Scoring the highest-rated series debut in the Food Network's five-year history of weekend programming, Patrick and Gina Neely are celebrating their success as Memphis's most beloved couple of BBQ. Their show Down Home with the Neelys has received both praises and criticism, but to them it is about real people making real food.
There might not be a more appropriate show title in all of television. On Food Network's Down Home with the Neelys, restaurateurs Patrick and Gina Neely take viewers on a feel-good spin through the multi-faceted flavors of Memphis-style home cooking. It turns out that talking with the Neelys is much the same as watching them tag-team on a pork chop, flirt with each other over cocktails or interact with their two daughters: you sense they're the same people on and off screen. Which Patrick Neely says was the plan when Food Network came calling.
"We're not doing a reality show. We are a real couple, one that is married and we wanted to able to show that we're still in love," says Patrick Neely who, with brothers Gaelin, Mark and Tony, opened the first of three Neely Bar-B-Q restaurants in Memphis in 1988. "As a black person, when people come up to us and say, 'you make us proud, you represent
The Neelys have a lot to feel good about these days. Be it serving a combined 10,000 pounds of barbecue each week at their three restaurants (two in
"Honestly we're pleasantly surprised with the response we've gotten," Gina Neely says. "We're just trying to bring family back, get families cooking more together.
"Since we knew little about TV," Patrick adds, "we didn't have any expectations. Frankly, I was surprised the Food Network producer called back [after an appearance on Paula Deen's show.] We came into it saying we will do the best we can. The letters and the calls and the words from Food Network folks has been so positive."
All the positive feedback has been leavened a bit by some harsh critique. The blogosphere is alight with negative commentary, some of it racially tinged and having little to do with food. Superchefblog.com says this: "The Food Network's new show, Down Home with the Neelys seems to be glancing backwards- it's the '70s sitcom, Good Times in which a African-American family played their lives for laugh--meets Paula Deen's brand of Southern cooking." Other bloggers decry recipes like barbecued spaghetti.
When first introduced, Patrick says the dish flopped. It began taking off when the restaurants offered free samples. Since then, the Neelys diversified into barbecued potatoes, bologna and nachos. The items have helped carve a niche in
"We knew there would be criticism," Patrick says. "We grew up in
Gina encourages patience with the show, now in it's second season. "We're a southern family cooking southern food. But we're just getting started. We will have lots of recipes that people will be impressed by. We are trying new things. We have creativity control."
Most of the personal potshots are directed at Gina Neely--that she's being feisty and uses sexual overtones, critiques that have nothing to do with food. "In the South, feisty is not a negative. I have a very strong personality. If I say honey, or call him big daddy, that's my husband and I can. It's a 30-minute cooking show. We're not here to be critiqued about who we are."
"There times when we kiss," Patrick says, "and times when she sticks her finger in the bowl and I lick it off. I've also spanked her on the fanny with a spatula. What we do in the kitchen, we do at home. Our girls see that. They see we're in love. We've raised two beautiful, very respectful and respectable young ladies. People can get bored with traditional cooking shows. They want to be entertained by cooking--conversation, cooking, bantering, flirting. We've grown to have tough skin. If a customer comes to one of the restaurants and says they don't like the service, we can change that. If a customer says he doesn't like the BBQ sauce, then we're not going to change it because it's the way we've been doing it. We hope to convert them. Now if a lot of customers say that, then we'll have to adjust. We don't lose sleep over the critics When it's all said and done, we're going to be Pat and Gina."
Where others see tokenism--speculating that the Food Network show caved to pressure to diversify its line-up--the Neelys see opportunity. They say the show fits with their career arc. The first Neelys Bar-B-Que, opened in a 2,000-square-foot renovated office building in Madison Avenue in
"Gina and I looked at the show as a chance to open the doors for others," Patrick says. "There are lots of black businesses in the area where the first restaurant is. If we have an opportunity, it's our responsibility to take advantage of it. If I can look up six months from now and see other blacks are on the Food Network, then I can share my experiences with them. I don't have a scope on how much heat the network was getting. Whatever their motives, they recognized our talents. We came in with a bang and did an outstanding job. I challenge anyone to go to foodnetwork.com , make the recipes and say you don't like them."
In all, the good far and away outweighs the bad. Gina has quarterbacked a huge spike in the restaurant catering division--from three percent to 25 percent of total sales. Product sales are brisk; more than 1,000 orders (sauces, seasonings, paraphernalia) shipped weekly. In addition to handling employee training, she manages the community investment budgets for each restaurant. Meantime, Patrick continues to trail blaze. He was selected as the Memphis Restaurant Association's 2007 Restaurateur of the Year.
Locale notwithstanding, the Neelys don't describe their style of cooking as soul food. That'd be more apropos of the way Gina's great grandmother prepared collard greens and fried chicken, she says. "Whatever awakens your soul is soul food." Patrick calls their cuisine comfort food. "When you start cooking spaghetti or braised cabbage or strawberry shortcut cake, these are comfort foods. They make you want to take your shoes off and rub your feet together."
When not eating their own award-winning barbecue or cooking at home, dinner often comes down to what they're in the mood for. They'll bypass all of
"We even grill a pound cake," Gina says. Then, as many longtime couples are accustomed to doing, Patrick finishes his wife's thought: "We don't want to fry chicken every week."
