Car Crashes Into Citrus Heights Restaurant Serving Up Popular Pies

CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) - Homemade pie goes hand in hand with the holidays; but, after a car smashed into a popular Citrus Heights restaurant, customers were worried their holiday desserts could be missing from the dinner table.

It was nothing short of a miracle that no one was sitting in one of the popular booths struck after the car barreled through Coco's Restaurant on Madison Avenue Tuesday night.

Then, after the dust settled and everyone appeared to be alright, there was only one thing on everyone's mind.

"I hope my pies are OK," customer Tom Lininger said.

Wednesday and Thanksgiving Day are the busiest of the year for the Sacramento area staple, especially when it comes to pie.

"The pies are out of this world. They are like my grandma used to make," said long-time customer Kay.

"I guess I'm involved in the pie craze. I have 15 apple pies I'm picking up today," said Lininger.

The attorney has been handing out Coco's homemade pies to his clients for the past fifteen years.

"A likeable lawyer I always thought," he said.

But many Coco's patrons feared their holiday confection favorites would be left out in the cold after an elderly customer plowed his car through the restaurant window during Tuesday's dinner rush.

"I thought I better not sit there again, because that's my favorite booth," said Kay.

"There was some shaking, I guess, some screams. I came running out and there was a car in there sitting on two of our tables," said restaurant manager Dave Wanke.

Fortunately no one was hurt, and the restaurant opened on time Wednesday morning. Most importantly, there will be pie -- lots and lots of pie.

"We'll probably do about 400 to 500 (pies) today and another 300 or 400 tomorrow. So, it's a big time and spike in our business," said Wanke. "We don't run out. It's against company policy to run out. So we will not be running out."

Coco's pies have been a staple item on the restaurant's menu for the past 30 years. Despite the hiccup and a little broken glass, Coco's will continue making holiday dinners as sweet as pie.

Restaurant managers say they expect to serve a few thousand pies by Christmas.