Searsport couple expands meat pie food truck into wholesale business

SEARSPORT, Maine (WABI) - A couple who launched the Portable Pie Place food truck two and a half years ago now sells their hand-held meat pies in restaurants and the frozen food aisle.

Jessica and Dustin Schramm discovered they were the first to make meat hand pies in the U.S. while applying for federal certification to be a meat products wholesale supplier.

“We have an inspector on site three days a week. They watch us like hawks and it’s all just a very interesting process,” Jessica Schramm said.

The couple opened their Portable Pie Place food truck three summers ago. A good meat pie takes a few days to make, according to the Schramms. The pies worked well for events like the Common Ground Fair where you are feeding a lot of people at one time.

“But for just sitting somewhere, you really don’t know how many to make ahead of time,” says Jessica Schramm.

Which meant the couple often had to throw away a lot of unsold pies.

“Because they are meat, you only have about four hours from when they are baked,” she explains. “And people would come and take a bunch home. And we were just like- Okay, this is kind of teaching us where this product needs to be.”

The Schramms decided to pivot their pie business to sell wholesale to area restaurants, pubs and specialty stores. The couple currently makes a few thousand pies each week.

“And it’s just the two of us. Hannaford is very interested too but it’s more of just how much we can produce in a week,” Jessica Schramm said.

Jessica Schramm’s mother is a British citizen so meat pies were a common meal growing up.

“Every time we had a celebration with our family, we would do a meat pie,” she explains. “And so I didn’t realize how many families didn’t know what a meat pie was. And I realized a lot of people wanted them.”

She says in addition to the savory, all natural ingredients they use, the secret sauce is in the crust.

“Anybody whose made hand pies knows, you can make a whole tray of hand pies and you’ll get maybe two that don’t explode,” Jessica Schramm says. “We don’t have to do steam holes, we can keep all of the moisture inside.”

As for where the recipe came from-

“We found [it] from the Medieval Times,” she says. “It’s one of the very first recipes that was every written.”

The Schramms say they do plan to run the food truck at select events this summer, including the Celtic Festival in Belfast and the Common Ground Fair. After that, they’ll see how their schedule is for other potential events.

Currently, the Schramms are offering their signature pork pie, chicken pot pie, chicken bacon apricot pie, cottage pie, steak pie, veggie curry pie, beef kielbasa pie and sausage rolls.

For a list of area restaurants and stores that currently carry the Portable Pie Place label, log onto portablepieplace.com

The Schrams say their portable meat pies can stay frozen for more than a year. Customers can also order them directly from the website.

They come in cases of 10, all individually wrapped.