Emily Daly grew up with the dream of owning her own food business from a young age, inspired by everyone from Julia Child to Emeril Lagasse.
“I pictured myself on the Food Network one day – ‘Cooking with Emeril and Emily’ was the name of the show I imagined,” she laughs.
Michael, Emily’s husband and business partner, is a born and raised Charlottean while Emily grew up in the DC suburbs of Virginia. Daly moved to Charlotte to join Teach For America and has been serving the community as a teacher ever since.
It was in September of 2016 that Emily’s other dream career came to fruition with the launch of Midwood Pies. After years of tinkering with her homemade crust pie recipe and testing pies on all her friends and family, she finally launched the shop with Michael.
“My inspiration comes from my love for everything old-fashioned and homemade,” she explains. “I’m inspired to make everything I possibly can from scratch, use local ingredients, and cook with the seasons. Plus, food is what always brings my family together and I’m inspired to bring other families together and bring them joy through my food.”
Midwood Pies is already doing just that – you can taste the labor of love behind every hand-crafted bite and you can feel the passion in the carefully curated menu, with unique offerings like the Lemon Chess pie and the Salty Maple pie, an addicting, unique creation that features a combination of pure maple syrup and flaked sea salt. The most popular pie this fall was the Salted Caramel Mountain Apple, a twist on the classic apple pie that combines a homemade salted caramel sauce, NC Mountain apples, and a secret bit of spice.
While Emily does the baking side of the operation, Michael is the designated delivery driver and last-minute-ingredients-picker-upper. Emily also credits her family and friends, who encouraged her every step of the way, have eaten every bite of pie she taste-tested on them, and have also provided helping hands during crunch time as the business gets off the ground.
Why pie? “I have been cooking and baking in the kitchen with my mom for as long as I can remember,” Emily tells us. “Growing up, I didn’t really like cake, so my mom always baked me pumpkin pie for my birthday. After I moved away, I began experimenting with my own homemade pie crusts and fillings and fell in love with pie for a few reasons: it’s is a throwback, a classic. It’s not fancy or trendy. It’s comforting, nostalgic, and most importantly, delicious.”
In December, Emily and Michael will be participating in the Midwood Market, a new series of urban sidewalk markets that will run all month with local Midwood businesses. Midwood Pies will post to Instagram which Saturdays they’ll be out). Now that they’ve wrapped an action-packed few days filling Thanksgiving orders, Emily says they are excited to bake even more delicious pies for the December holidays.
Pies are baked to order, so place your requests 48-hours in advance. The handmade pies are available baked to order by phone, email, or on the online store at http://www.midwoodpies.com/. There is also pie by the slice available at the pop-up slice shop.
