The Pie’s The Limit

Something round is coming to the old Galasso’s Clock and Watch Shop space at 1660 Whitney Ave., and it doesn’t tell the time — it tells you there’s no limit to what a creative mind can do with pie.

The most popular flavors at the new pie shop of course will stick around: blueberry rhubarb, apple pecan, lemon meringue with a gingersnap crust.

But there also might be some that were born out of an odd request and creativity with flavor: mint julep, pear bourbon maple, and — get ready — chocolate peanut butter bacon. (Apparently the person it was made for loved it.)

Valerie McKee, who has been making pies to order from home for a few years now, will soon bring the pie shop to Spring Glen, now that she has received the special permit she needed to open a restaurant from Hamden’s Planning and Zoning Commission. The commission voted to grant the permit at a meeting held Tuesday night.

The Town Tart, the name of her future (and current) business, will serve sandwiches, salads, coffee, ice cream floats in artisanal sodas, and, most importantly, pies.

McKee said she hopes to open by the end of the summer.

McKee said she envisions the restaurant with a Woolworth’s lunch counter-type vibe, but without being too literal — no chrome or leather booths, not ​“some Johnny Rockets type of place.”

She said it will be colorful, inspired by the colors of pie: berries, apple green, crust.

“I want it to be comfy, cozy, and inviting, and really just give people an opportunity to gather,” said McKee. She envisions mostly a lunch place, which she said Spring Glen does not yet have. She also envisions kids coming after school and families coming for dessert after they go out to nearby restaurants for dinner. The shop will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

McKee, who is a professor of creative writing at Southern Connecticut State University, already makes pies to order. She said demand has grown recently. In 2017, she made 35 pies for Thanksgiving orders. After that, she said, she couldn’t move for a little bit, so she put a cap on it the next year, making around 20. Pies cost $30 each, and $5 extra if you want a gluten free crust or a pie with spirits in it.

Many of her most original pies come from requests. When making new pies, she has tried and true custard and crust recipes that often give her a base to work with so that she can focus on the flavors.

For instance, she recently made a mint julep pie for a Kentucky Derby party. It had a brown butter bourbon shortbread crust, a brown sugar bourbon base, and on top was the mint-infused whipped cream. She said it was a stressful experiment, but it turned out well.

For another invention, a friend asked for a pie that incorporated her three favorite things: pears, bourbon, and maple. So McKee made a pie with a brown butter shortbread crust and maple custard topped with bourbon vanilla-soaked pears (and, in case you were wondering, the vanilla was homemade).

The peanut butter chocolate bacon pie came from a similar request. A friend wanted a pie for her husband’s birthday, and said his three favorite things were peanut butter, chocolate, and bacon. So McKee figured something out, and she said it was actually good, though very heavy.

Other than that, she said, she hasn’t gotten that many requests that have been too weird. ​“There’s a challenge for all those people out there. Give me a strange request.”

McKee said there will also be savory pies. Her personal favorite, she said, is her spicy peanut pie. Another is the hand pie inspired by the Jamaican beef patty.

Opening a restaurant, she said, ​“was always something I fantasized about doing.” Now, it’s pie time she does it.