Spear’s turns 70: The restaurant’s name is synonymous with pie in Wichita
In 2026 Wichita, the name “Spear’s” is synonymous with pie — French Silk, strawberry glaze, Dutch apple, you name it.
But in May 1956, when Mayme Rasmussen and her 24-year-old son, Gene Spear, opened the first Spear’s Restaurant at Mount. Vernon and Oliver, pie was served but not really a focus. That didn’t happen until the early 1980s, when — inspired by the national trend of restaurants adding pie shops — the owners remodeled the lobby of their original restaurant to make room for pie display cases.
Spear’s Restaurant and Pie Shop at 4323 W. Maple, the last of what was once a six-unit operation, is celebrating its 70th birthday by offering its customers 70-cent slices of pies on Fridays in June. And although the Spear family is no longer involved in the restaurant, its owner since 2014, Dan Crandall, started with the business in 1988 and knows the family business inside and out.
Despite major changes in the restaurant business over the past seven decades, he said, Spear’s has managed to hold on, and business is still strong, thanks in part to the popularity of the restaurant’s pies. Thursday nights, when customers can get a free slice of pie with their meals, the restaurant is always packed. It’s the busiest day of the week, Crandall said.
Though Spear’s no longer sells the liver and onions, baked halibut and salmon patties with cream gravy that were once favorites, it’s still known as a family restaurant with down-home dishes such as chicken fried steak, hot roast beef sandwiches, and ham and beans.
And although it’s true that Spear’s niche is seniors, it manages to attract a larger clientele with specials such as free-slice Thursdays and with its reasonably priced all-you-can-eat weekend buffets, which offer breakfast, brunch and pie.
Though the pies, available in more than 28 flavors, are what help keep people coming to Spear’s, Crandall said, the family feel instituted by the founders is what has kept it running for seven decades.
“To me, it’s just giving good service and being available for our customers and making sure they know that we care about them,” he said. “That’s a huge part of it.”
Restaurant founded by mother and son
The first Spear’s restaurant was built in a converted house at 1960 S. Oliver. Its owners were Rasmussen, who had sold her Veteran’s Grill restaurant at 5515 E. Kellogg the previous year, and her son, Gene. Rasmussen helped with the business for a year then retired and sold her interest to him
Old newspaper clippings show that Spear’s almost immediately carved out a niche that keeps it busy today: welcoming local groups and clubs to gather at the restaurant for their meetings and officer installations. In its first years of business, Spear’s drew organizations such as the Hope Club, the Grandmother’s Group, the Evening Belles Home Economics Unit and the Independent Business Men’s Association.
Gene’s wife, Betty, whom he’d married in 1952, was an instrumental part of shaping Spear’s. In the early days, she’d bake pies at home and bring them to the restaurant for customers to enjoy after their meals of fried chicken, jumbo shrimp or club sandwiches.
In 1968, Gene and Betty decided to build a freestanding restaurant building next door to the original Spear’s restaurant. It was red brick with a shake-shingle roof, and it included a banquet space big enough to host 90 people.
The couple would go on to have three sons — Randy, Gary and Rick — and when they became adults, they pushed their father to expand Spear’s. The three boys went to college in the mid-1970s and early 1980s and came home with plans to grow the Spear’s brand.
In 1983, Spear’s added a Derby restaurant at 239 W. Greenway, and in 1985, it opened the restaurant on Maple that still exists today. In 1984, Spear’s owners decided to make pie part of the restaurant’s brand identity, officially changing the name to Spear’s Restaurant & Pie Shoppe. They also updated the menu to include lighter, more trendy 1980s dishes such as turkey croissants and steamed vegetables.
Spear’s would add a restaurant at 1930 N. Woodlawn in 1987, and in 1990, it added catering to the company’s list of services. Next up were Augusta, which got a Spear’s in 1997, and Newton, which got one in 1999. Randy Spear also had a juice and coffee bar at Bradley Fair called Jugo Juice & Java, which opened in 2000 and was later renamed Zumo Juice & Java.
But as the years went on and Gene’s sons got older, Crandall said, they began to leave the business to retire or to pursue other interests, and the restaurants began to close. In 2009, the restaurant on North Woodlawn closed, leaving the Maple and Taft restaurant as the last remaining Spear’s. And in 2014, the youngest Spear brother — who had been the restaurant’s sole owner for a decade — decided to sell that restaurant and catering business to his longtime general manager and “pie guy,” Crandall.
