When you walk into Laurie’s Pie Bar in downtown Long Beach, you’re immediately hit with the scent of vanilla, cinnamon, sugar and butter. It completes the warm feeling that you’re in someone’s small home kitchen that has somehow been transported to a storefront on Pine Avenue. And in a way, it has.
Laurie’s Pie Bar is celebrating its 10th anniversary this summer. “I feel like it’s gone by so fast,” said the store’s namesake and owner, Laurie Gray.
Gray has always loved pie and has been baking since she was “tall enough to reach the counter.” Growing up on her family’s farm in Washington, she picked fresh fruits to make them from scratch with her mom.
“Pie is such a comfort food,” she said. “It’s tied to so many family memories.”
In 2014, Gray started baking pies full-time after being laid off from a corporate job she had for almost three decades. She started selling pies out of her home for the holidays, and things quickly took off.
People wanted more pies than her small operation could handle, so in 2015 she rented space in a commercial kitchen. She started churning out orders, experimenting with different flavors, and starting to run pop-ups around town. In the midst of it all, she fell in love with the business she was creating and decided she wanted her own brick-and-mortar shop.
She signed the lease in February of 2016 and officially opened her downtown storefront on June 3.
From the beginning, Gray knew she wanted to focus only on pies. Gray said there were so many other dessert shops in Long Beach, but none were dedicated to pie.
“I really wanted to bring back the lost art of pie,” Gray said. “I didn’t want to see pie die.”
A lot of work goes into her beloved dessert. It can take two hours from start to finish to make one pie, Gray said.
And for 10 years, Laurie’s Pie Bar has stayed true to that original vision, still serving only freshly made pies. With 50 flavors that rotate throughout the year, including Mississippi mud, ube cheesecake, lemon lavender, whiskey peach, savory options like chicken pot pie, and even pie bites for dogs — just pumpkin and pie crust.
Gray is partial to the marionberry pie because it reminds her of home, though she said she loves every flavor on the menu. The top seller is the key lime.
They’ve also experimented with the pie form. There are the $47 “frankenpies” with slices of six different flavors. On the slightly less extravagant side, there are “pie shots” (tiny pies served in a shot glass) and single-serving “Cutie Pies” in a jar, which is the most popular option, Gray said.
In the future, Gray hopes to open more pie shops in different areas and expand their catering program.
“I’m really excited about the next 10 years,” she said.
Laurie’s Pie Bar, 450 Pine Avenue, is open Sundays and Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.