Business Spotlight: Why Simply Delicious Owner Loves Pies

Earlier this week, we introduced you to one of Shaker's newest businesses, Simply Delicious Pies.

Owner Brittany Reeves' passion for pies was evident through her comments, but how did it develop? After all, she doesn't even it much of it.

Turns out she had "love at first pie" at a young age. When her sister and co-owner Beth Kaboth asked Reeves to write a brief biography for the company's soon-to-launch website, she submitted a lengthy read that articulates why Simply Delicious Pies is her dream shop.

Here's an excerpt of what Reeves wrote:

It's not a surprise I've ended up in the baking industry. Ever since I was a little girl, I've always felt most at home in the kitchen. From when I would make breakfast for my older sisters and their friends the morning of a slumber party, to attending the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, specializing in baking and pastry arts. This has always been my path, I just never imagined it would travel to where I am now. 

     During my Junior and Senior years of high school I attended a vocational program for Culinary Arts, where I thrived. It was my first experience in a commercial style kitchen. I immediately loved everything about it. The crisp white chef jackets and checkered pants, learning how to orchestrate the logistics of catering to a restaurant full of people. Even the culinary based academics. It all made so much more sense to me than anything else I had studied. After high school it took me a little bit of time to find direction, but in 2007 I landed at PCI in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I had decided to attend their baking and pastry arts based curriculum instead of general culinary arts. The intricacy of cake decorating and chocolateering were subjects I was especially interested in. I always imagined I would make my way into the wedding cake industry. Again, as soon as I put on the traditional chef outfit, I knew I was in a place I belonged. I learned many wonderful skills in Pittsburgh and honed the ones I already had. The more laid back atmosphere that a bakery kitchen provided, coupled with the methodical and scientific approach of baking was refreshing. I spent my evenings working as the only female line cook at a greasy spoon/sports bar. I left college before finishing my degree. Culinary school can be pretty expensive and I figured I would take some time off to work.

     After being in a job outside of food service for a little while, I decided to start looking for something to at least get me back in a kitchen. I answered an ad for a part time baker's assistant job at what was described as a "gourmet natural pie shop". I walked into my interview, resume in hand. to see a man standing alone in a make-shift kitchen the size of a small closet. He was at the side of a wooden bench surrounded by cases of rhubarb looking a little frazzled. I started training almost immediately. I use the term training loosely, it was really just a couple of instructions on some procedures that were unique to the mass pie making process before I was left to my own devices. This job rapidly turned into more responsibility than the original ad had intended. I quickly became full-time operations manager in charge of what eventually became a staff of over a dozen. We moved out of the tiny kitchen and opened a full-scale retail establishment. 

     I knew right away that this was where I belonged. It was love at first pie. Everything about what we were doing resonated within my soul. This was my calling. I was exactly where I was supposed to be. It all sounds a little trite, but there is a feeling when you are doing something truly special, when you are doing what you know deep down that is specifically what you were meant to do. It becomes a blessing and a curse. It's all consuming. It's obsessive. You begin to do your job with such a strong sense of purpose, that no matter how little or silly the task, you feel like your effort is essential to a greater good. I might not be saving lives or performing brain surgery...but in some ways, I believe that the little bit of happiness and joy I can create is just as important.

    I once had a customer come into the shop, an older gentleman who was a regular. His wife would sit in the car and wait for him to come out with a sweet potato pie. Something we hadn't carried on our menu until she asked us to bake some...well, anyways, he came in one day carrying two glass pie dishes with some of the saddest looking pie shells I had ever seen, lining them. His mother-in-law, who had since passed, made the crusts about a decade prior. He asked if I could use the old shells to bake them a couple of cherry pies. I (kind-of reluctantly) agreed. He seemed so sincere about wanting a pie baked out of these old shells. The next day I presented him with the pies. He came back later to report how happy it made him and his wife. Being able to give someone an experience from their past that they figured had been lost is quite incredible. 

     Pie is so much more than a dessert to me, its a philosophy. It's a little slice of perfection. It carries so much more importance and feeling. Emotion. It's that beautiful mother with perfectly set curls in a sundress pulling a fresh blueberry pie to cool on the windowsill on a spring day. The sweet scent wafting through the air, beckoning the children home. It's American nostalgia. It is the best comfort food. Imagine being out of town alone and finding your way into a small local diner. The one thing that is guaranteed to make you feel at home is a slice of their fresh baked cherry pie, a la mode if you'd like. The way the bakery windows steam up in the winter is so Norman Rockwell-esque. You really can't find a more peaceful place...

     I am beyond blessed to find myself where I am now. Opening my own dream shop where I intend to continue striving towards using the best, freshest ingredients to do what so few are able to these days- baking a pie that would make any apron-clad mother proud to set out to cool on her windowsill. I would not be able to do this without the unwavering support of my wonderful family. One thing I have learned is enthusiasm is contagious and before I even had an oven to bake in, the buzz about Simply Delicious Pies had started to grow. This journey is just beginning, starting first in the eastern Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, but the crust does not stop there. We will be able to ship our pies nationwide and hopefully can one day even expand our retail locations.

     I'm not saying it's been easy. I really never could have imagined how difficult this would be. It has been such an extreme roller coaster of emotions. What sometimes seems like constant heart-break and frustration. An impossible task that never should have been started. There is a huge learning curve with opening a business from the ground up.

Everyday provides a situation I never imagined I would find myself in. I had once said that I would never want to open my own business. I had seen first hand the stress it can put a person under. But there is no reward without risk. I am excited to move forward. I am thrilled to be able to bring my oldest sister on as a partner, and share some of the responsibility (and stress!) with one of my best friends. It's a journey of endurance that does not provide immediate results, but I am ecstatic to be in our very own commercial kitchen, setting out perfect pies on our shelves to share with the world.