The Annual Return of the Deli’s Pot Pie Fest

Excerpt from Ari’s Top 5 enews

One of the best things about winter in Ann Arbor!

A photo of the freezer in the Deli stocked full of different pot pies, labeled with different colored stickers based on flavor.

For over 15 years, the Deli has kicked off the new year with our annual Pot Pie Fest. It’s a great example of how sticking with something you truly believe in can evolve into what many now consider a cherished tradition. The anticipation for this yearly celebration has grown into quite a thing.

Andrew Wilhelme is a longtime member of the Deli’s kitchen team and now also a historical archivist who once worked at the Graduate Library, home to the anarchist Labadie Collection. Years ago, Andrew wrote a beautiful note celebrating the annual arrival of our pot pies. Instead of rewriting it, I’ll let his words cast the same inspiring spell on you as they did on me at the time. Here are some excerpts from Andrew’s pot pie piece:

New Year’s Day kicks off our annual Pot Pie Fest. For two months, through February 28, the Deli is awash in a collection of six kinds of handmade pot pies. Each pie is made from scratch. Vegetables, herbs, and meats are chopped and minced, then cooked in butter, thickened with a roux, and drenched in broth and cream to make a rich, savory sauce. As the filling stews, we start preparing the crust. Butter cuts into flour and is bound together with ice-cold water and a pinch of sea salt to make a rich dough. We usually make two or three batches a day from December through February. Once the filling is cooled and the dough rolled we then set upon the task of assembly. Each pie is made by hand, enveloping a heaping scoop of filling between two folded layers of buttery crust.
For those who aren’t already well familiar with the now-famous pot pie phenomenon, here are the half-dozen varieties we do. All are excellent. Mix and match as you like!

Classic Chicken – Our most popular pie, featuring diced chunks of cooked Amish chicken, chopped celery, carrots, onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and potatoes, seasoned with some fresh thyme and tossed with housemade chicken stock and heavy cream from Calder Dairy down in Carleton.
Tasty Turkey – Made with pasture-raised turkey from Ferndale Farms. We also add a bit of the uniquely flavorful Turkish (no pun intended) Urfa pepper—it’s sundried by day and wrapped and “sweated” by night for over a week to bring out a rich, mellow, earthy flavor and smoky aroma.
Fungi – A quartet of Michigan-grown mushrooms (maitake, shiitake, oyster, and button), seasoned with a bit of Balinese long pepper.
Dingle Lamb – A pastie-shaped pie, filled with the wonderful local lamb, potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and some rutabaga, seasoned with a bit of cumin and rosemary. The idea for this pie was originally inspired by Darina Allen, friend and teacher to both Ari and Rodger, and owner of the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland.
Red Brick Beef – Basically a hearty beef stew wrapped in a buttery crust. We cut local beef into small pieces, then stew it slowly with dry red wine and diced carrots, chopped celery, onions, fresh garlic, some bay leaves, and a bit of fresh thyme.
Cheshire Pork – This special pie combines sweet, sour, and savory. Chunks of local pork are braised in fresh apple cider along with onions, rosemary, freshly grated nutmeg, lemon zest, and large bites of apples from Alber Orchard. It’s wrapped “miner style,” so no pie tin.
The idea to do pot pies at the Deli started small 16 years ago, but over time it has become anything but. Today, the Pot Pie Fest is eagerly awaited by a coterie of loyal fans. You can buy the pot pies frozen and uncooked to heat up at your house. You can also order them baked and ready to eat at the Deli. They have a LOT of loyal fans—many of whom buy big! Like one or two dozen at a time! We even have a great group of families who drive up every year from Cincinnati. They make a weekend out of it—shopping at the Deli, visiting the Bakehouse and Creamery, having dinner at the Roadhouse, and, most importantly, driving home with dozens of frozen pot pies to fill their freezers!

Whether you live here in Washtenaw County or a couple hundred miles away like our friends from southern Ohio, you can do the same. Sitting here today, getting ready to run later in 22-degree weather, I at least can use all the heart and hearth-warming help I can get! Stock up now, chow down when you want!

> STOCK UP AND SAVE ON POT PIES!