Rule 5: One Pie at a Time at piebird

The first rule of Pie Club is you don’t talk about Pie Club. The second rule of Pie Club is we’re actually going to tell you everything about Pie Club, because, hello…pies. And summer basically screams for pies, so we figured you’d want to be in the know.

But let’s back up a second. Piebird (the home of Pie Club) has been open in Lawrenceville for the past two and a half years. They opened at Thanksgiving, because what better time to open a pie shop! Although, really, Annalee didn’t set out to open a bakery so focused on pies.

She baked rustic American desserts, so she decided to name the bakery piebird. You know, after pie birds – a ceramic bird used to let steam out of pies as they bake. Then someone asked her if she baked pies and she realized she had better bake more pies.

Now, she mostly does pies, with a handful of other desserts for places like Espresso a Mano and neighbor Allegheny Wine Mixer. While Annalee has formal culinary training, she also grew up baking with her grandmother – who sounds like an awesome lady who grew her own produce and had a canning kitchen in her basement. (What can we say, we’re food nerds over here and love that kind of thing!)

Piebird doesn’t have a storefront, but you can get pies at various events all over the city. Protip: follow along on their social media to see where they’re going next. You can also email to order whatever pie you’re currently craving and pick it up. It’s by appointment only, like the drug deal of desserts, which makes it even more exciting. And then there’s Pie Club.

Pie Club is basically what it sounds like – a pie of the month club. You sign up for 3, 6, or 12 months and pick up your pie the first Friday of the month. Homemade pie doesn’t get easier than that, and there are some pretty awesome pies coming up – we’re looking at you, Berries and Cream. If that doesn’t sound perfect for summer, we don’t know what does!

This content was provided by a local, independent contributor to Made in PGH, a lifestyle blog.