If there’s two things most people like, they’re a good bar experience and pie. Laurie Gray had a vision to open a place for the community to gather and to enjoy pie baked with fresh fruit and dough made from scratch daily.
This summer, Gray was able to make her dream a reality when she opened The Pie Bar at 450 Pine Ave.
With a love of all things pie in my heart, the taste of a delicious Nutella banana hand pie on my tongue and questions buzzing in my head, I sat down with Gray to figure out all I could about this wonderful place.
When did you get into baking?
When I was a little girl my mom taught me how to bake. She was a stay-at-home mom so she baked everything from scratch; she was always cooking and baking so she taught me how to roll out baked pie dough… the lemon bar recipe that we use here is my mom’s. We’re going to do a brownie pie that uses my mom’s recipe.
Why did you choose to specialize in pie?
I think pie brings back a lot of childhood memories for people and it’s like the ultimate comfort food. It’s very labor intensive, so most people either don’t know how to do it themselves, or want to take the time to do it themselves.
How did you get your start in the bakery business?
I started as a pop-up shop selling out of the MADE in Long Beach store and then we expanded to wholesale, so we sell to coffee shops and restaurants around the area. I started in my home kitchen with a cottage food license (a license that allows home-made goods to be sold to the public) and then we outgrew that within a couple months. Now we do all the baking here on site. I like that it’s open and that you can see and smell the product being made. I wish I could find a way to pump out the smell.
Why did you choose Long Beach?
I moved here from Seattle 6 years ago because I wanted more sunshine; I wanted to be in California, wanted to be by the beach. I love it here. What I like about this spot here is we have all this quick street parking. People can just pull up but then behind us we have all the garages and it’s two-hour free parking.
What is your most popular pie?
Key lime. We’re famous for that already, it’s amazing, it’s my favorite. It’s our number one seller all year long. We rotate flavors throughout the season, we try to do a spring, a summer, a fall and a winter, so [when I] I tried to pull off key lime and there was outrage.
What sizes do the pies come in?
We have whole pies, slices, the cutie pie jars which are an 8-ounce mason jar so that’s a portable pie. I like to take them to the movies, to the beach, to camping. They’re great for traveling; great for gifts.
What plans do you have for the future of The Pie Bar?
We are in the process of getting a beer and wine license and an outdoor patio built. We just introduced a two ounce shot glass and they’re pie shots. It’s $3 for one and we do a flight of them, you can get four different flavors for $10. We roll those out at happy hour everyday at 4 p.m.
Does most of your business come from wholesale or foot traffic?
Foot traffic. Retail. We do have good wholesale business but we’re killing it in retail, like way more than I projected, and just by word of mouth we really haven’t done any advertising yet.
Do your savory pies also sell well?
They sell out every day. We do chicken, veggie and we’re going to be offering shepherd’s pot pie and some other savory pies in September.
When are your peak business hours?
We do a good morning, businesspeople coming in on their way to work on the weekdays, and then lunchtime, and then we get an after work bump and then kind of an after dinner bump between 8 and 9.
What sets you aside from other pie shops?
I think our product is different; I think we have different flavors than other people. We do alcohol infused pies; we do a whiskey peach. We’re doing a peach marionberry now, with marionberry whiskey. We do a Kahlua coffee pie so that twist makes us a little different, a little fun.
Why did you want to run your own business?
I wanted to open a pie shop so it wasn’t like I wanted to be in business for myself. I just wanted a place where people can come and enjoy each other, neighbors coming together enjoying good scratch-baked pie in a fun friendly atmosphere. It’s great being part of the downtown Long Beach neighborhood.