Courtesy Katie's
Like all restaurateurs navigating the COVID-19 crisis that has wreaked devastation upon their businesses, Katie Lee-Collier, her husband and business partner, Ted Collier, and the entire Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria team have been forced to reckon with an uncertain present and an equally uncertain future. With their dining rooms shuttered and no idea when they will reopen for dine-in business, Lee-Collier and company have been singularly focused on keeping their business afloat and taking care of their employees. It’s been overwhelming, confusing, stressful, and, at times, so despair-inducing that they’ve felt like giving up—but it turns out the answer on how best to do so was closer than they’d thought.
Courtesy Katie's
“Frozen pizzas are going really well—so well that we can barely keep up,” Lee-Collier says. “Part of this is people not going out, so we don’t know what this will look like on the other side. But right now, it’s helping us keep the lights on and keep our people mentally excited and hopeful.”
If Lee-Collier had her wish, she would have never gotten into the frozen pizza business—at least not this way. Forced to get creative in navigating the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for their businesses, the Colliers made the pivot to frozen food in mid-March. At that time, they had closed both their Rock Hill and Town and County dining rooms, hoping that takeout and delivery service of their restaurant menu would provide the lifeline that would help them support their employees and keep the business afloat.
Though takeout and delivery business was steady—good even—the Colliers knew they were capable of more. As Lee-Collier explains, the Katie’s Pizza & Pasta team was uniquely poised to move so quickly into the frozen pizza business because of failure.
Courtesy Katie's
“We had our [Vero] meal kits that failed. We lost money; we still have debt. We found out that people don’t like to cook, and even though we tried to romanticize it, we weren’t successful,” Lee-Collier says. “We were losing so much money, and it was a nightmare. I’d just had a baby and was spread too thin. We decided to forget it and go back to focusing on the restaurants, but that left us with all of the equipment, packaging, website, web developer—all of these things that we had been working on for three years were at our fingertips, so we were able to quick-start a frozen pizza company in three or four days.”
Courtesy Katie's
Black Garlic & Artichoke Pizza, with black garlic butter, Baetje Farms goat cheese, artichokes, swiss chard, parmigiano, lemon, and honey
The Colliers launched their frozen pizza line on March 19 and have been overwhelmed with the response. In the weeks since they began selling the products, they have shut down lunchtime takeout and delivery of their restaurant menu, so they can put more time into meeting the demand. They’ve added frozen pasta to their repertoire and have even created an entire operation dedicated solely to the production of the frozen offerings, all while keeping the price point low ($8–$9 each, roughly half the price of a typical Katie’s pizza in the dining room).
Photos by Gregg Goldman
Lemon Strozzapretti with cauliflower and pistachio gremolata; Fiori Arrabiatta with arugula and mascarpone
Lee-Collier is thrilled that the product line’s success is giving her the means to take care of her restaurant family in the midst of this crisis. However, she sees the frozen pizzas and pastas as continuing on well after the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic ends, not just because of their reception but because of the new normal that the food and beverage industry faces.
“We definitely think that, with the economy and unemployment being what they are, we have to change our model and be more economical,” Lee-Collier explains. “We don’t want to change who we are, but we are going to use much more humble ingredients in a beautiful way. It seems like it’s almost going to be offensive to use burrata and squash blossoms. It’s like we are in wartime. People don’t have money, and they are scared. We’re not expecting them to want to spend a lot on food for a while.”
Lee-Collier also sees the collective trauma the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked on society as having a lingering effect on dining habits. “I think people are going to have PTSD from all of this,” Lee-Collier adds. “My mother is over 65, and she is terrified right now. She says that, in a month or whenever this ends, she’s not going back to how she lived before. That mental state people are in is going to make us have to figure out how to serve food so people feel safe. People aren’t going to want to be three-deep at the bar anymore.”
Though they must figure out what the new normal will look like for their business, the Colliers remain presently focused on helping their employees get through this difficult time. The company is donating 100 percent of its fresh pasta sales to its employee emergency fund, which they are personally matching 100 percent. They are also giving all delivery fees and tips to their cooks and servers-turned-drivers while making sure that those who do not want to work are taken care of. And their efforts are not limited to their company. The Colliers have also donated to the Gateway Resilience Fund, an entity set up to assist those in hospitality industry who have been impacted by the pandemic. They're also giving away meals to doctors and nurses who are on the front lines. As Lee-Collier explains, having something bigger than herself to focus on in the crisis is what is getting her through—plus the unyielding hope that things will get better.
“We will all come out of this,” Lee-Collier says. “I think I’m getting this from a cheesy Garth Brooks song, but when you look at the things you’ve lost—and you lose so much over your life—you look back and are grateful for that because you’ve found another path.”
Cheryl Baehr also contributes to the Riverfront Times.
Photo by Gregg Goldman
