Marie Callender’s Shutters in Simi, Northridge Remains Open

Pie-making folks at Marie Callender's have baked their last dessert in Simi Valley, limiting Chatsworth dinners to the nearby Northridge eatery.

The restaurant was one of 31 nationwide shuttered by the parent company, Memphis-based Perkins, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.

The Simi Valley restaurant is at 20 W. Cochran St. And the restaurant at 6081 Center Drive in Los Angeles, also closed.

The closures were so sudden, some diners were forced to leave while they were still eating between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Locations in Northridge at 19310 Business Center Dr., and Valencia at 27630 The Old Road,  plus others in the Los Angeles area remain open.

"Unfortunately, the Simi Valley location was closed on Sunday," said spokeswoman Vivian Brooks. "We are encouraging our employees to apply for positions at other locations."

Brooks did not know the number of employees who lost their jobs in Simi Valley.

None of the 14 Marie Callender’s restaurants in Orange County, including the original pie shop opened in Orange 60 years ago, was impacted by the closures. Of the 13 locations closed in California, most were in the northern part of the state.

In a prepared statement, Perkins & Marie Callender’s said restaurants in California,
Florida and Nevada, where restaurants are mostly concentrated, have been hardest hit by the “recession and the decline of housing prices.”

Other states hit by closures are: Arizona (5); Nevada (2); Oklahoma (2); Oregon (3); Texas (1); Utah (2); Washington (3).

At least four Marie Callender’s restaurants closed in 2010, according to the company’s third-quarter financial statement filed in October. Marie Callender’s same-store sales, a key indicator of a restaurant’s financial health, decreased by 4.1 percent in the third-quarter.

In that same quarter, Perkins & Marie Callender’s reported a $12.3 million net loss on top of sales of $108.7 million.

In 2006, Marie Callender’s merged with Perkins in a stock-for-stock transaction deal that combined two of the nation’s most well-known bakery-cafe chains. Back then, Perkins operated 500 coffee shops. Marie Callender’s had 138 locations.

Today, Marie Callender’s operates 89 restaurants. Perkins operates nearly 450
restaurants in the Midwest and southeast regions of the country.

The legacy of Marie Callender began in the early 1940s in Orange County where she was an accomplished baker.

By 1948 with the help of her husband, Cal, and son Don, they turned a home-based bakery into a bona fide business complete with a wholesale bakery.

Within years, Callender was making 200-plus pies a day.

The first retail pie shop opened in 1964 in Orange.

These are the 31 closed restaurants, according to the Orange County Register:

2090 Diamond Blvd. Concord, CA; 20 W. Cochran Street, Simi Valley, CA; 1990 Trower Ave., Napa, CA; 1101 S. California Boulevard, Walnut Creek, CA; 2460 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa, CA; 3400 Clares Street, Capitola, CA; 5B Serramonte Center, Daly City , CA; 9134 E. Stockton Blvd., Elk Grove, CA; 18070 San Ramon Valley Blvd., San Ramon, CA; 1391 N. Davis Rd., Salinas, CA; 1435 V Street Merced, CA; 790 W. Winton Ave., Hayward, CA; 6081 Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA.

A line of frozen foods with the Marie Callender's name is produced by ConAgra and is not involved in the bankruptcy.

Various news sources, including the Marie Callender’s website, contributed to this report.