Grand Traverse Pie Company

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - 
Recently, the Grand Traverse Pie Company opened a location near work.  There are two things I love about this.  1.) A new lunch spot near work is always appreciated.  2.) Any restaurant with pie in it should be applauded.  Another reason to be excited is that both our office Michigan natives raved about the location, so when Friday's lunch was open, I headed over with MM and MC in tow for a delightful lunch with another new friend, AT.

GTPie is similar to any of the casual sandwich and soup lunch spots.  You walk in, see all of their baked gourmet goodies (except this time, PIES!), a menu up above your head for viewing, and someone at the cash register to take your order.  We got there at a perfect time beating the rush, which worked for us as we had to review the plethora of options!

I ended up going with a combo option, which included (my choice of course) their Chicken Salad.  Served on a perfectly baked croissant, the chicken salad was perfectly simply seasoned with salt & pepper, and had a perfect crunch with red grapes.  Too much mayo can be a problem, and I was happy that this chicken salad had the perfect amount, just enough to keep it together.  Romaine lettuce and a slice of tomato were a perfect compliment to the sandwich.

Of course, a pickle spear was the perfect accompaniment.

The other half of my combo was their House Side.  I am happy that many restaurants aren't serving a basic salad as their house side these days, and GTPie was the same.  Greens were a mix of Spring and Romaine, topped with tomato, cucumber (this cucumber made me want summer to be here SO bad!,) red onion slices and croutons.  But the highlight for me was, of course, the cheese.  Not only was there feta, but there was also parmesan.  I love it when I have multiple options of my favorite dairy product (insert your Wisconsin jokes here.)  And to top it off, I selected the Mediterranean Feta dressing.  Chunks of feta cheese swirling in a balsamic and oil based herbed dressing.  Oh so good.  I dipped my bread in that, only to want another slice so I could have more dressing!


MC ordered a potato (and trust me, it was huge!) smothered in barbecue, nacho cheese, cheddar cheese and bacon.  And yes, she took of the deliciousness home for that evening.  This complimented her House Side salad (same dressing!) to round out the meal. 


MM ordered the Chicken Salad sandwich as well, but had soup as her other side.  Creamy broccoli, it was savory and blended well, as MM doesn't really like chunks of broccoli in her soup.  It was perfect on the rainy day.

 Do you see the magic in the background?  NOM

And of course, if you eat a restaurant with the word "pie" in the name, you best have some of their baked goodness.  They have pies, as a whole, for purchase and a few to buy by the slice (and you can add it to your meal for under $2!)  I indulged in a slice of banana cream.  The crust was perfectly flaky in all the right places, piled high with delicious pudding and banana chunks.  Not overly sweet, a smooth and creamy pudding then piled with whipped cream.  This photo doesn't do it justice.

Hello lover...

Will I be back to GTPie?  Absolutely.  Will I get more pie?  You can count on it.  Though my next purchase might have to be those cinnamon buns before heading into work.  Oh man...