Saturday: Free mini-meat pies and beverages at the Pie Fest Block Party

To celebrate the kick-off of their new food truck, the Pie Hole, owners Chris Knowles and Tim Moore — who are also neighbors in the Rockhill Ridge neighborhood just east of Brookside and both stay-at-home fathers — are giving away three kinds of Australian-style baked meat pies today at a neighborhood block party called Pie Fest today from 4 to 7 p.m.

“We’ve gotten permits to block off Holmes Street between 58th and 59th streets,” says Knowles, a native of Brisbane, Australia. “We’re expecting as many as 300 and 400 people and we’ll be serving 800 meat pies.”

That will give the neighbors — and everyone else who shows up — a chance to experience the new Aussie meat pie company that Knowles and Moore (and their wives, Laura and Mary, respectively) have started; they’ll be selling pies out of the candy-apple-red  1969 Ford F-100 truck that they’ve tricked out with a stainless steel catering box on the back.

“We’ll have the Royals game on on a big TV in my driveway,” says Knowles, who wound up in the Midwest, he says, “after I married a corn farmer’s daughter from Iowa.”

Knowles and Moore, who work at home raising their children — Knowles has two youngsters; Moore has three — while Laura Knowles works for the U.S. government and Mary Moore handles marketing for Dunn Construction, will be serving three kinds of meat-pastry pies today: steak, mushroom, onion and gravy; a green chili pork shoulder pie with sun-dried tomatoes; and a steak, bacon, cheese and gravy pie. Beer and soft drinks will also be served.

The Pie Hole’s next event will be The Pitch Crafts & Drafts on November 2 at the Uptown Shopping Center.