Prairie Pie opening brick-and-mortar shop downtown

Nearly five years after its start, Prairie Pie LLC is set to launch its first brick-and-mortar shop.

Thursday is opening day for the downtown bakery at 307 S. Jefferson Ave., said co-owner Eleanor Taylor. The 2,000-square-foot shop initially will open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, she said, noting hours eventually will expand into the evening. Taylor also is awaiting city approval on a liquor license.

“It’s kind of all fallen into place,” she said. “I definitely think it would have been a part of the plan eventually to have a storefront, but the right time just appeared now.”

Taylor said startup costs for the shop, including new kitchen equipment and renovation of the space, is roughly $20,000. Interior design work was conducted by Pickwick House LLC, a firm owned by her mother, Sharon Taylor.

Prairie Pie has a history with the building, as Eleanor Taylor has rented use of its commercial kitchen for an undisclosed rate since starting the business in 2016. That was at the invitation of Vito Palmietto, who opened Italian restaurant and pizzeria Vito’s Kitchen in 2015. He shuttered the restaurant last summer amid the coronavirus pandemic but plans to do catering for his business, Taylor said.

“We’re basically doing a role reversal,” she said of the prior arrangement with Palmietto. “He’s going to be doing catering out of our kitchen here and we’re going to be the front-facing business with the storefront.”

Taylor, who co-owns the eight-employee shop with boyfriend and Druff’s restaurant co-owner Vance Hall, is on a five-year lease for an undisclosed rate with building owner Nick Sibley.

The new shop serves pies by the slice or whole, as well as cookies, Taylor said. Caramel apple and honey sea salt pies will be served daily, with two or three others rotating on the menu.

“It’s probably going to be a weekly change situation because right now we have 18 flavors available for preorder,” she said, noting those include lemon meringue and chocolate pecan.

As the shop opens this week, Prairie Pie intends to maintain its wholesale clients, such as MaMa Jean’s Natural Foods Market LLC, Culture Counter and Cherry Picker Package and Fare, Taylor said.