pie

Pie meets pinball at new membership-based arcade inside ACME Pie on Columbia Pike

By James Jarvis
Co-founders of The Pinball Basement, Fred Freimark (left) and Jason Good (staff photo by James Jarvis)

A new pinball arcade on Columbia Pike is putting a spin on the traditional pay-per-play arcade experience.

Nestled inside ACME Pie Company at 2803 Columbia Pike, The Pinball Basement is a membership-based arcade that caters to both pinball wizards and newcomers to the game.

Players can enjoy unlimited gameplay without needing cash or coins for $40 a month or $10 a day.

Co-founded by pinball enthusiasts Fred Freimark and Jason Good, the arcade in Penrose is outfitted with nine themed machines, ranging from classics such as Jurassic Park to modern hits including Deadpool.

Good, who embraced the pinball world within the last decade, and Freimark, a lifelong player, first crossed paths last January while playing in a local pinball league at CarPool in Ballston.

They quickly bonded over their shared love of the game, and a few months after their initial meeting, Freimark — who owns 18 pinball machines and has a full-time job as a loan officer — shared with Good his long-held dream of opening a standalone arcade.

Good, who purchased a pinball machine during the pandemic, was familiar with how to fix the machines and suggested teaming up to turn Freimark’s dream into reality.

“Fred was running out of space for his machines, so I kind of pitched the idea; I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we open an arcade,'” Good said.

Freimark and Good envisioned a family-friendly standalone pinball arcade where pinball enthusiasts of all skill levels could gather.

They wanted to avoid opening an arcade inside a bar, where most of Arlington’s pinball machines are located. This includes Galaxy Hut in Clarendon, Highline RxR in Crystal City, Punch Bowl Social in Ballston and Quarterdeck in Ft. Myer Heights, according to pinballmap.com.

“All the other pinball places are in bars,” Freimark said. “Families and younger kids can be here, and it can be a whole new generation of people that are comfortable taking their kids to play pinball.”

Co-founders of The Pinball Basement, Fred Freimark and Jason Good, play pinball (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Pinball is making a comeback in America. As part of this nostalgia-driven revival, Good and Freimark say they have witnessed a surge in demand for neutral venues where experienced players can hone their skills and beginners can learn the ropes.

Instead, in most venues today, playing pinball is almost an impulse decision, says Good, where players drop $1 in to play but have “no idea what they’re doing or what’s going on.”

Good wants to change that with his venue.

“I’ll be here 90% of the time… to teach people how to play,” he said. “I want it to be a hangout. I want it to be a place where people can come a couple of nights a week and learn pinball skills.”

The aspiring pinball entrepreneurs spent several months spent researching and scouting potential locations to house 50-100 machines inside but kept striking out. Then, last November, Sol Schott, the owner of ACME Pie Company approached them about leasing the space adjacent to his shop, previously home to Papillon Cycles, which closed earlier that same month.

The leasing price was too high for Freimark and Good so Schott pitched another idea: turning a section of his pie shop into an arcade.

“My whole idea with Acme was it to kind of be like, a community center,” Schott told ARLnow. “When I talked to them about the pinball thing, I was like, ‘Oh, well, that’d be really cool because I already had some pinball machines in there.”

The Pinball Basement initially let people play for free during its soft launch in December but has since transitioned to its fee-based model. The hours are the same as ACME Pie except on Saturdays, when the venue becomes an exclusive space for members from 5-9 p.m.

Since the opening, Schott reports his shop has already seen an increase in foot traffic. He noted the arcade has particularly appealed to younger audiences, including single parents with children who are teaching their kids to play while enjoying a slice of pie.

“Maybe you’ll get the occasional person sitting at the bar and get a piece of pie and a cup of coffee or soda or whatever, but it was a small percentage,” he said. “And there’s more of that now.”

Local bake shops promote specialty desserts in time for the holidays

By James Jarvis
1/4

As Christmas draws near, local bakeries are whipping up festive desserts to celebrate the holiday season.

