It’s National Pie Day, but Springfield’s local pie experts at Prairie Pie have their own special reason to celebrate— the business is celebrating its one year anniversary as a brick and mortar store. Owner Eleanor Taylor spent years baking wholesale pies for pre-order, but now, anyone can stop by the shop, housed on Jefferson in what used to be Vito’s Kitchen, to try out their wide variety of sweet and savory pies.

Prairie Pie was built on a dream Taylor has had for years. Her earliest memories of baking are of icing sugar cookies with her grandma who was an avid baker, and growing up, homemade cakes and pies were present at every birthday and holiday. For Taylor and her family, baking brought them together.

“My grandma has this huge kitchen island, and we just cover it in iced sugar cookies. The whole family just sits around it with sprinkles and icing,” Taylor said.  “I guess my first memory of baking is feeling sick because I ate too much icing, but it’s a really fond memory of mine and they still do that every year. I make it when I can to the cookie Christmas extravaganza.”

Eventually, her mother encouraged her to put her skills to work. One day, a 16 year-old Eleanor walked down the street to Tea Bar & Bites, a local brunch spot in Springfield, with a tray of her homemade sugar cookies for the owner which landed her a job as a bakery assistant.

After 5 years of working as a bakery assistant, Taylor moved to New York where she continued to bake custom desserts. By 23, she knew she wanted to open her own bakery. Although pies were never her specialty, Taylor knew that to thrive as a small bakery business in Springfield, she needed to fill a gap.

“When I was in New York, I was kind of longing for home and fantasizing about opening up my own business, and I felt that we had space for a pie business in Springfield,” Taylor said. “Springfield is full of a lot of bakeries. You can get the best donuts, the best cakes, and the best everything except for pie, so I thought ‘this is a hole I can fill.’

“I put a lot of thought into everything I bake, so I wanted to make sure that whatever I baked was very pointed, and it was easy to choose one thing— pie. And I really wanted to execute that well,” Taylor said.

Before Prairie Pie opened downtown, Taylor and a few staff members ran her wholesale business for four years. Prairie Pie made pies to order, as well as mini pies and whole pies for local restaurants and grocery stores. Taylor and her staff made the pies out of Vito’s Kitchen, but when the coronavirus pandemic pushed Vito’s Kitchen to close, it made sense to keep the functional and cozy space to house Prairie Pie. 

The space, designed by Taylor’s mother, the owner of a local interior design firm, followed Taylor’s only condition which was to “make it happy and make it fun.” Customers who walk into Prairie Pie are welcomed by warm lights, stacks on stacks of colorful books, funky art, and of course, the smells of freshly baked pies. 

With a new physical space and a larger staff, Prairie Pie has been able to expand their menu to offer 15-20 different kinds of pies on their online pre-order page, with four different rotating pies in store. Their menu includes both sweet and savory pies, cookies, cheesecake, and now, in collaboration with Therefore Pizza, pizza. Therefore Pizza currently serves pizza out of Prairie Pie’s kitchen Friday and Saturday nights, but by the end of April, customers will be able to walk up to a window connected to the store and order whole pizzas or pizza by the slice. 

Another major change that has come with opening the store is the customer interaction, which Taylor says is the most rewarding part.

“It wows me every time when people come in and buy 3 whole pies and two dozen cookies and are just, on a whim, getting pie for whatever event they’re having,” Taylor said. “I think when people come here they’re excited to have my product, so it’s nice to be able to see customers everyday who are excited to eat what I’m serving.”

Prairie Pie is part of an ever growing collection of small businesses in Springfield, and the community of small business owners are often finding ways to collaborate. This means that not only can you pick up your own pies and desserts from Prairie Pie Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., but you can also find their products at other local businesses including Mama Jean’s, Druffs, Culture Counter,  and Cherry Picker. Prairie Pie has made it easier than ever for locals to get delicious pies to satisfy any taste.