Praise for Emily and Melissa Elsen

“Emily and Melissa Elsen make pies the way nobody makes pies anymore but everybody used to, which is to say, pies that are buttery and always right for the season and hard to stop eating. It’s a score they’ve decided to share the recipes that put them on the map.”

—Frank Falcinelli & Frank Castronovo, chefs/owners of Frankies Spuntino and Prime Meats and authors of The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual

“The pies we tasted from Four & Twenty Blackbirds were so satisfying and deliriously delicious that they left every other pie we sampled in the dust.”

—Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group

“When we were planning to open a pie shop, we were hard-pressed to find anyone focusing exclusively on pies in a truly handmade way, using seasonal and fresh ingredients sourced from local orchards. Sure, plenty of bakeries made and carried pies, but not pies like ours; and we didn’t know of any places in the neighborhoods we frequented that were dedicated exclusively to the experience of sitting down and eating a slice of pie with a cup of coffee. Perhaps such a place existed but not on our radar, and that is exactly what we wanted to create: a local pie shop.”

—FROM THE INTRODUCTION