A Story by Ben Wannamaker
Firstly, my friends are leather smiths who specialize in hand-crafted shoes. After catching up in their studio in the heart of Chinatown one afternoon, my friend suggested we go get a slice of pie at "The Pie Shoppe", just downstairs.
Luring me there with the promise that I'd soon be eating organically sourced ingredients skillfully turned into puff-pastry pie on the premises, and drinking home-roasted, third-wave coffee for free: how could I refuse? And how did he have this hook-up? Well, him and his partner earned it by bartering custom leather shoes with coffee.
The barter economy is alive and well, friends.
I walked down into The Pie Shoppe for the first time, a small and tidy space filled with natural light and genuine warmth. Andrea and Stephanie French, the two sisters who run the place, immediately greeted us. Their smiles were genuine and their pie was even more genuine. I left that afternoon with a full belly and an even fuller heart.
The Pie Shoppe is the kind of place where care matters. Care in sourcing, care in baking, and care in serving their community. It's a place where you can taste the difference between mass-produced and hand-made, between distant and local.
Every visit reinforces that these two sisters are doing something special in that small kitchen at 721 Gore Ave. In a city where everything moves fast, The Pie Shoppe reminds us to slow down, share pie, and appreciate the people making it for you.