Bake My Day At The Pie Chest
Rachel Lemley, staff writer
In the heart of downtown Charlottesville lies a hidden gem – delicious pie. The Pie Chest is a local bakery in an alleyway off the downtown mall. The Pie Chest was established by Will Richey, who helped to revive downtown by opening the Whiskey Jar and The Alley Light.
The Pie Chest has been serving happiness ever since its opening in 2015. Baker Rachel Pennington uses her grandma’s recipes to bring back memories of childhood.. On the Pie Chest website, http://thepiechestcville.com, she says that she strives to recreate the tastes, smells, and feels of being right at home.
“I found out about The Pie Chest about a year after I moved to Charlottesville in 2015. My father showed it to me for breakfast, and from that moment, I was hooked. From then on, I made a point of taking my friends from out of town to it, or anyone who just hadn’t heard about it yet,” said Curtis Gill, a food connoisseur and expert on downtown life.
All of the pies are made from scratch, whether they are sweet or savory, and kept in nice display cases. In the childhood of Will Richey, however, pies were kept in pie safes, or as Richey calls them, “pie chests,” which is how he named his store.
Pie is not the only thing at this store. They also sell delicious coffee, breakfast biscuits, rolls, bars, and a variety of cookies.
Walking in the store, guests are instantly greeted with the joyful voices of the bakers and the mouth-watering aroma of freshly baked pastries. Light fills the brightly colored café and lands like a spotlight on the array of dessert and dinner pies. The people are friendly, and the shop gives off a rustic and welcoming feel.
Once the pie is bought ($5-$10), the guests can choose to sit around one of the quaint wooden tables either in the restaurant or on their little porch outside. Unfortunately, The Pie Chest can get busy, so seating is limited. The menu for the day and shop itself are difficult to find given their change of pie each day, but the effort it takes to get there is worth the new tastes and environment.
Eating the pie is its own experience. The crust is flaky and golden brown, while the inside is warm, soft, and filled with flavor. Some of their popular dessert pies are the s’mores pie, which is a chocolate pie wrapped in graham cracker crust and covered in melted marshmallow, or the cinnamon crumble apple, which is a sweet pie baked to a crisp, filled with sugary apples and topped with cinnamon crumbs.
The Pie Chest is not only a dessert place. Some of their favorite pies are their special dinner pies. Their pot and hand pies are made with a thick crust and baked around many fillings, such as chicken, bacon, and roasted garlic, or spring vegetables, or southern pulled-pork barbeque.
“It doesn’t matter what time of day you visit; for breakfast and lunch they have savory hand and pot pie, and they have a wide selection of dessert pies to try after dinner on weekends. They also have amazing coffee to boot. It is just another iconic spot in our Charlottesville community,” Gill said.
The Pie Chest is open at the downtown mall on 119 4th Street at 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
