Carrie Morey and the University of South Carolina were predestined.
It wasn’t kismet — it was her father.
“To be honest, I wasn’t given much of a choice,” the Charleston biscuit maker and entrepreneur says of where she went to college.
But Morey wouldn’t change a thing. And while the owner and creative force behind Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit — which just opened a location in Russell House — didn’t find the career she was passionate about while studying education as an undergraduate, she found everything else: confidence, friends, mentorship and a community she continues to pour into more than 20 years later.
“It was perfect for me,” Morey says of USC.
Gameday memories at Williams-Brice Stadium
Morey’s father, Don Bailey, played football at USC and went on to serve on the Board of Trustees. Morey’s earliest memories of the university were Saturdays at Wiliams-Brice Stadium, picking up fried chicken at Bernie’s before cheering on the Gamecocks.
“We were the family that had the stuffed tiger that was tied to a rope,” Morey says. “And we drug that from Charleston to Columbia for every home game. Not just the Clemson-Carolina game.”
When she was planning her wedding, Morey had to set a date around the fall football schedule. “Gamecocks were always first,” she laughs.
Now, she enjoys going to Soda City Market on Columbia’s Main Street or Kudzu Bakery & Market on Forest Drive to pick out local items to make a tailgate spread for her daughters, two of whom followed in her footsteps. Morey’s eldest is a recent Moore School graduate, while another is a sophomore studying hospitality management. Like their mother, both women are members of Kappa Delta sorority. Her youngest is forging her own path at Wofford College.
The wrong major, the right university
Morey was an education major while attending USC. She loved her classes, but she didn’t love the profession. It still taught her plenty.
“I knew just enough people. I met just enough new people,” the Charleston native says. “I experienced independence in a very positive way.”
While she never took a class with him, Morey says Harry E. "Sid" Varney, a former dean of the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management and friend of her father, became an invaluable mentor to her while at USC. She’d drop into the celebrated football coach's office at the Coliseum or ring him up on the phone to ask for advice or just to chat.
“He kept saying, ‘Why are you in education? You need to be in hospitality,’” Morey recalls. “He could see it and I couldn't.”
Morey was also president of her sorority, Kappa Delta.
That experience gave her the tools needed to open a business: conflict resolution, delegation, public speaking and vision.
“Being the president of my sorority made me a problem solver, a cheerleader, all the things that make up a decent entrepreneur,” Morey says. “And I didn't know that at the time, but it led me here.”
Biscuits and mentorship: Giving back to USC
Morey launched Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit in 2005 using her mother’s biscuit recipe. What began as a mail-order biscuit company has grown into a brand that ships nationwide, includes multiple storefronts, is sold at hundreds of grocery stores, and has led to cookbooks and a docuseries on PBS.
Her latest venture brings it back to her garnet-and-black roots. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit opened in the Russell House in August, serving up a variety of savory and sweet biscuit concoctions for students.
Morey has been on the ground to ensure her food connects with students. She’s passed out biscuits at First Night Carolina, among other days on campus , and recruited several students to be ambassadors for the brand.
It’s a more visible impact at the university she’s been steadily giving back to for years, namely through a mentorship program at the Darla Moore School of Business.
She does it because it’s what she needed when first starting out.
“When I started Callie's, I did not have anybody other than my father to talk to,” Morey recalls. “And starting a biscuit business? What I was trying to do didn't exist. And I just remember feeling so alone.”
Morey keeps up with her mentees. She knows the importance of having someone to call for advice or “just a therapy session,” especially in the beginning of a venture or career, and she hopes to be that for young people.
“Bouncing ideas off of somebody is a survival technique for any entrepreneur,” she says. “You need to know that there's somebody else out there that's going through a similar thing.”