Pie in Petaluma

As you might have guessed, I have a weakness for baked goods. I can drive by a bakery I'm familiar with and there is a tug drawing me to turn in and park and go buy one of their delicious goodies...even if I just ate and have no room for such a goody. My solution has been to avoid going in the first time. If I have no idea if anything delicious is inside there is no tug...or not much of one.

I've been to downtown Petaluma a few times since Petaluma Pie Company opened their doors, but I kept telling myself to not go in. Today Sweetie and I were at Copperfields on Kentucky St. in Petaluma and as we left the store I saw a round sign that said, 'Pie' and there was an arrow pointing toward the shop where they sell their pies. It was lunch time. We followed the arrow, went down a couple short flights of stairs to a nice pocket park and found the Pie Company open for business. Now I'll be getting tugs every time I'm in Petaluma.

It's a small shop and I suspect that a large portion of their business is take-out. We decided to go with two different types of hand pies; a mushroom with goat cheese and a spinach with feta cheese.

Both were delicious, especially the pie crust, which is very flaky and delicate with just the right amount of flavor. The mushroom filling was  a little smoother than the spinach and it had a wonderful earthy taste from lots of quality mushrooms. I had the spinach one and it was just perfect with lots of spinach and feta cheese and probably some onion.

Sweetie finished his and still looked a bit hungry. We could have had some lovely side salad but chose to try another pie instead. We shared one of the 6-inch coconut cream pies which again had a high quality and delicious crust. The filling had a nice hit of vanilla and coconut and meringue on top in a decorative pattern, plus a bit more coconut. I prefer a filling that is creamier but this was like a firm pudding and it was quite good.

We both had hot chocolate with the pie and you should consider having it, too. A full mug is served of piping hot chocolate that tastes like it is made from scratch with excellent quality cocoa or maybe even chocolate. It isn't as rich as French hot chocolate, but is much richer than what is usually served in most places around here when I order hot chocolate. UPDATE: The nice folks at the Pie Company let me know via Facebook a little more about the hot chocolate:  "FYI our hot chocolate is made with Tcho drinking chocolate and organic Straus milk. See you soon!"



There were many other pies on offer, including the day's special which was pear, ginger and cardamom pie with a double crust. A full size Shaker lemon pie looked good. There were smaller sizes of chocolate cream, banana cream, apple, lemon meringue, sweet potato and an Elvis pie which I think had chocolate, peanut butter and, maybe, banana. The savory offerings included a chicken empanada handpie, one with potato and peas, a chicken pot pie and more.

All in all, I encourage you to visit if you are ever in downtown Petaluma, CA. They do take orders online, but only for pick-up, not to mail to you. Guess I'm going to have to drive a bit away from downtown when I'm in Petaluma to avoid that tug, or else just enjoy the calories and eat pie first!

Petaluma Pie Company
125 Petaluma Blvd. N. Suite B, Petaluma, CA 94952

(Inside of Helen Putnam Plaza behind Starbucks)
707-766-6743
Mon - Thr 11am - 7pm
Fri - Sat 11am - 9pm
Sun 10am - 6pm