Carrie Morey: On a Roll
“The less you mess with the dough, the better.”
This little nugget is tucked, like chunks of butter in pillows of flour, into step number five of the seven steps by which one makes Callie’s Classic Buttermilk Biscuits. It’s the beautiful paradox of Carrie Morey’s seemingly self-rising empire of all that’s flakey, buttery, high carb and delicious: less is more.
Morey tries to keep it simple—good ingredients, good people, hand-made, hand-rolled biscuits, plenty of butter. But even so, more is where things are headed for Callie’s Charleston Biscuits, the mail-order business she launched in 2005 with her mother (the namesake Callie, who retired soon after) and for Hot Little Biscuits, the retail countertop division with locations on King Street (just look for the long line out the door), in the Market and now expanded to Atlanta and soon Charlotte, “our biggest storefront yet,” she says.
What started as a homespun family kitchen operation 15 years ago with Morey, often accompanied by her three young daughters up to their elbows in flour, has morphed into managing an industrial kitchen and a team of 60, serving hot biscuits to customers and shipping them (as well as other Southern specialty food items) frozen across the globe. Along the way, Morey has published a best-selling cookbook and become the media darling for Southern hospitality and home-baked goodness, appearing at food festivals, in print and on air, from the New York Times and Martha Stewart to Food & Wine and the “Today” show. But humility and hard work remain her central ingredients.
“I’m not a chef, I’m a cook. My goal was to be a mom and run a business, and my priority has always been my family,” says Morey, whose daughters are now grown up, and the oldest, Caroline—a high school student—a valued Hot Little Biscuit part-time employee.
“I told her I didn’t care where she worked, but when she turned 14, she had to find a job,” says Morey, who credits her father for her own relentless work ethic. “Turns out she loves working the King Street counter.”
But that work/family balancing act is as hard as mastering that innate sense of when there’s just enough butter mixed just-so in the dough.
“When you’re growing a business, no matter how good the team, you’re still the one humping it,” says Morey, who shares her entrepreneurial lessons-learned as a guest lecturer at the College of Charleston School of Business.
Just how big her business grows remains to be seen—especially with the launch this year of a national PBS show, “How She Rolls.”
“I’d love for (the business) to be really big, but my main goal is to be a good motivator for my team,” she says. “When people come to work for us, my daughters included, I want to have a positive impact on them, to teach them the value of working hard, and the importance of being kind and respectful.”
Strong values and simple ingredients—that’s how Morey’s biscuits rise.
We don't blame you if you're suddenly in the mood for a warm biscuit. Visit Callie's Hot Little Biscuit on King Street any morning of the week and learn more about Morey's vision in this short video created by Charleston Wine + Food.
