After operating for nearly four years in our beloved 300 square foot Chinatown storefront at 721 Gore Ave, The Pie Shoppe outgrew its tiny space. We needed more room to bake, more seating for our community, and a new home for our evolving vision.
In August 2016, The French Sisters expanded to 1875 Powell Street in the historic Hamilton Building in Hastings Sunrise. This new location gave us the space we needed while keeping the spirit of The Pie Shoppe alive.
The new location maintains all the smallest Pie Shoppe features that made the Chinatown shop special: hand-made pies, Panoramic Coffee roasted in-house, natural wines curated by our team, and a dedication to sourcing from BC producers.
But with a little more leg room and a new space to grow, we could do more. We partnered with Brown Paper Packages Ice Cream to create Vanilla Bean ice cream made fresh for our pies. We developed workshop programs teaching others how to make pie. We created the Regional Assembly of Wine to celebrate BC winemakers.
The expansion to Powell Street marked a new chapter. Not just bigger, but more intentional about our place in the community. The historic Hamilton Building in Hastings Sunrise connected us to a new neighborhood while staying true to what we'd built in Chinatown.
We still wake up in the morning and ride our bikes to the shop. We still work directly with farmers and producers. We still hand-make everything. The scale shifted, but the philosophy remained the same.
For the community we served on Gore Street, The Pie Shoppe on Powell Street is just a short trip away. Many of our original customers followed us, and new ones discovered us in our new home. The Chinatown location holds a special place in our story, and we carry that spirit with us wherever we go.