The Blue Owl Restaurant and Bakery, Kimmswick, Missouri 

Imagine a homemade apple pie that is so big it takes 18 apples to fill it, was named after a flood barrier, and has appeared on television twice because of its originality.

This is not a typical pie that can be found in an average grocery store. The Levee High Apple Pie is only one of the many desserts created by The Blue Owl Restaurant and Bakery in Kimmswick, Missouri.

Between its irresistible charm and inviting menu, The Blue Owl has taken flight since it began more than two decades ago.

The Blue Owl is painted a bright ocean blue with white trimmings and has a wide, open veranda that echoes Southern culture and style. Round white tables with spurts of red bouquets and placemats sporting The Blue Owl’s signature blue color spot the veranda. Ceiling fans keep the customers cool as live music performed by a zither player fills the air.

“It’s very homey and country,” said St. Louis native and diner Joan Dieckmann. “The waitresses dress in long bibs [aprons], and it gives them a cozy old farmhouse wife look.”

  Inside, the paneled walls are adorned with colored lights, framed newspaper clippings and homemade decorations dedicated to the staff and family. The bakery at the back of the restaurant exhibits rows of pies, cookies and other baked goodies. One especially interesting and personal touch to the restaurant is the collection of blue owls displayed in a wooden cabinet in the front dining room. Regular customers and friends bring these collectables as gifts of friendship and thanks, and each blue owl has a story attached. 

Southern hospitality is a crucial characteristic of the The Blue Owl’s personality, and it is encouraged by the restaurant and bakery’s owner, Mary Hostetter.

Hostetter began her life as an entrepreneur in 1983 when she began baking out of her own small kitchen and selling her confections at craft fairs in South St. Louis County in order to support herself and her two young daughters.

Locals responded enormously to her product, and by Christmas 1984 she had to bake 30,000 cookies to fill the massive amount of orders that kept arriving.

Hostetter worked 21 hours a day, seven days a week for three weeks in order to complete the Christmas rush. With such a rise in demand, Hostetter was left with a decision to make: either upgrade to a commercial-sized kitchen or begin searching for another job in the corporate world.

In the summer of 1985, she met Lucianna Ross, who at the time had been restoring a small town right outside St. Louis called Kimmswick. They combined Hostetter’s baking business with the concept of a country tearoom, and the current The Blue Owl Restaurant and Bakery was born.

Hostetter then faced the struggles accompanying the maintenance of her restaurant.

Kimmswick is off the beaten path, which led to difficult challenges for Hostetter in developing The Blue Owl. She said she had to work constantly to build and maintain a good reputation.

The Blue Owl received the AOL Cityguide’s Best Dessert award in St. Louis in 2006. It was this award that took her business to the next level by attracting the attention of the Food Network program “Road Tasted” with Jamie and Bobby Deen, the sons of celebrity cook Paula Deen.

“We got a call from New York, and I actually heard that we had won the [AOL] award from [The Food Network] before I even knew we had won it,” Hostetter said. “And they told me that they were interested in featuring me on a new show on the Food Network. At first I actually thought it was a friend playing a prank on me!”

Soon Hostetter was sending samples of her treats to New York to be tested for their quality and for their likeness to the taste of good old-fashioned Southern comfort food.

“They were looking for Paula-friendly recipes with lots of ingredients like butter and pecans,” she said.

In May 2006, Hostetter and her famous 16-pound Levee High Apple Pie were televised nationwide with the Deen boys by her side. One year later, Hostetter and her famous pie were featured on Paula’s own show in Savannah, Georgia.

In a world of cutting-edge cuisine where artsy — and pricey — style precedes satisfaction, Hostetter created a place to remember what good food is really all about: the feeling.

“It’s a good place to have a lady’s luncheon or to celebrate a birthday,” said St. Louis native Kathy Young, who goes to The Blue Owl every year. “It’s a special place to go. It’s good food and great service all in a cute little town.”

The concept of family is integral to the philosophy of the restaurant. Most of the 75 staff members are long-term employees of The Blue Owl, making the restaurant feel like home to regular customers and to the staff itself. As for the food, many recipes and treats have a much deeper connection to patrons than the average menu. In the beginning of the restaurant’s life, the menu was composed entirely of family recipes. As time went on, Hostetter began collecting recipes from customers and Blue Owl employees.

These recipes are close to many people’s hearts and are shared through the nine cookbooks featuring the restaurant’s most requested recipes, each published in celebration of an anniversary and most of them dedicated to close friends and family. Though some restaurant businesses hesitate to share special recipes, Hostetter refuses to withhold her recipes from the public.

“It doesn’t hurt business at all to share our recipes, because customers come back [to our restaurant] for the atmosphere and the people,” Hostetter said.

Hostetter has been successful over the years, and the future is looking bright as well. Serving an average of 300 people daily on weekdays and between 600 and 700 daily on weekends, business keeps growing.

With the expanding fortune, prospective plans for The Blue Owl include increasing the online ordering and shipping department
and a 10th addition to the cookbook series.

The most rewarding part of successfully running The Blue Owl is making people happy, said Hostetter. Her products bring a touch of a culture not always available to people in the Midwest, and through her efforts, Hostetter turned nothing into something extraordinary.

“I’ve been on my feet for 22 years,” she said with a smile.

“The next thing in my future will be a vacation!”