Don Callender

Who was Don Callender?

Don Callender was an American restaurateur and co-founder of the Marie Callender's chain of restaurants and Babe's Bar-B-Que & Brewery barbecue restaurant in Rancho Mirage, California.

In 1948, Callender and his mother Marie turned her home-based pie baking business into a wholesale baking operation. He would later be credited as the first restaurateur to offer franchise operations, with the first Marie Callender's franchisee opening in Orange, California, in 1964.

Callender remained active in the restaurant business even after selling the chain in the late 1980s.

His final restaurant project was to be a second, gigantic 21,000 square foot Babe's in Indio, California. Health issues forced Callender out of the project who instead leased the building to the Kaiser Restaurant Group, a local restaurant management group. It opened the day after Callender died as Jackalope Ranch, an eclectic Southwestern-themed barbecue. He died in Corona del Mar, California.