St. Louis-based Katie Lee, a two-time PMQ Pizza cover star, just opened a fourth location of her uber-popular Katie’s Pizza & Pasta, this one in Crestwood, Missouri. Meanwhile, her eponymous brand’s most impressive growth may be happening far beyond the restaurant walls.
According to the company, her rapidly expanding consumer packaged goods (CPG) line—simply called Katie’s and featuring frozen pizzas, pasta bakes, sauces and pantry items—keeps gaining traction in grocery stores across the country and will expand into thousands of additional retail locations in 2026. As PMQ has previously reported, Lee scored a nationwide deal with Target last year after rallying her team to make 400,000 pizzas by hand in 96 days to fulfill the chain’s first order.
Importantly, the new Katie’s Pizza & Pasta location underscores how the brand’s restaurant roots continue to drive its growing retail presence. “Restaurant credibility is our foundation,” Lee said in a statement. “Retail didn’t change our standards—it gave us a way to bring them to more people.”
Related: Keep an Eye on Katie Lee: She’s About to Become a Nationwide Brand
“My mission has always been to bring clean comfort food to everyone,” Lee said. “Katie’s was built so that no matter where you are, you can sit down to something real, with clean ingredients, made with care. As a busy working mom, it’s hard to find convenient, real food, so we made it ourselves.”
Retail Growth Accelerates
While Lee’s restaurants remain the heart of the brand, retail business has become its fastest-growing segment. According to a press release, Katie’s frozen pizzas have been responsible for 8.4% of all frozen-pizza category growth in the natural grocery channel and rank among the top 10 sales drivers in multi-outlet retail (MULO), accounting for 3.5% of category growth across those outlets.
The company says its pantry products are seeing even faster gains. Sales of its sauces, olive oil and balsamic line have grown 91%, while product velocity (the speed at which the products sell off the shelf) has increased 8.8%. According to the press release, these figures significantly outpace competing brands.
Meanwhile, Katie’s marinara has earned a 95% clean-label rating on the Yuka consumer food-scanning app.
Growth extends beyond pizza and sauces as well. Katie’s frozen entrées and pasta bakes are up 82% across MULO and natural grocery channels, according to the company. Additional distribution agreements are expected to add thousands more retail locations in 2026, further expanding the brand’s reach beyond its Midwestern restaurant base.
Despite the rapid retail expansion, Lee says the production process remains rooted in the same culinary approach used in her restaurants. Each pizza begins with 48-hour naturally leavened dough, is hand-stretched and cooked in wood-fired ovens, and is produced by chefs rather than fully automated lines.
In September 2025 St. Louis magazine reported that Lee’s CPG company, currently working out of a site in Creve Couer, Missouri, is planning a much larger facility in Bridgeton.
“Target is giving us all of this support, so we have to support Target by becoming a national brand in the three months they gave us to make this happen,” Lee told the magazine. “Basically, we had to become famous. That became the work of creating content and strategy and paid media and everything you have to do to support a launch like this. On top of making all of these pizzas, we had to build brand awareness, because if we don’t, the pizzas won’t sell.”
Location No. 4
At the same time, Lee continues to invest in her restaurant business. The newly opened Crestwood location marks her fourth restaurant and the company’s first ground-up freestanding building.
Built on the former Crestwood Mall site, the 400-seat restaurant was designed with inspiration from the mid-century modern Ridgewood homes created by architects Ralph and Mary Jane Fournier. The design aims to bring the progressive spirit of Crestwood’s 1950s suburban modernism back to the area.
The structure is organized like a modernist home, with a kitchen at its center and a light-filled dining room designed to evoke a living space. Natural materials and handcrafted details run throughout the building, including custom walnut millwork by local craftsman Dave Stine and artwork created by Lee’s mother, Belinda Lee.
A dedicated pasta-making room and a European-style open kitchen reinforce the brand’s emphasis on craftsmanship and transparency.
“This restaurant is a physical expression of everything we believe in—that food, design and community are all connected,” Lee said. “The same care that goes into every handmade pasta and every wood-fired pizza also went into the building itself.”
The opening also represents a personal milestone for Lee, a self-taught chef and entrepreneur who built the company independently while raising a family. Over the years, she has been named St. Louis Chef of the Year six consecutive times, while Katie’s has earned local honors including Best Pizza in St. Louis for 10 consecutive years and Best Pasta for seven years running.
Now, with four restaurants operating in the St. Louis area and a retail business expanding rapidly across the country, Lee says the goal remains the same as when she opened her first location: delivering restaurant-quality food built on clean ingredients and traditional techniques.
“For us, it’s always been about making real food with integrity,” Lee said. “Whether someone is sitting in our dining room or baking one of our pizzas at home, we want that same experience of quality and care.”
