Katie Lee, founder of KATIE'S Pizza & Pasta and a St. Louis-based consumer-packaged-goods operation with distribution across more than 5,000 retail outlets nationwide, is marking the release of her debut memoir Unemployable: The Katie Lee Story with a public event on Oct. 8 at Clayton High School — the same institution she left at age 15.
The free evening, hosted by Left Bank Books and the Left Bank Books Foundation, begins at 6 p.m. at 1 Mark Twain Circle, Clayton, MO. Lee will appear in conversation with Catherine Neville, Executive Vice President of Community Engagement at Explore St. Louis, followed by a book signing. RSVPs are required.
The Operator Behind the Book
Lee's commercial footprint spans four KATIE'S Pizza & Pasta locations, a fine-Italian-foods CPG line sold at more than 5,000 retail doors, and a 300-acre farm-to-table property — a portfolio that situates Unemployable squarely in the operator-memoir genre alongside titles from other chef-founders who have used publishing to extend brand reach and recruit franchise or licensing interest. For foodservice operators and development professionals, the memoir format has become a credible vehicle for articulating brand origin stories to prospective area development partners and wholesale buyers alike.
The book's release comes at a moment when regional independent restaurant brands are increasingly leveraging founder narrative as a differentiation tool in a crowded full-service pizza segment. Farm-to-table sourcing stories and CPG extensions — both pillars of the KATIE'S model — have gained traction as operators seek to diversify revenue beyond the four walls and offset ongoing labor and food-cost pressure.
St. Louis as a Food Market
The choice of Clayton High School as the event venue carries deliberate symbolism: Lee dropped out at 15, ultimately building a multi-unit concept and retail brand in the same metro market. Left Bank Books owner Kris Kleindienst described the memoir as arriving with "empathy, hope, and a dash of humor," drawing a comparison to Anthony Bourdain's kitchen-culture candor and Mary Karr's confessional prose style. That positioning should resonate with the independent-restaurant community, where founder-led storytelling carries outsized weight with both consumers and potential wholesale or licensing partners.
St. Louis has grown as a foodservice market of note, with independent operators — alongside regional chains — driving dining-room traffic and off-premise volume in ways that increasingly attract attention from national brand operators scouting expansion corridors. KATIE'S multi-unit presence and CPG reach give Lee's story a unit-economics dimension that distinguishes Unemployable from purely culinary memoirs.
Attendees unable to attend the Oct. 8 event can order signed copies through Left Bank Books. The event is supported by the Left Bank Books Foundation, which funds literary programming across the St. Louis region.
For more on independent restaurant brand strategy and operator-led CPG growth, see related coverage in our restaurant business and food and beverage sections.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
