Who is the Pie Guy? In a sense, it’s Keith Groomes who’s always been destined for the role.
Groomes started working with the original Pie Guy, Justin Bagley, in 2015. Bagley then sold the business—at the time a well-known food cart on the farmers’ market, festival and Downtown Mall lunch circuits—to cattleman Rob Harrison. Harrison made Groomes a partner, and in 2018, Groomes bought out Harrison’s piece of the pie.
“I’ve done a little bit of everything,” Groomes says. “Things work out.”
Groomes took a big step in rolling out his pie empire in January, opening Pie Guy Coffee at 1325 W. Main St. In addition to the Guy’s classic savory (pi.e., the Big Sky, with beef tenderloin and burgundy au jus, and the Sun Valley, with green coconut curry, chicken and veg), and sweet pie offerings, the coffeeshop is dealing cinnamon buns, sausage rolls, mac and cheese, and of course some baller brew.
For Groomes, the classic pies (eat.g., the savory North Eastern, with chicken and mushrooms in a Dijon cream sauce, and sweet potato) are still the faves. And the nostalgia doesn’t end there. He still remembers when he first thought about being the Pie Guy himself.
“I was cooking vegan and vegetarian with my high school English teacher, and we were next to Justin at the market,” he says. “We did smaller festivals and events, and he was the next tier up. I wanted to see what that lane was like.”