npr: When you push through the pumpkin-orange door into the...

npr:

When you push through the pumpkin-orange door into the cozy, diner-shaped Florence Pie Bar, you’re likely to find a table of new moms with their babies or another of old friends: Groups delighting in neighborly conversation, old-fashioned community and a slice of comfort.

Follow the string of white lights along the glass countertop in the Northampton, Mass., eatery, and survey the sweet and savory pies du jour, from nectarine-blueberry to coconut cream to eggplant parmesan. Shoot the political breeze with the counter staff, especially if the friendly face of local politics — City Council President Bill Dwight — is wielding the pie spatula. Then say hello to the pie wizard behind the tiny kitchen’s industrial-sized mixer, the one with the wire-rimmed glasses and salt-and-pepper ponytail. That’s Maura Glennon, who left a two-decade career as a college music professor to become the humble owner of a pie bar in the western Massachusetts college town.

“Right now, our culture needs a lot of comfort,” Glennon says. Glennon also opened a satellite pie bar in a music club last fall. “Pie is very comforting.”

At A Time We All Need Comfort, Pie Bars Serve It By The Slice

Photo: Courtesy of Maura Glennon/Florence Pie Bar

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