Austin Harrison

Pie: Made Possible By A Series Of Opportunities

 

AUSTIN, Texas – In 1987, Bud Royer stumbled upon an opportunity that would take him out of his job in the oil business and into a 40-seat café in Round Top, Texas.

 

This opportunity however was not what he was looking for. Royer had previously worked as a manager in the restaurant business for 15 years and did not want to go back.

 

“It was about survival,” Royer said. “I had been out of work for a couple of years in the mid 80’s with four kids, I had to make it happen.”

 

Royer’s Round Top Café has now been open for 27 years and continues to see steady growth as they have recently opened two sister restaurants under the name Royer’s Pie Haven.

 

The first Royer’s Pie Haven location opened up across the street from the café in July 2011 and the second location opened up here in Austin in November 2013. The Austin location has recently seen steady growth, as they now sell around 200 pies a week, which is an increase from the previous 150 pies a week.

 

Over the course of a year Royer’s Pie Haven in Austin sells enough pies to reach the top of the tower at The University of Texas at Austin almost three times over.

 

What is unbelievable about that statistic is that Royer did not even know how to make a pie before he opened up his café in 1987.

 

“When we took over the café a friend of mine offered to give me a recipe for a four-ingredient piecrust,” Royer said. “She said that if you are going to have a small country café in Texas you got to have pie.”

 

The simplicity of the piecrust is the reason why every pie is still made in Round Top, a small Texas town that sits halfway between Houston and Austin.

 

By centralizing the baking location Royer was able to cut cost by not investing in expensive ovens for the Royer’s Pie Haven in Austin, which still makes goods other than pie in house.

 

“All of the gluten free products are made in house by our baker Abby,” said Caroline DeBruhl, employee for the Royer’s Pie Haven in Austin. “We have also had very extensive coffee training and know how long an espresso shot should be.”

 

Providing a variety of products to a new consumer base in Austin is designed to appeal to the cities diversity, which is apart of Royer’s master marketing scheme.

 

The company has been making marketing magic for years as they consistently spend nothing on advertising and still get people to travel an hour and twenty minutes or more for a piece of pie.

 

Reason for which is a result of the people seeing the delicious pies as an extension of a larger brand Bud Royer has been able to build and embody.

 

“Pie is a more humble thing, it never lies about what it is, which is simple and humble in its means,” DeBruhl said.