Keep your eyes on the pies.
The first rule of Pie Club is you don’t talk about Pie Club. Never one to stick to the rules, the rest of this blog will be breaking rules. Tasty, flaky and buttery rules. Imagine if The Great British Bake Off was pie week every week and instead of cups of tea there’s craft beer: that’s kind of what Liverpool Pie Club looks like. The answer to Mary Berry is Michaela Wilson – a younger, much more Northern spirit, hellbent on getting people together over their love of pies. Life is all about perspective and we share the same perspective of Michaela that pretty much anything can be a pie. As long as it’s all encased in pastry – lids alone won’t cut it.
We caught up with Michaela to find out how the club started and to see if there was any room for us two:
How did it start?
Basically, there were a few northerners in work who share my love of pie, we would always be discussing our favourite pies and pies we’ve had in the past so we jokingly started a group chat called pie club where we would carry on these pie conversations.
We then decided Pie Club should be when we go out weekly to different restaurants and try their pies, but Liverpool is full of burger places and not pie places so after one lunch date which ended up with no pie and just loads of beer we decided to make our own pies instead of dining out.
We started going to Hard Times and Misery on the last Wednesday of every month, drinking some boss beer and eating our homemade pies. But it was a bit too small for everyone attending in there so we moved it to Black Lodge in The Baltic Triangle and now to Hobo Kiosk.
At the last Pie Club we played some games which included Bisto bobbing where you had to bob for apples in a bucket of gravy and a pie piñata which was filled with sausage rolls.
What is the idea behind The Liverpool Pie Club?
The idea is that it is so nice to bake yourself a pie so we thought we’d encourage people to do that and then come together to appreciate them. With lots of beer. Making pies is usually the only time I actually use my kitchen. It’s nice because in the run up to the next Pie Club meeting everyone is constantly discussing what they’re going to make. But the chefs from Oktopus have started coming now so that puts a competitive feature into it. In the future Pie Clubs I would also like to get other restaurants involved to make it more competitive. So eating good homemade pies, and drinking good beer is the main idea. It’s a simple one, really.
How can people join?
As it’s still small at the moment its just turn up on the night and if you don’t have a pie you have to put a fiver in the honesty jar to eat everyone else’s pies. It is preferred if you bring a pie. Strict rule: must be fully encased in pastry, no pastry lids because they are not pies. “No pastry, no pie” is a popular slogan in Pie Club.
What is your favourite pie?
My favourite pie is my grandma’s cheese and onion pie as it was the best cheese and onion pie in the north west – it is tattooed pride of place on my arm.
Find out more about Liverpool Pie Club here. We’ll see you at the next one.