Southern Drawl: Always at the Table

In Charleston, Carrie Morey hardly needs an introduction. As founder of Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit, she turned a beloved family biscuit recipe into a nationally recognized brand, authored two cookbooks and welcomed viewers into her world through public television. But beyond the accolades and entrepreneurial success are the roles she values most: mother, wife, and the steady heartbeat of a family that has always come first. The rest of the story happens somewhere between these milestones, found in the moments that connect them and the life she's built around the people she loves. From the beginning, her goal has been to build a career that keeps her family at its center.

When asked if she’s more of a cook, chef or baker, she responds, “I'm just a mom who loves to cook, entertain, and feed people, and I have a particular affinity for Southern biscuits.” What might surprise you is that while her business is centered around baking, she doesn’t consider herself a baker. “Biscuits are not the same as baking because they are forgiving,” Morey says. “That’s why I gravitated towards them because they don’t require the exactness of baked goods.”

Aside from her work and family, she finds joy in exercise, which helps set the tone for her day. For her, the routine is all about strengthening her mental state. It uplifts her mood. “I need it every day,” she says. And on the rare occasion that she chooses to skip it, her body notices because she feels off. “When people say exercise is like a drug, it is. The best kind, right?” she says. Her routine changes from spin class and yoga to tai chi, strength training and stretching but the purpose always remains the same: to feel centered.

Her Daily Bread

To Morey, the idea of Southern comfort comes from the culmination of many things. “I think of home, of family supper, gathering around the table, whether that’s my table or my parents’. I also think of being on the boat, growing up in the 

Lowcountry. We spent a ton of time on the water, just going through the creeks and the waterways with no real agenda other than being outside and enjoying nature.” 

Growing up, biscuits were the bread of her dinner table. At her grandmother’s, they were served hot, straight out of the oven. “It was breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert,” Morey says. “She would tell us to stick our thumb in the side of the biscuit and fill it up with imitation maple syrup and that was our dessert.” She says biscuits provided much of the family’s sustenance growing up.

It wasn’t until after she was married that Morey felt an undeniable pull to create a nightly ritual around the supper table. “That was before we had children and before I had an idea for a biscuit business. And so the irony is that the daily bread was our biscuits on the table.” 

Life has a funny way of shaping us. Morey’s parents split when she was young and a nightly family dinner wasn’t the norm. She sought to create what she hadn’t had as a child—the ritual of sitting down for family supper. “It's such a connection,” 

Morey says. “It was a no-brainer for me. It had to happen.”

She’s glad that it did. As hard as some days were to maintain the tradition, she says her kids now crave it. “I've got a  22-year-old, a 19-year-old, and an 18-year-old, and they're still asking me, ‘What's for supper? Can I bring so-and-so over?”

She had a big dinner the night before when one of her daughters had three friends over. “It’s just magical. It can turn your day around. It is such a space of gratitude and it just sets the tone for a good night's sleep.”

Carrie started Callie’s without a business plan. She thought it would scratch the itch for a creative side hustle that would let her family remain the center of her orbit. It’s become much bigger than that, forcing her to make plenty of tough decisions. “There have been times where I’ve had to say, ‘Okay, do I continue down this path, or is this gonna get in the way of what I originally set out to do?’” she says.

She’s constantly reminding herself to stay focused on what she calls the “beacon of light” that has guided her to this point. As new opportunities arise, she considers whether pursuing them might pull her away from the original reason she started and how each decision could affect her family. She openly acknowledges that she’s made mistakes and taken on commitments that stretched her too thin. “But then, I always go, I’m grateful for that opportunity, but I really need to get back to what I originally started here,” A business built around a table with family. 

calliesbiscuits.com