St-Henri Pie Pros Get Savoury With a New Store [Updated]

Some four years after opening up on Notre-Dame West, pie shop Rustique expands today, with a new space opening right next door to the original — yet it’s not just an upsized space for Rustique’s sweet crusts.

The new store is Rustique Salée, and the idea is fairly well conveyed in that name: it’ll offer savoury pies. That means instead of options like lemon meringue, apple, pecan, or cherry that might be available at Rustique (or “Rustique Sucrée”), it’ll be cheese, vegetables, meat, and/or eggs — take the roasted squash, kale, and goat cheese pie above, or the spinach, mint, feta one below as examples. Owner Ryan Bloom tells Eater that those two pies, along with a bacon-aged cheddar one, are the three debut items, available in full-sized and mini pie formats.

Update: According to Bloom, Rustique acquired the next-door space at the start of this year to expand their kitchen, but had a small nook that worked neatly as the new retail space — it’s just a counter, with no seats, but it is separate from the original Rustique.

Bloom says Rustique’s customers had sometimes asked for savoury options, so after realizing the demand was there, his team set about recipe testing for four months. The offerings will vary according to seasonal ingredients but will include items like quiches, and Bloom says a tourtière is also in the works. Beyond pies, items like spice mixes and sauces from Rustique’s sister company Urban Bonfire will be available.

Excluding so-so pie chain Rockaberry, the original Rustique is one of few places in town that’s solidly committed to producing sweet pies, and probably the most notable since it opened up in 2013.

The new project isn’t the first place in town to hone in on savoury pies — Mile End bakehouse Ta Pies has been doing them for several years now. But the two are fairly distinct: Ta Pies focuses fairly strictly on Australian and New Zealand-style pies, which are often small and handheld (although they do have larger options), and with a particular set of fillings: ground beef, curry, potato, to name a few.

Rustique, on the other hand, is casting its net away from that Antipodean style. In any case, given Montreal’s petite pie scene, there’s ample room for both to coexist.

STATUS — Rustique Salée is open next door to Rustique, at 4615 Notre-Dame West, as of Wednesday December 6.

• All Rustique coverage [EMTL]
• Rustique [Official]