A new pie shop in Parkville

You’ll be pie-eyed by the selection at Parkville’s Pie Room

​A couple of weeks ago, KCUR-FM’s Walt Bodine Show devoted half of its twice-monthly Restaurant Critics program to the subject of pies. (You can listen to an archived edition of the show here). The program generated a lot of phone calls, including one from a Parkville resident who wanted to give a shout out to the two-month-old Hawthorne House Pie Room at 6008 N.W. Bell Road.

​The Pie Room isn’t a restaurant, although you can walk right in and eat a piece of pie there (with a cup of java or a soft drink) on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Hawthorne House is a special events and catering facility built on the grounds of the old David Farm (the original site of the Bell Road Barn Theater), complete with a chapel. But owner Irene Sparks turned the ground-floor meeting room into The Pie Room, selling slices as well as whole pies — the daily offerings are listed on a hand-written board.

When I finally found the place after driving all around the hamlet of Parkville (here’s the clue: you turn at the Sonic Drive-In on Highway 9 and keep going until you see the Hawthorne House sign), there wasn’t another car in the parking lot and I wasn’t sure that the place was even open. But a very nice lady was in the spacious room, just waiting for a pie patron to stop in.

That day’s selection included chocolate cream, lemon chess, buttermilk pumpkin, cherry, rhubarb, caramel apple pecan and butterscotch meringue.