Marie Callender's low-carb menu reflects appetite for hip image

Nation's Restaurant News, June 7, 2004 by Amy Spector

ALISO VIEJO, CALIF. -- Marie Callender Pie Shops, seeking to shed any remaining trace of a frumpy, family-dining image and don a hipper, casual-dining ambience, recently introduced lower-fat entrees and launched premium pie flavors to attract a new audience.

Marie Callender joins fellow Southern California concepts Ruby's Diner and Mimi's Care as restaurant brands that have straddled the gap between family and casual dining by offering alcoholic beverages and upgraded menu items, while keeping check averages below $15 per person. Ruby's replaced red plastic meal baskets with china at its casual-leaning Diner Deluxe concept, which debuted last year, while Mimi's Cafe recently created a corporate chef position and hired Culinary Institute of America graduate Adam Baird to apply his fine-dining expertise to the chain's eclectic fare.

Marie Callender, based in Aliso Viejo, is a division of the New York investment firm Castle Harlan Partners. The chain's 96 company-owned and 54 franchised restaurants operate in 11 states. The company also licenses a line of frozen foods to ConAgra, which sold $425 million in Marie Callender products last year, according to the restaurant company's president and chief executive, Phil Ratner.

The line of frozen pies, licensed to American Pie, passed the $60 million sales mark in 2003, when the restaurant chain itself posted sales of around $330 million. "Each leg on that stool is growing," Ratner said, while projecting that sales of Marie Callender-brand items would surpass $1 billion in 2004.

At the 150-unit restaurant group, a new "As You Like It" menu introduced this spring provides customers with lower-fat and lower-carbohydrate alternatives to regular core offerings. "For a concept like Marie Callender, known for heavy, home-style food, the As You Like It menu for guests is significant," Ratner said, adding that the restaurant's salad bar also helps customers who are counting carbohydrates.

Roasted turkey with tomato basil and grilled Atlantic salmon are among the entrees on the new menu--priced from $6.99 for a bunless burger to $14.99 for a pairing of top sirloin and a grilled lemon-pepper chicken breast.

The menu builds on the restaurant's updated image, which began with a remodeling program in 2001. Ratner said the company had "restyled 15 [restaurants] to date: we'll do 15 more this year."

The retrofit requires an investment of $150,000 to $200,000 per store, he said. He attributed to the revamp the chain's 5-percent gain in same-store sales for the fourth quarter of 2003, compared with the year-earlier period, and a 6.4-percent same-store increase for the first quarter of 2004.

In addition, the chain has moved away from discounted pie sales toward premium-pie promotions, offering such new pie flavors for the summer as Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Caramel Cappuccino Cream Cheese and Lemon Drop.