Bayou Bakery at 1515 N. Courthouse Road is offering holiday-themed desserts until Christmas Eve. Its holiday menu features items like peppermint bark and the Creole Kringle cake, featuring Chef David Guas’ Creole take on a cream cheese filling and topped with a praline glaze and roasted pecans.

The New Orleans-themed eatery — well-known for its Mardi Gras desserts — also has seasonal pies, including roasted sweet potato and bourbon chocolate pecan pies, available. Those looking for something savory can pick from “ready-to-geaux” dishes, including blackened turkey mini-meatballs, buttermilk biscuits and cornbread muffins.

Bayou is encouraging customers to place orders at least 48 hours in advance. The deadline for holiday orders is next Monday, Dec. 18, with pick-up available next week starting Wednesday Dec. 20 through Christmas Eve.

Bayou Bakery isn’t the only spot for holiday pies in Arlington. Acme Pie Company in Penrose and Livin’ The Pie Life in Glebewood also have a range of specialty holiday pies and desserts.

Located at 2803 Columbia Pike, Acme is taking pre-orders for its apple, mince, pecan chocolate maple, pumpkin with candied ginger and sour cherry pies. Orders can be picked up beginning next Friday, Dec. 22 until Christmas Eve from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., as stated on their website.

Livin’ The Pie Life at 2166 N. Glebe Road has closed online orders, though pies — including a peppermint chocolate mousse option — can still be purchased in-store starting tomorrow (Wednesday) until Saturday, Dec. 16. Orders pick up again next Wednesday through Saturday, Dec. 20-23, while supplies last.

The ‘Pie Life’ weekly menu varies, but common items include Rice Krispy bars, ginger molasses cookies, pecan pie and a strawberry lemon bakewell tart.

Photos (1) and (2) via Bayou Bakery/Facebook

Local pie shop serves up musical feast on Columbia Pike this Saturday

By James Jarvis
1/6

(Updated at 08/29/23) Get ready for a symphony of local sounds and savory pies.

ACME Pie Company in Penrose is set to host its third annual music event, featuring musicians from across Northern Virginia, this Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 2803 Columbia Pike.

Admission is free, but Sol Schott — a former fine-dining pastry chef turned pie shop owner — says he’s asking for a $10 donation. This will be divided between the bands at the show’s end.

“It’s been a difficult time for musicians,” Schott told ARLnow, adding that several musicians performing at the event rely on music as their primary source of income.

“There’s a lot of different ways people can make money with music, and it just seems like over the last four years or so, since the pandemic, a lot of those options have kind of gone away,” he said. “I also want to do something nice for South Arlington.”

Of course, attendees will also be able to enjoy Schott’s assortment of pies, including quiche and pot pies, as well as seasonal fruit pies such as blackberry, peach and blueberry.

Schott said the show — held in the parking lot behind the pie shop — starts out “more blues and jazz,” then as the evening progresses, “it will become more rock and roll.”

The pie maker will also make an appearance on stage as the drummer for the act MF Grumbler.

Here is the lineup:

  • 2 p.m. — Rick Franklin and guests
  • 3 p.m. — Swingamajig
  • 4 p.m. — Coronal Josh & Paisley Tonk
  • 5 p.m. — Ex Motorcycle Couriers
  • 6 p.m. — Karl Straub Quartet
  • 7 p.m. — Delicate Whip
  • 8 p.m. — MF Grumbler
  • 9 p.m. — Jackie & the Tree Horns
The event poster for this Saturday’s music event at Acme Pie Company on Columbia Pike (via Acme Pie Co./Instagram)

Eight tasty cold treats to beat the heat in Arlington

By Pia Kramer
Ice Cream Cookiewich from Bakeshop (staff photo by Pia Kramer)

Arlington’s summer days have always consisted of a sweltering combination of high humidity and temperatures. This month has been no exception.

Yet summer is also the season to venture out, try new things, and explore new places.

In the interest of remaining active while cooling down, here are eight tasty, cold goodies in Arlington you can try before summer ends.

