At Greenpoint’s Pie Corps, The Savory Pie Stages a Comeback
If there’s one thing people don’t like about pie — which is a big “if” to begin with — it’s that you can’t really eat it for every single meal of the day. With Pie Corps, Cheryl Perry and Felipa Lopez might change this entirely.
“We do a lot of infusions, like putting lavender flowers into cream, or making rosemary caramel,” explained Perry, a veteran of the New York food world and former owner of Dish on the Lower East Side. “It suits our tastes really well, blending savory and sweet and working with the way those two things play out together.”
After meeting a few years back, Lopez explains, “We knew we wanted to work together, it was just a question of what we were going to do. The first thing we came to was savory pies, but then we realized that if we did that, people would want sweet pies, too.” As such, they use their signature crust — a result of much experimentation and a blend of different flours — for every type of pie in their shop.
This willingness to play around with flavor results in both twists on traditional pies — their “sweet” menu includes a refreshing Minty Lime pie, Chocolate Bourban Pecan, and the confoundingly good Honey Lavender Custard — and a solid grounding in traditional rib-sticking savory fare, like Chicken Pot Pie and Curried Potato. Then, there are creations like the Bacon Egg and Cheese breakfast pie or the three-cheese Mac and Cheese version to contend with, neatly contained as portable hand pies, alongside full 10″ family-sized pies, smaller “Pielettes,” 6″ sweet pies, pie pops, even pie-based dog treats. Really, there’s a lot of pie.
And there’s just as much demand. After spending the past two years catering, selling wholesale, and vending at farmer’s markets (including New Amsterdam in the South Street Seaport) the pair opened up Pie Corps’ brick and mortar location in October, adding a stability that allows them to branch out into fresh seasonal fare like their recently-added menu of spring tarts (a feta, roasted radish, and arugula combination is particularly good), work with a CSA over the summer, and launch a forthcoming sandwich menu centered around their in-house focaccia recipe. Just on the off-chance you’re ever in the mood for something other than pie. Here, it might be tough.
Pie Corps, 77 Driggs Ave. (near Monitor St.)
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
