Marie Callender's
Posted: 11 Jan 2009 17:35
Marie Callender's son Don died in 2007 and the obituary was run today in the LA Times. I guess the news traveled slowly. Here are a few excerpts from the obit which can be found at http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... 6573.story None of this is probably news to people here but these history snippets from obits can be interesting.
Marie and her husband, Cal, sold the family car for $700 in 1948 to set up a wholesale bakery in a converted Quonset hut in Long Beach, and Marie worked there at all hours producing pies that Cal and Don sold to restaurants.
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The first Marie Callender's Pie Shop, serving pie and coffee, opened in Orange in 1964, with an oven in the window so customers could see their pastries being made.
A few years later Don Callender, who oversaw the business, added soup and sandwiches to the menu, then opened more restaurants. He continued to expand, and by the time he sold the company in 1986 to Ramada Inc. for a reported $80 million, the chain had grown to 120 locations nationwide. Marie Callender's restaurants are now a subsidiary of Castle Harlan Inc