Marie Callender Plans 10 New Restaurants

Marie Callender Pie Shops Inc. said Tuesday that it will open as many as 10 new Marie Callender’s family-style restaurants during 1997, including locations in Texas and Nevada.

The expansion will include a new restaurant design that incorporates a traditional dining room as well as new “cafe seating” and food-to-go sections, according to Leonard Dreyer, Marie Callender’s chief executive.

As many as six locations will be opened in Houston, Austin and San Antonio, Dreyer said. The privately held company also will add restaurants in Las Vegas and San Diego. When the expansion is completed, the Orange-based restaurant chain will have 160 locations in California, Nevada and Texas.

The take-home counter is driven by increased consumer demand for prepared food that’s eaten at home. “We felt it was time to acknowledge that on some nights, our [customers] are just stopping to pick up dinner on the way home,” Dreyer said.

The cafe seating is being added to “appeal to those wanting a place somewhere between work and home to relax with friends over a cappuccino or a glass of wine,” Dreyer said.

Earlier this year, Marie Callender Pie Shops purchased the 75-unit East Side Mario’s restaurant chain from Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo. Those restaurants are in the eastern U.S. and Canada.