Katie McGuire's pies: good isn't always pretty

Nation's Restaurant News, June 15, 1992 by Richard Martin

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - Kaye Bass strove for faultless coiffures and impeccable tresses when she owned a full-service hair salon before her baking hobby propelled her into the restaurant business.

Since opening the first Katie McGuire's Pie and Bake Shoppe in 1983, however, Bass has shown a preference for "good" over "pretty" and "wonderful" over "perfection."

"We had a decision to make nine years ago whether we were going to make a pretty pie or a good pie," she explained, adding her belief that "anytime you see a perfect piece of pie, I guarantee it's not wonderful."

Her penchant for flaky-crusted, handmade pies - the kind that mothers once routinely baked from scratch - results in an occasional tell-tale imperfection in the crimp of the crust or the summetry of a lattice top.

But fans of Katie McGuire's and its old-fashioned, home-styled baked goods have helped the modest franchise concept grow to become a 17-unit cafe and takeout chain in Southern California, with four more outlets under development and plans brewing for franchise expansion into Northern California, Arizona and Nevada.

"You'd be amazed," Bass pointed out, "how many times someone will say, |Give me that one,'" after spotting a pie with an endearing defect that speaks of home-style baking. Evident in the by-hand application of lattice-top crusts on almost all 400 to 500 pies the chain sells on a typical day, the homemade touch of Katie McGuire's also is tasted by pie connoisseurs.

"As far as I know," Bass said, "Katie's is the only one that does lemon meringue pie from scratch every day with fresh-squeezed lemon juice."

Bass, now a 52-year-old mother of three and grandmother of six, launched her country-style chain in 1983 by taking over a struggling cookie shop on Balboa Island in Newport Beach, Calif.

In 1985, after the debut of two more stores, Bass opened a 5,000-square-foot commissary in Huntington Beach to curtail the unpredictable individuality that was beginning to creep into the baking styles of the budding chain's pastry chefs.

In addition to ensuring consistency, Katie McGuire's Inc.'s prepared-food sales to franchisees also provide the bulk of the Huntington Beach-based franchisor's $3 million annual revenues, including franchising fees and sales royalties.

The commissary's 15-person staff makes and quick-chills all the pies, potpies, quiches, breads, cakes, cookie doughs, pastries, soups, chili and other prepared dishes that are distributed to the chain's 17 franchised outlets. The actual baking and heating is done at the unit level except for the optional "take 'n' bake" fruit and chicken pie items that customers can finish in their own home ovens.

If 20-plus scratch-cooked pie varieties helped Katie McGurie's to sprout from entrepreneurial roots, modest lunch prices and the growing popularity of espreso drinks are fostering new growth.

Burgeoning demand for cappuccino and "gourmet" coffee have sparked breakfast sales of scones, croissants, buns and muffins, she explained. "And our lunches have really taken off. We try really hard to give [customers] a good, wholesome lunch for under $5."

Chicken potpie is $2.75. A slice of quiche - Lorraine, broccoli or spinach - is $ 2.25. Among other items are a chili bowl, $2.35; macaroni and cheese, $1.95; and Katie's Seven Layer Salad, $1.95. A best-selling selection is soup, a half sandwich (chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad, ham and cheese or turkey) and a piece of pie for $4.50.

Whole pies - $5.95 to $6.95 - account for the bulk of take-home sales. But the increase in eat-in business in the last three years has shifted take-home pastry sales from 78 percent of total volume to 50 percent.

The menu of Katie McGuire's may be simple, and the annual sales of the chain's average unit may be a modest $300,000 per year, with the busiest doing about $400,000 annually. But the concept's start-up costs and operating overhead appear similarly unprepossessing.

Bass said a typical in-line, 1,200-square-foot-to-1,500-square-foot outlet costs between $50,000 and $150,000 to open. Most of the chain's cafes can devote only about 250 square feet to inside dining, at about 10 tables with 16 to 20 seats. "We could use more; we love it if [a site] has outside seating," she remarked.

Katie McGurie's currently has five outlets in Orange County, 10 in San Bernardino County and single units in Fresno and Santa Maria. The four new franchised units under development will expand the chain to opposite ends of California, into the Sacramento and San Diego markets.