1. Nutella ice cream from Nicecream

Nicecream in Clarendon (2831 Clarendon Blvd) uses the process of freezing ice cream with liquid nitrogen. Its selection of ice cream flavors rotates weekly and has flavors spanning from white chocolate peanut butter to grapefruit creamsicle. However, Nutella is a must-try.

2. Nutella açaí bowl from South Block

Similarly, did you know you can get some of that addictive chocolate hazelnut spread in your South Block açaí bowl? We did, so we figured you would want to try that to cool off. Topping off South Block’s Nutella açaí bowl are mixed granola, banana, strawberry, coconut and Nutella.

3. Peanut butter icebox pie from Bakeshop

Bakeshop in Clarendon (1025 N. Fillmore Street) is no ordinary bakery. Offering a slew of flavors of cupcakes, bread, cakes, cookies, pies and macarons, Bakeshop also offers vegan and gluten-free options. Its Peanut Butter Icebox Pie is the perfect pick-me-up for peanut butter lovers.

4. Ice cream cookiewich from Bakeshop

One of the most popular summer treats at Bakeshop that is a must-try is its ice cream Cookiewich. This Cookiewich consists of two mouth-watering chocolate chunk cookies enveloping vanilla ice cream. Bakeshop’s Cookiewich is, in the opinion of this reviewer, beyond any ice cream sandwich you have ever tried.

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Local pie shops are baking up surprises for next week’s Pi Day

By Matt Blitz
1/7

Two Arlington pie shops are baking up some surprises for Pi Day, now one of the biggest days of the year for their sales.

March 14 (aka 3.14) is Pi Day, honoring math’s greatest mystery  It has become a day of celebration for mathematicians and dessert enthusiasts alike. Locally, Arlington’s two dedicated pie shops have taken full advantage of this baked good boon.

Last year, Pi Day was “almost-Thanksgiving busy” for Acme Pie Company which opened a storefront on Columbia Pike in 2019. This year, owner Sol Schott is preparing for similar levels of business.

“March 14 is always huge for us,” says Schott, speaking via phone from Florida where he’s enjoying a vacation before heading back home for the big day. “And I think [sales] will be close to what it was last year.”

In 2021, he sold about 100 large pies, 70 small pies, plus “a whole heck of a lot of slices.” This year, he says he’s going to make 500 to 600 pies total for the occasion. While Acme Pie normally has a rotating selection of flavors available, on March 14, the shop is going to try having most of their flavors ready to order.

Schott calls Pi Day one of the “top 3 days of the year” in terms of sales, behind the day before Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas. Both of those days, though, require more lead-up and preparation.

“It’s more of a blip,” says Schott. “But it’s great and we will take it.”

Acme Pie is also participating in BikeArlington’s Bike for Pie event this Sunday, the day before Pi Day. The five-mile ride ends at the Pike pie shop.

Livin’ the Pie Life on N. Glebe Road is where the Bike for Pie event begins.

The 11-year-old shop in the Glebewood neighborhood also is expecting a surge in business on March 14. Normally the shop is closed on Mondays, but this week, it will be open on Pi Day with special sweet offerings.

That includes a “Pi Day sampler box” which will contain three “cocktail-size pies + one surprise equalling 4 sweet treats” (3.14, get it?). Additionally, five random boxes will contain a $20 gift card to make the numerical holiday extra sweet for a few.

They are expecting to sell more than a thousand pies, co-owner Heather Sheire tells ARLnow. That includes the 150 pre-orders the shop has taken already for the sampler boxes. There will also be a hundred or so boxes waiting for those who are walking into the shop looking for a Pi Day treat.

(It’s hard not to get into Pi Day’s numerical spirit. In honor of Arlington’s two pie destinations, for instance, this article and its photo captions are exactly 628 words, or 2 times 314.)

Sheire says it’s hard to compare Pi Day to a normal day since the shop will have offerings that aren’t typically sold.

Thanksgiving is “a different animal,” says Livin’ the Pie Life’s other co-owner Wendy MacCallum, that lasts a whole week in terms of preparation, baking, and sales. This past Thanksgiving, the shop sold about 2,000 pies, she says.

While Thanksgiving is big business, Pi Day is much more fun, the local pie shop owners say. Less stressful and more opportunity to be creative, they note.

“Businesses, schools, mathematicians, they all love Pi Day,” MacCallum says. “And so do we.”

McAuliffe, Lopez, and Filler-Corn Talk Small Business at Columbia Pike Pie Shop

By Matt Blitz
1/5

Less than a week before the primary, gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, Del. Alfonso Lopez, and Virginia Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn paid a visit to Acme Pie Company on Columbia Pike.

All three Democrats are running for office in the upcoming primary, set for Tuesday, June 8 — with early voting happening now. (Filler-Corn is unopposed in the primary.)

Around slices of blueberry and lemon curd pie, joined by Acme’s owner Sol Schott, they discussed small businesses, economic recovery, and their love of pie.

“The best pie in America,” Lopez said about Acme’s offerings. A few moments later, McAuliffe bought a whole pie.

“I got five kids,” the McLean resident and former governor said as his reasoning.

The campaign stop was intended to highlight the plight and hoped-for recovery for Virginia’s small businesses.

“Almost 41% of Black and Brown [owned] businesses have closed. How do you rebuild? How do you bring small businesses back?,” McAuliffe asked. “We do microloans, access to capital, and working on the regulatory structure.”

While Acme Pie has found ways to survive over the last year, it’s been rough going with the shop losing a large slice of its wholesale business.

The business did get a Paycheck Protection Program loan and Schott said that one of the most frustrating aspects was dealing with paperwork and navigating the legalese.

“I would like to see some more hands-on help with paperwork,” Schott told ARLnow. “I did get help from Alfonso personally on that.”

Lopez, who is facing an intra-party challenger in his run for re-election in the 49th District, agrees that the paperwork and amount of work that small business owners need do to gain access to loans and capital can be a barrier.

“What we need to be doing is dealing with procurement reform… and changing the definition of what a small business is,” Lopez said in an interview with ARLnow. “There’s so much more we could do to help these folks who are literally putting everything into their dream of a small business and be able to take care of their family.”

McAuliffe, who is seen as the front-runner for the competitive Democratic gubernatorial nomination, told ARLnow in an interview that the Commonwealth needs to be directly involved in providing access to capital to small businesses.

“We as a state should stand up our own, basically, investment bank structure to help small businesses, to get them off their feet, and work with them,” he said. “The state being involved in micro-financing and other lending opportunities, I think is very important for us.”

The four spoke about other issues impacting residents in Arlington and across Virginia, including education and affordable housing.

“We’ve got to invest in education… You’ve got to have the best education system if you’re going to recruit businesses in the 21st century,” McAuliffe said. “Today, [Virginia] is 50 out of 50 states in average teacher pay. That’s disgraceful… so, raising pay above the national average.”

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Pie Shop Says Ongoing County Construction Has Cost Them Lots of Dough

By Matt Blitz
1/5

A pie shop owner says an ongoing county construction project has cost her tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

About six weeks ago, Heather Sheire arrived to work at Livin’ the Pie Life at 2166 N. Glebe Road to find bulldozers tearing up the pavement in front of the shop.

“That’s how much notice I got from the county that there was going to be a disruption,” owner Sheire tells ARLnow, who opened the shop in 2016. She is now seeking financial compensation from county.

The construction was due to the ongoing Lee Highway and Glebe Road intersection improvement project which isn’t set to be substantially completed until the fall.

“Our parking was getting blocked and, then, 21st Road [N.] was getting blocked and, then, the sidewalk was getting blocked,” Sheire says, frustration rising in her voice. “Then, I started to notice our sales were down.”

The shop relies on walk-ups, she says, with about 90% of sales coming from walk-in orders.

Sheire even bought one of those feather-like flags as a way to catch people’s eyes from the road, but it was removed by construction crews.

March 3 was a tipping point. Again, Sheire saw a construction truck parked across the entrance of the shop’s driveway. So, she finally reached out to the county.

“[They] were sympathetic, but I need more than sympathy and friendlessness,” Sheire says. “This was having a very substantial economic impact on my business.”

She tells ARLnow, after comparing numbers from years past, that she believes the business has lost “tens of thousands of dollars” as a result of this construction project.

“I have a historical record from [March] last year to this year… we went from being down 10% to 46%,” she says.

Eric Balliet, spokesperson for Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services, confirms that Sheire did reach out.

“Once we were made aware of the pie shop owner’s concerns, the project team responded by making every effort possible to accommodate the business during streetscape construction along their store frontage,” he writes to ARLnow.

According to Balliet, this included scheduling construction mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays (when the shop is closed), upgrading bike racks, installing a curb along parking spaces to prevent vehicles from damaging the building, and relocating street signs to improve visibility of the storefront.

Also, as part of the project, the county has upgraded the pie shop’s front walkway to concrete and expanded access to the store’s parking spaces for those driving northbound along N. Glebe Road.

Sheire agrees, for the most part, that the county has either already done the things promised or she believes they will — except for improving access to parking.

“It is trickier to get into the parking now than before. They added a short wall along the sidewalk on Glebe that now must be navigated to get into and out of the parking from Glebe,” she says. “It’s become a maze, a puzzle to get in there.”

But even fixing all of that will not change the financial damage that has already occurred to her business.

“[We] deserve some kind of financial compensation because they were literally blocking access to our business,” Sheire says. “It’s wrong for the county to initiate a project like this without taking into account the economic impact it has on a small business.”

In March, she received her business license tax bill from the county, which set her off.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she says. “I felt like Arlington County had not given me value for my business license.”

She contacted the Arlington County Treasurer Carla de la Pava and other top local officials about waiving the tax, or offering some sort of compensation, but was told that could not be done.

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Pi Day was ‘Almost-Thanksgiving Busy’ for Columbia Pike’s Acme Pie

By Matt Blitz

Pi Day was a very busy day for Acme Pie on Columbia Pike.

“At the moment, we are trying to restock,” Sol Schott, owner of the seven-year-old pie company, said over the phone Monday morning. “I was expecting it to be somewhat busy, but not expecting it to be almost-Thanksgiving busy.”

Pi Day is an annual celebration on March 14 of the mathematical mystery that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The day also, of course, presents a great excuse to eat pie.

Schott said he made 98 large pies, 70 small pies, and had a “whole heck of alot of slices” and nearly sold out of all of it.

Sales, he says, “were in the same ballpark” as the Wednesday before Thanksgiving — aka the Super Bowl of pie sales — and definitely better than Pi Day last year.

“I think everybody was so sick and tired of being cooped up,” Schott says.

The most popular pie was a special one he made for the weekend, an English Banoffee pie.

“We use a graham cracker crumb crust with like a… chewy soft caramel toffee on the bottom,” says Schott. “Then, slices of banana, fresh whipped cream with a little bit of espresso, and then chocolate shavings on top.”

All 76 Banoffee pies sold out. He plans on making more for St. Patrick’s Day.

While Acme Pie started as a wholesaler baking pies in a basement, he opened his retail store at 2803 Columbia Pike two years ago in the spring of 2019. The shop took over the space from Twisted Vines Bar and Bottleshop.

Even before that Acme had presence in the community, selling pies at farmers markets, hailed for making popular vegan versions and helping other struggling local businesses.

This past July, Schott baked pies and hosted a fundraiser for his next-door neighbor Papillon Cycles, Arlington’s oldest bike shop.

He says the past year has also been “tricky” and “rough” for Acme Pie due to losing a large slice of his wholesale business.

“Wholesale is off huge. That’s pretty much the issue,” says Schott. “I went from selling [pies] to 70 restaurants to 10 during the pandemic,” due to many local restaurants cutting back or outright closing.

Nonetheless, Schott says Acme Pie is not going anywhere.

“I’m a baker,” he says. “That’s what I do… I don’t have any choice.”

He’s optimistic sales will rise and normalcy will return in the coming months as the vaccine rollout continues. For the moment, he’s wishing that every weekend could be like the past one.

“It was amazing,” Schott says. “But you can’t have Pi Day everyday.”

Pies and Butterflies Joining Arlington County Fair This Month

By Airey

The Arlington County Fair is adding more events to its lineup this year, including a pie-eating contest and a butterfly exhibition.

Fair-goers can get up close to butterflies later this month thanks to a traveling enclosure for the creatures from Florida-based company The Butterfly Enclosure. Tickets are $3 a piece.

“Children and adults alike will enjoy the wonder of being surrounded by nature’s most delicate, beautiful creatures,” fair organizers wrote on the event page.

The exhibition will be open every day of the fair:

  • Wednesday, August 14, from 5-8 p.m.
  • Thursday, August 15 from 5-8 p.m.
  • Friday, August 16 from 2-8 p.m.
  • Saturday, August 17 from 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
  • Sunday, August 18 from 11 a.m.- 7 p.m.

The county fair itself will be open from Aug. 14-18 and will feature carnival games, food trucks, and live music, in addition to goat yoga and a new beer garden. The fair’s full schedule has not yet been published on its website.

This year the fair will also host a pie-eating contest. On Saturday, Aug. 17 participants will chow down on blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry pie, and everyone will receive a “Arlington County Fair Pie Eating Championship” t-shirt.

Pre-registration for the event, which is free, is sold out. However, fair organizers noted on the event page that there will be space for some same-day signups. The contest begins at 1:30 p.m. and participants are asked to stop by at 1 p.m. to register and check in.

Contestants will compete based on their age category:

  • Ages 2-4
  • Ages 5-8
  • Ages 9-12
  • Ages 13-16
  • Ages 17-109.5

The event is organized together with local bakery Living the Pie Life and young adult event organization Arlington Jaycees.

Several carnival ride favorites are set to return to the fair this year, including the Zipper, the Heart Flip, and the Rainbow from the Cole Shows Amusement Company.

The fair is free to attend but ticket prices for amusements range from $1 for a single ticket to $20 for 24 tickets.

Photos courtesy Dennis Dimick

Acme Puts the ‘Pie’ in Columbia Pike

By Vernon Miles
1/11

After five years of churning out pies for wholesale in the basement kitchen of 2803 Columbia Pike, Acme Pie Company has moved up to the street level and opened a retail pie shop.

In every sense, the store is the product of its founder Sol Schott — from the throwback ’30s aesthetic to some of the unorthodox choices in pies. But more than pastries, Schott has visions of Acme as a community gathering place in a classic Americana sense.

“One of the things I wanted to do with this place is I wanted to do exactly what I wanted to do,” said Schott. “I wanted it to be mine, from concept to everything, for good or bad. I wanted to see if I could do something exactly how I wanted to do it.”

Schott said visually, the store is based on Woolworth’s lunch counters from the 1930s. The wall art over the sound absorbers on the wall is inspired by Depression-era art from the Works Progress Administration. More often than not, when you walk in, the 1936 film serial Flash Gordon will be playing.

Acme Pie Company is only open from 3-9 p.m. during weekdays (except Monday, when it’s closed) and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on weekends, but the baking process starts as early at 5 a.m. and can take much of the day.

The pie shop had previously operated inside Twisted Vines Bar and Bottleshop. But when that restaurant closed, Schott said he had to take a risk and move into retail. The Acme Pie Company’s retail shop opened in April.

“It’s been a big transition,” said Schott. “I’m not so much of a retail guy as I am a baker, that’s my history and passion. But it’s been going well. I enjoy talking to customers and dealing with people, that sort of thing. It’s been fun and it’s been successful.”

The pie shop is a change for Schott in more than one way. He admitted that a little over a decade ago, he was dubious about the prospect of making pies.

“I don’t want to say I hated making pie, but I didn’t know how to do it very well,” Schott said. “This was 16 years ago. We were buying the pies, and at some point [the retailer] decided she didn’t want to wholesale them anymore, so I realized… ‘damnit, I’m going to have to make pies.’ I didn’t have an appreciation for it, it was a pain in the neck. But I’d spent a lot of time making these pies, and learning to do it really well.”

Eventually, Schott gained an appreciation for the art and realized that he could carve out his own piece of the pie in a market crowded with other pastry chefs.

“I knew I could do that with pies, because most pastry chefs haven’t spent the time learning to make pies because they’re European trained, like myself, and that’s a different skill set,” Scott said. “I realized that I could wholesale sell them to places that wouldn’t buy anything else. They have bakers and cake guys and scones and cookies and muffins, but a real lack of quality pie.”

Now, Schott says they’re churning out around 20,000 pies a year, and Schott said every one of those pies tells a story. The blackberry pies — Schott’s favorite — are inspired by going blackberry picking and making the pies with his mother as a child. The cherry pies are made with materials from an Amish family in upstate New York.

Working out of a shop has allowed Schott to also experiment with more types of pie than he could when he was working wholesale.

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Acme Pie Company Taking Over Former Twisted Vines Space on Columbia Pike

By Alex Koma
1/5

For the last few years, pie chef Sol Schott has relied on the kitchen space at Columbia Pike’s Twisted Vines Bar and Bottleshop to whip up his wares — now, his Acme Pie Company is taking over the storefront.

Schott told ARLnow that he signed a five-year lease this week for the space at 2803 Columbia Pike. It’ll be the first brick-and-mortar location for his baking business, after he spent years selling his pies wholesale and offering them up at local farmers markets.

“It’s really terrifying, but weird and exciting,” Schott said. “This just sort of fell into my lap.”

Schott said he’d been toying with the idea of opening a physical location for a while now, but he felt compelled to act as he faced a stark choice at the start of the new year: “I had to either move the kitchen or take over the lease.”

That’s because Twisted Vines owner Tony Wagner decided to shutter the wine bar at the end of last year, along with the nearby BrickHaus beer garden, to focus on his new Italian restaurant in Penrose Square. Schott had relied on Wagner’s oven for his pie-baking ever since he launched Acme back in 2013, and he suddenly found himself without a home when Wagner closed up shop.

Though he examined other potential locations, Schott said he ultimately decided to try and stay put in the Pike space (he lives in nearby Douglas Park, after all) and he was eventually able to strike a deal with its landlord.

Schott is now envisioning a “1920s or 1930s pie bar” for the store, befitting his business’s throwback name. He’s also planning a bit of an old-school schedule as well — Schott hopes to keep his wholesale business going, so he’ll be hard at work baking pies from about 5-10 a.m. each day.

If anyone stops by the store while he’s slaving away at the oven, he’ll run upstairs and sell them a freshly baked pie.

“I’ll have a baby monitor or something out front so they can talk to me,” Schott said. “People used to do that back in the day, they’d ring a bell or something… It’s unconventional, but it makes no sense for me to just be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day.”

When the store is open (likely starting around 2 p.m. each day), Schott hopes to still serve whole pies and pies by the slice, with many of the same flavors he currently bakes up. Options include everything from sour cherry to Scottish apple.

With the new store, he also plans to offer some “fancy sodas” and other sweet treats as well.

“If you’ve got pie, you should probably have ice cream,” Schott said. “And if you have that, it’s pretty easy to make milkshakes.”

He expects to offer limited coffee options, buying his beans from Misha’s Coffeehouse in Old Town Alexandria. But he doesn’t think he’ll get more complex than just drip coffee or a french press.

“As long you don’t come in there and think you’re going to get a vanilla macchiato or whatever, you’ll be OK,” Schott said. “I don’t know anything about it, I can’t compete with those other coffee places.”

So long as all goes well, he plans to open the shop for hungry customers by April 1. Schott says he has some painting to do “to make the place not feel like a wine bar anymore,” but otherwise already has many of the permits he needs from the county.

And considering that Schott says he’s already heard from a bevy of friends and customers excited about his new venture, he expects it should draw a crowd right away.

“I want it to be a fun place, a place for the community,” Schott said. “But my idea is kind of off the wall.”

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