Carrying on the tradition
Crandall grew up in California but was familiar with Wichita because his grandparents lived here and owned a paint and wallpaper company. He decided to attend Central Christian College in McPherson, where he met his future wife, Jennifer. The couple initially lived in California, where Crandall had a job at a Marie Callender’s Restaurant & Bakery, a chain that had pioneered the restaurant/pie shop concept. While there, Crandall worked his way up from busboy to cook to baker to manager to general manager.
Once they started having children, the Crandalls decided that the Midwest was a better place to raise a family. They relocated to Wichita, and Dan remembered having once visited Spear’s, which was a lot like Marie Callender’s. He filled out an application and met with Gary Spear, who hired Crandall on the spot as a manager.
Crandall stayed with the company because he liked the way the Spear family treated its employees — and Crandall was good at making pie. He estimates that, since his career started, he’s had a hand in making more than 500,000 pies.
When Randy Spear was ready to sell, Crandall said, his taking over just seemed like a natural fit.
“The reason I enjoyed working here is because of the Spear family,” he said. “Gene Spear was a great Christian man, and I just thoroughly enjoyed working with and getting to know him. . . He and I struck up a close relationship.”
Gene Spear died in October 2016 at age 84. Betty died in September 2008 at age 75, following a long illness.
When he took over Spear’s, Crandall said, he didn’t want to change much about it. Over the years, he’s worked to keep the restaurant’s interior — which features a lunch counter, wooden booths with green plaid seats, and lots of antiques on the walls — updated and neat. In the coming weeks, he’ll even be replacing the fading Spear’s sign on the corner of Maple and Taft with a new one.
Crandall said that he also committed early to adopting the Spear family’s approach of treating employees with kindness. That’s why, Crandall said, he has a kitchen manager who’s worked for him for 34 years, a bakery manager that’s been at the restaurant for more than 30 years and a manager who’s been with the restaurant for 28 years.
Around eight years ago, Crandall introduced the free-slice Thursday promotion, which allows anyone who purchases an entree between 11 a.m and 8:30 p.m. to get a free slice of pie
“We just thought, ‘Well, let’s get people in to try the pie,” he said “It was good advertising and has just gone over so well.”
Crandall said he’s also become close over the years with many of Spear’s loyal customers, some of whom come in every day. He and his staff know some of the customers so well that they start preparing their orders as soon as they see their cars.
“You get to know them. . .” Crandall said. “That’s been the fun part of it. But to be honest with you, I’ve been to a lot of funerals, too.”
So much pie
Crandall said the restaurant’s best-selling pie is the French Silk. The seasonal strawberry glaze, which is available now, also is popular. (The cheesecake, which is still prepared using Betty Spear’s original recipe, also remains a big seller.)
The staff prepares between 350 and 400 pies a week and sells many to corporate customers. There are even a few Wichita restaurants, Crandall said, who buy Spear’s pies to sell in their own restaurants, though he won’t name names.
Thanksgiving is the biggest pie holiday for Spear’s, he said. During Thanksgiving week, Spear’s makes more than 6,000 pies.
Spear’s still has a few items on the menu that Crandall believes have been available since 1956, including its pumpkin bread, its garlic salad and its club sandwich. Its most popular menu item is the chicken-fried steak, he said, but customers also love daily specials like homemade meatloaf, smothered steak, and turkey-and-dressing.
Besides free-slice Thursday, Crandall said, Spear’s busiest days are Sundays, when families fill the restaurant for the $11.99 breakfast buffet, served from 8 to 10:30 a.m., and for the $16.99 brunch buffet, served from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Spear’s also has something that’s increasingly rare in modern restaurants: a banquet room. The space, which is on the west-facing side of the building, can hold 80 or can be divided to have groups of 40 on each side. And that room gets a lot of use, Crandall said. A long list of retiree groups, from the Lions Club to the retired police to the retired postal workers, frequently meet in the banquet room and keep Spear’s constantly busy.
“That has always been a great thing for us,” Crandall said.
Crandall, 63, is the father of nine children who range in age from 23 to 42. He also has 22 grandchildren. Spear’s has allowed him to provide his family with a good life, he said. His wife did some bookkeeping for the restaurant but otherwise was able to stay home and raise their family.
Crandall said he doesn’t have plans to slow down anytime soon, but he does want to retire someday. His children aren’t interested in the restaurant business, so his best guess is that — like he did — another longtime employee will eventually take the place over.
"I’m really thankful that Wichita has supported us so well,” Crandall said. “It really goes back to Gene and Mayme. They laid the groundwork for a Christian-based company that would honor God. That was their vision, and I took the torch.
“Hopefully, I’m carrying the torch well.”
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