Damn Fine Hand Pies opens bakery in St. Louis' Shaw neighborhood (2024)

ST. LOUIS — Frequent Tower Grove Farmers Market goers may know Madeline Hissong as the hand pie lady.

And maybe it’s hereditary. Hissong’s great-grandmother was known as the pie lady around her small Indiana town, leaving her freshly baked creations out on her porch for people to buy.

Hissong and business partner Gene Bailey opened the doors to Damn Fine Hand Pie’s first brick-and-mortar store at 4000 Shaw Boulevard near Tower Grove Park earlier this month.

“I feel like so many chefs do this, when they have an opportunity to do their own thing, they just go home mentally and emotionally,” Hissong said. “There’s this way that pie and those memories I have with it makes me feel very different than even other things I truly love. There’s something about it.”

Hissong, a self-taught baker with a background in fine dining, started Damn Fine Hand Pies out of her house in 2021 while still working at restaurants around the city.

In the early days, she sold only four kinds of hand pies at the Tower Grove Farmers Market over the summer.

A hand pie is a classic, laminated flaky pie crust that envelops a filling that can be sweet or savory. The food can be held in one’s hand and makes for a good meal by itself, according to Hissong.

Most of Damn Fine’s pie creations are savory, such as the dill cream cheese-filled pie with everything-bagel seasoning.

Eventually, Hissong’s operation grew to include different types of bread loaves plus brioche and cake donuts. In 2022, Hissong joined forces with Bailey and sales exploded. Now, thanks to their loyal and devoted customer base, Hissong’s dream of running her own spot has become a reality.

“It’s unbelievable,” Hissong said. “I don’t have time to stop right now and really get in my feels about it because there is so much to do but when I have those moments of existential awe, it’s all-encompassing. We’re here, how did this happen?”

Hissong and Bailey found the corner store last fall and it has been under renovation ever since. Its previous tenants used the space as a commissary kitchen for their barbecue food truck so the last six months has included painting pastries on the bathroom walls, installing new tiled flooring, sourcing large baking equipment and more.

Patrons can expect Damn Fine Hand Pie staples, such as the brown butter cake donut and the sausage gravy pie, in addition to new offerings like espresso drinks, breakfast sandwiches, salads and angel food cake.

Plus, Hissong said she is excited to experiment with seasonal ingredients throughout the year. She said strawberry and rhubarb is going to be everywhere on the bakery’s menu soon, given that the bakery is opening during strawberry season.

The bakery is about a $200,000 investment, much of it paid with savings from farmers market sales, Bailey said.

“I know restaurants sometimes close in five years but a bakery can be around forever if you do it right,” Bailey said. “What I love about a bakery — besides everything — is that it’s so timeless. It’s so classic in being something that people would always love to have one near them.”

Damn Fine Hand Pies is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The bakery will have counter service, with space to sit at the indoor bar rail and outdoor tables.

Only a few blocks away from Tower Grove Park, Bailey said the business may also sell at the farmers market this year. Damn Fine took a break from tabling to focus on the store’s opening, but loyal customers have been asking for it to return, he said.

“I couldn’t have done this anywhere else,” Hissong said of the storefront. “We have this community that is so deeply invested that I don’t believe that exists everywhere. It’s a big small town.”