 Marcia Chamberlain pours melted chocolate to create ‘Heavenly Chocolate’ pies at Tootie Pie Co. in Boerne. The company uses recipes developed by Ruby Lorraine ‘Tootie’ Feagan, who won fame for her apple pie. Photos by Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News By Adolfo Pesquera
San Antonio Express-News Before San Antonio entrepreneur Don Merrill even thought to gamble on Ruby Lorraine “Tootie” Feagan’s knowledge of pie making, she was already a celebrity. Featured on television’s Texas Country Reporter, in Texas Monthly, The New York Times and food writer John T. Edge’s “Apple Pie: An American Story,” Tootie’s apple pies were legend. A 2004 news story piqued Merrill’s interest when Tootie mentioned that she wanted to sell the business. Her enterprise was a microbakery in the 250-square-foot kitchen of her home in the little town of Medina. Sales were largely confined to Medina, where Tootie Pies were the main event at the town’s annual Apple Festival. But Merrill had to figure out: Could a pie made totally from scratch be mass-produced without losing that Tootie magic?  Tootie Feagan is now a consultant for Tootie Pie in Boerne. His wife, Cathy Merrill, and Keese took over Tootie’s secret recipes and got to work. Tootie, now 76 and sem-retired, is a consultant for the company. Her recorded voice still greets callers to the company’s new bakery at 129 Industrial Drive in Boerne. After Tootie’s kitchen was up-sized, Merrill’s question evolved. Can a commercial kitchen mass-produce a great pie that will sell as a high-end dessert at $24 to $30 a pie? Bill Fisher, president of the San Antonio distribution center for Sysco Corp., offered his gung-ho answer: “Have you tried a Tootie Pie? Oh, my gosh!” Houston-based Sysco Corp. is North America’s largest food service distributor. It delivers to restaurants, hospitals, schools, hotels and industrial caterers. One taste and Fisher visualized Tootie pies on menus in fine eateries. It’s unusual for a start-up to convince Sysco to include a product in its offerings, Fisher said. But the product spoke for itself, and Fisher was impressed with the company’s management. Fisher assigned Sysco’s in-house baker, John Braham, to work with Merrill.  Don Merrill is CEO of Tootie Pie, which last year sold more than 23,000 pies. The company’s stock will soon trade over the counter. The ticker symbol? TOOT. At Tootie, Merrill brought in longtime friend David Patterson to be chief financial officer. Patterson had been an accounting supervisor for Tesoro Corp. and a founding partner in Guardian Food Service Systems, a now-defunct distributorship. Rory Hanks, Patterson’s ex-partner in the food distributorship, added Tootie Pie to the line of products he offers buyers through Hanks Brokerage Inc. Asked why Hanks Brokerage is so dedicated to Tootie Pie, Hanks stood ramrod straight next to some pie samples, swung his hands toward them and let slip a sheepish grin. “I put it in my mouth,” Hanks said. “It was one of the best things I thought I had ever tasted. For the first hundred days, I did nothing but talk about the apple pie.” Hanks brokers products to Ben E. Keith, Tootie Pie’s other food distributor. The two distributorships sold one-third of Tootie’s pies last fall — the heavy season for the pie industry. Most other sales are retail via the Web. Kim Lee, a sales representative for Tootie Pie, thinks the homemade concept is what shakes people up. “Scratch baking has lost its point of reference,” Lee said. “Women think scratch is when you start with a prepackaged roll of dough. Uh-uh. There just isn’t anyone in this segment of the market. It’s a lost art.”  Marcia Chamberlain (left) and Joni Warren lift pies into the ovens at Tootie Pie in Boerne. The company is working to get its products distributed through Sysco, North America’s largest food service distributor. The year Tootie Feagan closed her kitchen, she made about 800 pies. In 2006, Tootie Pie Co. sold more than 23,000. The bakery advertises 10 pies, including the second-best-selling buttermilk. This article was published in the March 22 issue of the San Antonio Express-News. |
