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Marie Callender's opens Medford eatery Restaurant chain, famous for pies, opens at the former Wild Plum site By DAVID PRESZLER Any fresh-baked pie famine that may have broken out on Biddle Road since the Wild Plum closed in August ends today. Marie Callender's, a nationwide restaurant chain renowned for its fresh-baked pies, will open at 4 p.m. at 1528 Biddle Road -- the same spot Wild Plum held for 14 years. Marie Callender's has more than 250 stores concentrated on the West Coast and is a full-service restaurant and bakery. "We make everything from scratch," says general manager Eddy Stiffler, a Rogue Valley native who formerly managed Medford's Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant. "Everything we have, we still make it the old-fashioned way, just like Mom used to make it." The restaurant features lunches and dinners and both eat-in and take-out desserts. Stiffler expects to sell 500 to 800 takeout pies daily at the Medford restaurant, based on sales at other locations. Marie Callender's will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant has 127 employees. Major remodeling has been under way since Marie Callender's took over the building in August. "When you come in now, it's night and day," Stiffler says. "It is a 1000 percent difference. We basically gutted the entire inside and put all-new everything inside." The old kitchen, booths and several interior walls were replaced. The 6,100-square-foot restaurant will seat about 150 people initially and about 50 more in January when a patio is completed. "They've been working night and day," Stiffler says of the remodeling. "They are still doing some final touches right now." The restaurant franchisee is Cal First Enterprises, owned by Joe Wong of Redding, Calif. Wong's company also owns the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar in Medford. Applebee's is just south of Marie Callender's on Biddle Road. Stiffler says having two restaurants so close isn't an issue because the two have different offerings. Wong has a similar situation in Redding, where the Applebee's and Marie Callender's he owns are just down the street from one another. Aside from the Medford restaurants, Wong owns three other Marie Callender's restaurants, three other Applebee's restaurants and 11 Burger King restaurants, all in Northern California. Oregon's three other Marie Callender's are in Eugene, Salem and Gresham. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA