While Mesa resident Cheryl Standage was building her career as a successful vice-president with World Savings and Wachovia, her passion for baking delectable desserts was being pushed to the back burner.
Now, the lifelong foodie has taken her penchant for top quality control and management to what she loves best by applying them to Piefection in her new Mesa pie shop.
Piefection Pie Shop, the newest scratch bakery and one-of-a-kind pie shop in the Valley, opened on Aug. 29.
“I have had a passion for food from the time I could walk,” Cheryl said. “I constantly observed my mother and my grandmother cooking and baking, and I developed a relentless desire to not only follow their example, but to always do it with quality ingredients to create the most fabulous
food possible.”
When her busy corporate schedule allowed, Cheryl taught cooking classes on several occasions. Then, when she left the corporate world, and took a hiatus for a couple of years, her hobby became more important to her than ever.
“I realized what I wanted to be when I grew up,” Cheryl said. “I knew when I went back to work it had to be in the food industry somehow.”
Cheryl’s opportunity came when a Mesa pie shop abruptly went out of business. “I wanted to capitalize on the demand and on my love of pies,” she stated.
Piefection now features whole pies to go, in 30 different varieties, with everything made in-house daily. Among the favorites are coconut cream, banana cream, chocolate cream, lemon meringue, harvest pumpkin, country apple, peach, cherry and triple berry.
“We also have a plethora of upscale specialty pies,” including white chocolate raspberry, lemon blueberry sour cream, pumpkin cheesecake, southern pecan, French silk and peanut butter dream,” said Cheryl.
In addition to whole pies, Piefection makes chicken and turkey pot pies to either take and bake or baked off and ready to eat.
“We make it all from scratch, and use no preservatives or additives,” Cheryl said, “and only the finest ingredients around—freshly ground nutmeg, real butter, real whipping cream—and we scour the country to find only the best quality… peaches from Georgia, cherries from Michigan, and wild blueberries from Maine. Our chocolate only comes from Belgium…Callebaut, the best.”
The new establishment is not affiliated with a chain. Instead, it is an exclusively local operation.
“Before opening, I spent several months benchmarking bakeries across the country to learn about the best pie bakers, best sellers, new ideas and best business practices,” Cheryl said. “As a result, we think we have the best of all worlds to offer our customers.”
“Please join us at our grand opening on Nov. 3, from 2 to 6 p.m. on-site at the bakery. There will be sampling of every pie imaginable, as well as prizes, coupons, games, Thanksgiving order sign-ups and much more,” said Cheryl. “We will have grand opening specials during the entire week of Nov. 12.”
Call us at (480) 218-7437 to order your holiday pies. Piefection Pie Shop is located at 6731 E. Brown Road, on the southwest corner of Power and Brown roads. The shop is open Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Learn more at piefectionaz.com, and visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PiefectionPieShop.