(No caption)
Sister Pie's reputation is rising as fast as its dough.
The year-old West Village bake shop's latest attention comes from a leading national food magazine. "We'd Visit Detroit Just to Eat at This Pie Shop," says the headline in May's issue of Bon Appétit, a Condé Nast magazine with a circulation exceeding 1.5 million.
Lisa Ludwinski is described as radiating "palpable energy." (Fox 2 News photo)
"Sister Pie is astonishingly good," writes Julia Kramer, a senior editor who flew in from Manhattan to check out Lisa Ludwinski's small business on Kercheval Street east of downtown.
Ludwinski and her crew wake at dawn to prep the day’s offerings: four rotating pies, plus eight to ten daily cookies, a savory hand pie, salads and more.
A weekday morning rush of locals stops in for coffee, and weekends bring in crowds from the city and suburbs, hanging out with a slice at the communal table.
Kramer appreciates more than the baked goods, citing the 32-year-old owner's "palpable energy" and her shop's funky vibe:
"Pick out whichever mug you like . . .” The woman behind the bakery counter gestured toward a black hutch.
I scoped out the eclectic collection of mugs and chose one emblazoned with the logo of the National Organization for Women. I hadn’t even eaten, and I already loved this place.
The magazine's opening image for its "Eat Like a Local" feature in the May issue.
The multi-page feature spread is part of the magazine's Eat Like a Local travel guide series. It's lushly illustrated with eight photos by Jesse David Green of Detroit, including the opening image at bottom right.
Bon Appétit presents the bakery's recipes for Toasted Marshmallow Butterscotch Pie, Strawberry-Pistachio Crumble Pie, Triple Chocolate Cookies and Thyme-Walnut Sandies. Ludwinski even shares her crust recipe.
Notably, Kramer shows an outsider's sensitivity not always evident in national travel reports on Detroit:
In an effort to include the community, Ludwinski instituted a “Pie It Forward” program, where customers can purchase slices for future strangers who might not be able to afford a treat. Such gestures make it tempting for a writer to say something like: “Sister Pie is ‘good for Detroit.’ ” That’s for the people who live there to decide.
Sister Pie opened last April in a former beauty salon after winning $50,000 in the 2014 Hatch Detroit Contest for entrepreneurs and adding nearly $26,600 more in February 2015 from an Indiegogo drive.
