Albany Rock House cottage renamed for celebrity chef Paula Deen | PHOTO GALLERY

ALBANY — Culinary celebrity and Albany native Paula Dean was on hand at Merry Acres Inn on Dawson Road Saturday for the formal dedication of the historic Rock House cottage, which now will bear her name.

As dozens of her loyal fans waited, Deen arrived shortly after noon in her white Lexus.

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“Y’all, Albany is just as hot and humid as I remember,” Deen said, as she made her way to the cottage.

“I just adore (the cottage),” Deen said. “The colors are so peaceful. All of this came together beautifully.”

Deen said the idea to customize the cottage with framed memorabilia of her career, as well as furniture and fabric from her personal commercial line, came when she spent the night at the former Rock House while in town for a class reunion and David Campbell with Merry Acres Inn suggested the change.

Dean said her line of furniture, which is sold at Turner’s Furniture and other retail stores, is doing “extremely, extremely well.”

Also doing well, Deen said, is her Dollywood area restaurant venture in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

“It’s just incredible,” Deen said. “It’s been about two months and we have the first Paula Deen Family Kitchen. the gift shop on the bottom floor is almost 5,000 square feet, with the restaurant on the second floor.

“In Tennessee, we can serve family-style, so you can select from the day’s menu and we bring the food in platters and bowls. It’s truly like going to grandma’s house for dinner.”

Deen said she and her husband, Michael Groover, also have opened a gift shop in Gatlinburg, Tenn. They plan to open another next month in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

“Myrtle Beach will the next stop for a restaurant,” Deen Said. “It’ll be about a year before that’s open.”

Speaking of restaurants, the nationally popular “down home” chef was asked what her favorite places to eat were when she lived in Albany. She said she had three favorite places.

“We used to go to the Victory Club (formerly on Oakridge Drive between Newton Road and South Slappey Boulevard),” Deen said. “they had an incredible mushroom casserole and my daddy would bring a little brown bag with a bottle of Marker’s Mark so he could make his own set-up.

“Davis Brothers (which was at Slappey Boulevard and West Broad Avenue) had the best prime rib anywhere. But then there was Gargano’s (on East Oglethorpe Boulevard). Nothing could beat the Italian food from there.”

in Savannah, Deen and her husband have two homes, one that’s for sale. The second, a home they built just after they were married, is now dedicated primarily to film studio use.

“We’ve just come around to the idea that at our time of life it’s better to have two small things than one large thing, so we’re just checking out our options,” Deen said. “We’ll definitely stay on the river. My husband was brought there from the hospital, honey, and after 59 years there ain’t no way to get that Wilmington River blood out of him.”

According to Merry Acres officials, the two-bedroom cottage, which features a great room, bar area, kitchen and two bathrooms, once was part of a horse barn back in the days when Merry Acres was a family farm.

In 1935, Dr. Russell L. Grace Sr. purchased a 500-acre property which included an old farm house, horse barns, pecan groves and pasture. After adding another 200 acres, the area would become the site for Merry Acres Hotel and Merry Acres Subdivision.

The Rock House was turned into a two-bedroom suite in 1968 when 30 units were added to Merry Acres Inn, and a pool was added to a new site just behind the registration house.