A pie will always be just a pie until Oprah Winfrey samples yours. Then your life will change in ways you never dreamed. Just ask the women at The Centerville Pie Company on Cape Cod who started the business in March 2009. Just a few months later, they learned Oprah was in town for the funeral of Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
“We heard where Oprah was staying so we brought over some pies to the hotel she was staying at,” said Kristin Broadley, who owns the company with her long-time friend Laurie Bowen. “Within about five minutes, she called us thanking us for sending over the pies. We sent her a chicken pot pie and a peach pie and she told us how much she loved them.”
Since then, the company has gone from a two-person operation to a 20-employee company that also works with Cape Abilities, a nearby non-profit organization that supports people with disabilities on Cape Cod, helping them with housing, transportation and employment. Centerville Pie Company now handles much of its pie-making operations from the Cape Abilities location as all of the production is done by hand from bagging to tagging and employs about 55 disabled adults. The company also supports Cape Abilities by donating a portion of their proceeds to the non-profit.
What makes their pies so special? “We boil a whole chicken and then take all of the meat off of the bird,” Broadley said. “When it is cooked on the bone, it really makes for a better pie. Our crusts are phenomenal, too. Everything we do here is done by hand and we take pride working with Cape Abilities. It’s hard enough for you and I to find jobs. Just remember it’s twice as hard for them to find work.” Known around town as “The Pie Ladies,” they have been creating a variety of pies, including the now famous chicken pie overstuffed with slow cooked, hand pulled flavorful chicken swimming in a savory homemade gravy.
If you love Buffalo wings as much as we do, the buffalo chicken pie is an addict’s absolute must loaded with the same slow cooked, hand pulled chicken but tossed with a mild buffalo sauce (We served ours up alongside a bowl of tortilla chips for scooping and a side of blue cheese dressing to cool off our mouths). For dessert? A blueberry pie, of course! We couldn't get enough of the fresh mix of wild Maine and cultivated blueberries that oozed from the buttery crust.
