New York Pie Review: Wild Blueberry Pie from Petee’s Pie Company

Start spreading the news… I’m reviewing New York pies today…

Following on from yesterday’s apple pie review from my e-pie-c adventure to the land of the free and home of the sweet pie, the U-S-of-A, here’s part two of my whistle-stop tour of the American pies I ate. Sure I was visiting The Big Apple, but I needed some variety in my pie-t (pie diet) so today’s American pie is…




Petee's Wild Blueberry Pie Review

After diving off the subway and speedily walking along the busy major road that is Delancey Street, I was glad to pull out of the rain and into their quaint little pie shop and see the staff hard at work making delicious looking pies! It’s not the biggest shop – with a few high stools to sit at if required but most customers picking up a pie/slice and leaving – but I appreciated most of the space was needed for pie production. As said in my article yesterday, the Americans have their own interpretation of pie, which often lacks pastry and full encasement. However there were a few options meeting my criteria in Petee’s Pie Shop and I decided to go for something different and choose a wild blueberry pie.

The pie was $5.50 (that’s £4.50 in English money) and again you got a decent slice for your dollar. It seemed pretty much the going rate for a slice of pie from a pie shop round these parts – though I did manage to get a slice for $4.50 at a shop in Brooklyn (more about that later in the week!) Again the price wasn’t terrible for a slice of pie considering the central New York location and it equating to a posh slice of cake in a London deli, but compared to a lot of pies it’s still quite pricey and unlike yesterday’s review they didn’t really have a proper seating area to charge for either.

Instead Petee’s Pie Company focused on the pie. In fact, it was pretty much pie, pie or pie here! Both regular and gluten free, they bake pies for your pleasure! Sure, if you study the menu you will find a few cheesecakes and other goods, along with a selection of beverages, but this is first and foremost a pie shop, not a general bakery. So for this, I commend Petee’s Pie Shop to you and their crazy late opening hours (Midnight or 1am every night of the week)!

In fact you don’t get a recommendation like “The absolute best pie in New York” (via NYMag – New York Magazine) without clearly selling great pies. But perhaps that was on the American definition and appetite for pie that got those remarks, as while the wild blueberry pie was very nice, it didn’t blow me away like the NYMag recommendation had hinted at.

Sure, the fruit was fresh and I thought the pastry held together quite well, but the pastry was a bit dry in places and quite crumbly. While this by no means made it a poor pie – on the contrary it still rates quite highly! - based on pastry alone, this one was third place out of the three pies I had in New York. Still, it's one of the top scoring blueberry pies I've had and I’d like to go back some day and try a few more of their pies, as it was still very nice and I’d enjoy trying their range, but with such a high calibre available it just misses out on a Pierate Recommended score.

Wild Blueberry Pie from Petee’s Pie Company
Score: 4.89/7
[Colour 5.5/7; Consistency 5.5/7; Cheapness 2/7; Chewiness 5/7; Condition 5/7; Content 5.5/7; Capacity 5.75/7]
RAS

Lower Manhattan - Surely there's some pie in there somewhere?!

Summer and Fall of 2016 was American Pie Season at Pierate! Just like London buses you wait a long time for a Pierateer to head stateside and then we go over twice within a couple of months! In August work took Pierateer Sam over the Pond and you can take a look at our Chicago Pie Tour to see where Sam went.