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Attempting to attract younger clientele, the company modernized its "look" and opened ten new locations in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas. The newer units could seat approximately people, with one-third of the space sectioned in a cafe setting. Geographic locations in smaller markets with less competition, such as Waco, Texas, were considered.

Also, in addition to the regular Callender's menu items, the cafes served beer, wine, gourmet coffees, and espresso. A food-to-go counter was expanded to attract young double-income families, which immediately produced an average 20 percent of revenue, including pie takeouts.

Tanaka told Don Nichols of Restaurant Business that "East Side Mario's is newer and sexier, but it wouldn't make sense for us to focus all of our attention on it. Marie Callender's unexpectedly came into the limelight in connection with a sensationalist news story.

It was discovered that prior to their mass suicide, members of the San Diego-based Heaven's Gate cult had apparently eaten their last meal at a Carlsbad, California Marie Callender's, which landed the company on popular national television shows such as "Jenny Jones" and "Extra. Management continued to assess the company's position and the reasons for its steady but relatively slow growth of five to ten percent since , despite the fact that surveys showed that 85 percent of consumers recognized the Marie Callender's name.

One of the internal challenges facing the chain involved the lack of an advertising agreement among its franchisees, making funding and approval for advertisements unnecessarily difficult.

Also, the differing designs in restaurant layout complicated the uniformity of menu presentation, especially in locations with counter seating, which limited menu options. Dreyer began spending a great deal of time visiting restaurants and talking to employees in order to get a ground-level perspective.

In order to remain competitive the company continued searching for smaller regional chains that could be converted to Marie Callender's restaurants, particularly in the Midwest and Southeast. Complementing his strategic financial aptitude, Dreyer's unique personal style served as an inspiration to company employees. Dreyer told Fulmer of the Orange County Business Journal : "I believe that from the top down it's got to be an environment that nurtures the employee," adding, "If they're not happy, the customer won't be happy.

He occasionally dresses up in strange outfits such as a serape and a sombrero for company sales contests. Once, while still working for Denny's, he was given a camcorder at a finance managers conference and asked to film a commercial for the chain. He produced a "commercial" dealing with the unlikely theme: Why ax murderers like to eat at Denny's, complete with props.

Every Fourth of July, according to Fulmer, Dreyer wears a T-shirt decorated like a Marine Corps uniform and marches from his home, leading his neighbors in a parade down the street to the tune of "The Halls of Montezuma," which he blasts from his home stereo. Distasteful or not, he became a company icon of energy, leading the chain from stagnation into a new era.

The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in , while planning for 12 more full-service stores in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, and in the Southeast. Adapting to the times, Marie Callender's developed homestyle takeout meals targeting busy two-job families.

For the future, Dreyer has indicated the possibility of raising additional capital by taking the company public. The company would like to see annual revenue growth rise to the ten to 15 percent level. If they could find a buyer out there that would make sense to buy Marie Callender's, they might," he continued, "But the more likely strategy would be an initial public offering.

Who Was Marie Callender? By Gillie Houston Updated March 04, Save Pin FB More. Apple and Cherry Pie Trifle image. All rights reserved. He encouraged his mother to open the family's first restaurant in Orange, California, in That first little shop was an instant hit, in part because of Don's idea of giving free slices of pie and cups of coffee to new customers. Marie Callender's was so successful at enticing customers, it quickly began opening new locations, the first in La Habra and Anaheim, according to The Orange County Register.

By the end of the s, Marie Callender's had expanded its menu beyond just pies and coffee, offering hamburgers, sandwiches, salads, and chili via Funding Universe. Around this time, the Marie Callender's chain had grown to 26 locations, mainly in southern California. Don Callender was in charge of the chain's expansion. Instead of having each Marie Callender's restaurant look like all the others, he made sure they were built in a variety of architectural styles.

The interiors, meanwhile, got a cozy, English country look that Don Callender thought would be the right atmosphere for their homestyle fare. The s brought a lot more growth. By the end of that decade, Marie Callender's had 84 locations in seven states, according to the Houston Business Journal.

In , when Marie Callender's had locations, Don Callender cashed out. Don Callender agreed to sell the Marie Callender's restaurant chain to Ramada after rejecting offers from Marriott and others, in part because the sale agreement kept Don in charge of the company for another five years, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But what seemed like a sweet deal coming out of the oven in turned sour shortly after. Another Los Angeles Times article , published in , reported that Callender sued Ramada for not giving him any real power in the company. As Funding Universe explained it, each transaction sent Marie Callender's deeper in debt.