win on Saturdays on

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from November 5, 2016 to May 20, 2017.

Book

In May 2009, Pat and Gina released their first cookbook titled ''"Down Home with the Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook."'' Co-written by Paula Disbrowe, it was published by

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

and featured a foreword written by

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neely, Pat American television chefs American chefs Food Network chefs People from Memphis, Tennessee Writers from Detroit Living people 1964 births