St. Louis restaurateur and founder of KATIE’S Pizza & Pasta tells the raw, unfiltered story behind her growing food empire — addiction, loss, and the making of a self-described “unemployable” entrepreneur
ST. LOUIS, Sept. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Swan Bluff Press announces the release of UNEMPLOYABLE: The Katie Lee Story (ISBN 979-8-9964877-0-7), the debut book from Katie Lee, the St. Louis restaurateur and entrepreneur behind KATIE’S Pizza & Pasta restaurants and a nationally distributed line of Italian foods.
UNEMPLOYABLE will initially be available exclusively at Target stores across the United States for $24.99 beginning Sept. 27 through Oct. 31. The book will be featured on end-aisle displays along with her line of pizzas, pastas, sauces and olive oil.
From its opening page, Lee is candid about why she wrote this. “Unemployable is a roadmap for everyone who was told they didn’t have a chance,” said Lee. The result is a raw, often unsparing account told in her own voice — part storytelling, part reckoning — that traces the line from a chaotic childhood in St. Louis through addiction, sobriety, single motherhood, and ultimately the building of a successful hospitality business that today employs more than 500 people.
The book’s title comes from her late father, Tom Lee, a self-employed “hustler” and epileptic with brain damage whom Lee spent her childhood both caring for and surviving. “My entire life, from a very young age,” Lee writes, “my father would say, ‘Katie, you’re just like me. You’re unemployable.'” She dropped out of high school at 15 and, at 29, found herself dropped off at a halfway house on South Broadway in St. Louis with nothing but a plastic grocery bag of belongings — the opening scene of the book.
From that halfway house, UNEMPLOYABLE follows Lee’s path through waitressing, a first business built on borrowed money and fabricated confidence, the opening (and closing) of Katie’s Pizza, a Kickstarter campaign, and the sudden loss of her best friend, Rolando Colon, days before COVID-19 shut down the restaurants she’d spent a decade building. The book doesn’t skip the ugly parts — family dysfunction, relapse, grief, and the terror of nearly losing everything — and doesn’t dress up the good parts either. It closes with an epilogue set in Italy, a quieter, tender addition about Lee and her daughter, Nadia. Despite recounting the chaos and difficult experiences of her early life, the book offers readers hope, coupled with a reminder that redemption is always possible.
UNEMPLOYABLE is illustrated throughout by creative director Tony Gaddis, with cover design by Gaddis and Todd Hippensteel, cover photography by Björn Wallander, and book design by Headcase Design.
In addition to her book, Lee will release a vinyl album that captures the vibe and atmosphere of her restaurants. “One Night at Katie’s” unites the experience of food and music through 14 original tracks composed and arranged by musicians ELPENTHE and Roman GianArthur and features Monica Martin, GianArthur, Tydell and Eric Beenk. “Let’s be clear – the album is not me making music, it’s hospitality as art,” said Lee. “To that end, I wanted to have musicians who I admire create a soundtrack to pair perfectly with our food – so people can have a sensory experience at home just like they would in one of our restaurants.” Beginning Nov. 1, the book and album will be sold at retailers across the country.
“I coped with a lot of drugs and alcohol,” Lee writes of her early years. “The drugs screwed me up for a long while. Almost killed me…but the result: a woman with an advantage.” That advantage — a tolerance for chaos and a refusal to quit — is the engine of everything she has built since: four KATIE’S Pizza & Pasta locations, a frozen pizza manufacturing plant, a packaged-goods company with 18 SKUs in more than 6,000 retail outlets nationwide, an e-commerce business, and a 300-acre farm-to-table property.
KATIE’S has grown to become a celebrated culinary institution in St. Louis, and now, nationwide. Last September, four SKUs of KATIE’S Pizzas were available in 400 specialty grocery stores across the country. Just one year later, KATIE’S has expanded to offer 18 SKUs of premium Italian products in 6,000 grocery stores. And later this month the Target displays will showcase all SKUs from sauces to frozen pasta bakes, dried pastas and olive oil plus the book and the album. Lee made it all happen together with the same team of chefs and authentic restaurant techniques like bronze-extruded pasta with egg and semolina, and hand-stretched wood-fired 48-hour fermented pizza dough. The only women-owned certified pizza company at this scale, Lee has grown the business by manufacturing at scale and maintains 100% ownership.
About the Author
Katie Lee is an award-winning restaurateur, entrepreneur, author, and speaker. She is the founder and owner of a consumer-packaged-goods business of fine Italian foods available at more than 5,000 retail outlets nationwide, four locations of KATIE’S Pizza & Pasta, and a 300-acre farm-to-table property. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her daughter, Nadia. UNEMPLOYABLE is her first book.
About Katie’s
KATIE’S is a chef-driven Italian restaurant and consumer packaged goods brand based in St. Louis. Founded by Katie Lee, the company is built on handmade techniques, rigorously sourced ingredients, and a belief that food should nourish both body and soul. Its restaurants are known for wood-fired pizzas and house-made pastas, while its fast-growing national retail line brings the same standards to grocery stores across America. KATIE’S is a WBENC-certified 100% women-owned business. To learn more, visit Katies.com and follow on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook to see the latest.
Book Details
Title: UNEMPLOYABLE: The Katie Lee Story
Author: Katie Lee
Publisher: Swan Bluff Press
ISBN: 979-8-9964877-0-7
Format: Hardcover / $24.99
Publication Date: September 27, 2026
Pre-order Available: https://katies.com/products/unemployable-the-katie-lee-story
Media Contact: Patrick Barry
314-540-3865 / Patrick@ByrnePR.net
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SOURCE Katie’s
