Subsidiary | |
Headquarters | Nashville, Tennessee |
Number of locations
|
46 (2011) |
Parent | American Blue Ribbon Holdings, LLC |
Website | bakerssquare.com |
Bakers Square Restaurant & Pies (also known as Bakers Square) is a casual dining restaurant chain in the United States. Known for its pies, Bakers Square also offers full breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. The chain is owned by American Blue Ribbon Holdings. As of July 2011, it had 46 locations.
Bakers Square began in December 1969 with a restaurant called Mrs. C's in Des Moines, Iowa, that became popular for its pies.Pillsbury purchased Mrs. C's around that time, renamed it Poppin' Fresh Pies, and opened additional locations. VICORP, owners of the Village Inn restaurant chain, purchased Poppin' Fresh Pies from Pillsbury in 1983 and renamed the chain Bakers Square.
Bakers Square restaurants are primarily found in the Upper Midwest. Except for the Des Moines area, Bakers Square and Village Inn operate in separate markets without overlap. The original Mrs. C's restaurant, on Merle Hay Road in Des Moines, remained in business as a Bakers Square until it closed on April 2, 2008, as parent company VICORP filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 2009, American Blue Ribbon Holdings, a company owned by Fidelity National Financial and Newport Global Advisors, acquired the assets of VICORP, including Village Inn and Bakers Square.
In late 1993, VICORP acquired from Eric A. Holm the rights to the small Florida chain Angel’s Diner. Unfortunately Holm had also sold the rights to Golden Corral, and VICORP was forced to pay Golden Corral $1 million to secure the exclusive rights. The intent was to convert under-performing Village Inn and Bakers Square units to this new concept. After building seven units, VICORP realized that the concept was not economically viable and wrote off $11M on the venture. During this time, Eric Holm filed for personal bankruptcy.