More Pie!

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This was a first for us! We headed for Melton Mowbray and their annual PieFest. Melton Mowbray is, of course, famous for its home-grown Pork Pie where the town is considered to be the UK’s ‘Capital of Pies’ and the ‘Rural Capital of Food‘! 😋😋

No prizes then, for guessing what the Festival was all about! Yes, PIES! – with hundreds of them! All shapes, all sizes and pretty much all types – sweet and savoury, vegan & GF, hot & cold with Indigestion guaranteed, but it was worth it! 😉

Running over the weekend from 10am – 4pm in the Cattle Market, it’s not just an opportunity to fill your face (yes, it is!), there are workshops, tutored tastings, food theatre and entertainment (nope! no idea!), talks and demonstrations (the less violent sort) to take your mind off the eating. Tickets are £5 whilst Kids, 16 and under, are free (but we don’t have any room for those!). 😉

And if pies aren’t your thing, there are also cakes, cider, cheese, chutneys and wine to also tempt you! 👍PieFest? It should really be called GorgeFest!! 😋😋

And of course, no English event like this would be complete without the obligatory Morris Dancers! They were doing their best to whip up some enthusiasm, but the temptation of all that pastry ultimately won and diverted most people’s attention! 😃. Back to the pies then!

There were plenty of pie makers displaying their wares – and it was all very competitive. One of the bigger ones – Brockleby’s – was doing a good trade (helped by the generous free samples) and they eventually got our business after our second lap of the competitors. It was good to know that the description of some of the pies DIDN’T necessarily reflect the ingredients. Luckily for penguins, those pies were actually smoked haddock, cheese, onion and potato! We succumbed, picking up a ‘Kiwi’ (Minced Beef & Mature Cheddar) and a ‘Wild Beaver’ (actually, Steak & Ale).

A good first experience all around then, helped by plenty of places for a hot drink and nibbles. Parking was close-by and free, meaning just a short walk to the main event! We could have easily spent a lot more money that we did, but you can only eat so many pies, ehh??

Our next stop was the short walk into the MM’s town centre and its shops. It was fairly buzzy, no doubt helped by visitors like us to PieFest.

No, we’re not obsessed by pies, but once into the town’s shops, our first stop was ‘Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe‘ that’s been making pies here for over 170 years! Originally a bakery opened by John Dickinson in 1851, it was his Grandmother, Mary Dickinson, who is credited with creating the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie that is now known all over the world.

We wandered further into the town and discovered St Mary’s Church. A beautiful interior with some stunning stain-glassed windows, it’s hard to believe, but a poor restoration during Victorian times left it ‘unfit for purpose’. For us, one of the lightest and airiest interiors we’ve seen in a long time.

We’d successfully resisted tucking into the sausage rolls we’d purchased earlier at PieFest and came across Caffé Italia in nearby Church Street. We decided to have alight lunch there as it had a straightforward menu, and it wasn’t too busy. Actually, we timed it perfectly, as by the time we were tucking into our food, it began to fill up and not being particularly large, it was pretty much full up by the time we left. Excellent food and service that was all home-cooked from scratch made it a lunch to remember.

Time to head home. Our journey TO Melton Mowbray seemed to take forever, and so we decided on an alternative route going back. It didn’t quite go to plan, with the A607 Burton Road closed for 8 weeks until late August. Initially, the diversions pushed us back onto the same road as we used getting there, but we over-rode the sat-nav to take us through Uppingham instead.

A great day, where PieFest deserves a special mention for the sheer range of pies on offer! 👍👍