PIE SLAYER: WHERE NOSTALGIA MEETS A SLICE OF SOMETHING UNEXPECTED
At Pie Slayer, pie is anything but predictable. From a decadent chocolate-and-banana creation layered with brownie, roasted banana pastry cream, and marshmallow meringue to fall favorites that put a creative spin on seasonal classics, this Wilmington bakery is redefining what belongs in a pie crust. Co-owners Lauren Wright and Keala Yu built the business on a shared love of baking, a passion for bold flavor combinations, and the realization that pie deserved a spotlight of its own. What began as a playful Galentine’s Day pop-up quickly gained a following, paving the way for a brick-and-mortar bakery where nostalgic flavors meet unexpected twists and every creation reflects their genuine enthusiasm for the craft.
Now, as fall ushers in the busiest season of the year, Pie Slayer is serving up autumn-inspired favorites, from brûléed apple cider custard pie to sweet potato pie topped with maple meringue and candied pecans. But there’s more to the business than inventive fillings and buttery, made-from-scratch crusts. Rooted in community, Wright and You are also making room for generosity, donating pies to local initiatives and inviting customers to help ensure everyone has something sweet on the Thanksgiving table.
We caught up with co-owner Lauren Wright to talk about the inspiration behind Pie Slayer, the art of pushing pie beyond the traditional, and why, when it comes to Thanksgiving, dessert might just deserve top billing.
Tell us a little about the story behind Pie Slayer. How did the business come to life, and what inspired you to carve out your own niche in Wilmington’s baking scene?
Pie Slayer got its start when Keala and I were working together during the holiday baking season at a previous job. Pie was our favorite thing to make, and we made a lot of pies together that year! We spent many hours in the kitchen talking and joking about the foods we liked and the flavors we had in common. Each of us would dance around the idea of, “Wouldn’t it be fun if we did a pop-up?” without really expecting the other to be serious. It turned out we were both very serious and had been wanting to do our own thing for a while, so the timing seemed perfect!
Our first event was an appropriately themed Galentine’s Day pop-up, featuring a small menu of pies with fun flavors we both loved, like banana and chocolate or a tres leches-inspired pie. We sold out that first time and knew we could turn our pie dreams into something real. No one was really doing anything pie-specific at the time, so we just went for it! It has taken a lot of work to grow from that first menu to our brick-and-mortar bakery, but it has mainly been a lot of fun.
What sets Pie Slayer apart from other bakeries?
We take a lot of pride in being a bakery that doesn’t necessarily offer traditional flavors. We love a good chocolate chip cookie as much as anyone, but the things that excite us most are often based on something we both grew up eating and then elevating it. There’s a merging of childhood flavors, presented in a more grown-up way. A lot of customers come in and tell us that something they tried reminds them of their grandparents or a flavor they remember from childhood. That’s the highest praise we can get. At the end of the day, we want our menu to be fun. Our hope is that people can tell the things we make come from a place of genuine excitement about what we’re doing.
What is Pie Slayer's signature flavor?
Our signature flavor would definitely be the Banana Stranger. It has shaped our whole business! That was the pie that started it all, inspired by a chocolate-and-banana Icelandic candy we both really loved. The pie features a layer of dark chocolate brownie, fresh roasted banana pastry cream, and marshmallow meringue, garnished with flaky sea salt and chopped chocolate. When we first made that pie, we began to realize just how far we could take a plain crust. You can put anything in there!
Fall is the perfect season for cozy, comforting treats. What seasonal flavors and ingredients are inspiring your baking right now?
Fall and the holiday baking season are the best times of the year. We’ve just brought back some of our all-time favorites, like sweet potato pie with maple meringue and candied pecans, and apple cider custard pie with fresh apples that gets brûléed to order. Those flavors return each year and are always among our most popular. This year, we introduced a new maple and blackberry cheesecake that has been really well-loved, so I’m sure that one will make a yearly return.
Thanksgiving is basically our Super Bowl, and we’ve recently announced preorders for that menu. There are lots of returning flavors, like our Pumpkin Thai Tea and Maple Orange Pecan, but we also have some new creations we’re super excited about, including a yuzu cheesecake with sage caramel. This is really the time of year when pie gets to shine. Turkey is fine, but we know it’s really all about the pie.
What goes into creating the perfect pie, from selecting ingredients and developing the crust to balancing flavors and textures?
I don’t think we can ever be sure what makes a perfect pie, and that’s kind of the best part! We’re always evolving and looking for ways to improve and grow. It’s been crazy to look back and see how far we’ve come from what we were making just a few years ago.
If there’s one thing Pie Slayer will advocate for, it’s salting your desserts. Even if you like things sweet, a little pinch of salt can bring out so many other flavors that get hidden by the sugar. Salt in a dessert is your friend! Also, a little crunch really sets off a dessert, so we try to incorporate a fun garnish or crumble for added texture. A lot of pies are custard- or cream-based, and we like to include a little something extra to make them more interesting.
One of the special things about living in North Carolina is being able to take advantage of all the amazing produce we have around us. It’s been great to work with Feast Down East, Eagle Island Produce, and other local businesses to be as seasonal as possible. We make everything from scratch, so sourcing the best ingredients is really important to us.
How do you balance traditional, nostalgic pie recipes with more unexpected or inventive creations?
More salt, always! We both have huge cookbook collections, so we read and reference traditional and contemporary recipes all the time. We love a good church cookbook filled with county fair-winning recipes and someone’s special family treat. There’s a lot of inspiration in those books, including foods you’d never eat or encounter unless your grandma made them! Once you have a good understanding of how things work in baking, the creative opportunities are endless.
Do you have a favorite fall treat on the menu that showcases the more playful side of Pie Slayer?
Our favorite fall treat in the shop right now is our brûléed apple cider custard pie. We bring it back every fall! It’s a spiced custard with fresh diced apples in our all-butter buttermilk pie crust. We cover each slice in sugar and torch it to order until it browns, bubbles, and forms a toasty, crunchy shell right in front of you. It’s always fun to see how excited people get when you set something on fire in front of them.
For readers planning a cozy gathering, Thanksgiving table, or weekend treat, what would you recommend ordering from Pie Slayer this fall?
For Thanksgiving, we recommend getting a pie or two to share, or a Jumbo Pie Tart. It’s basically a giant Pop-Tart filled with blackberry cinnamon roll filling, perfect for slicing and sharing. We also have some fun dips and spreads or cookies if pie isn’t enough!
If you’re visiting the bakery, we offer a build-a-box option where you can mix and match any six slices. It’s a great way to try a little bit of everything. We’re about to move into our busiest time of the year, with Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we’ll be in crust land for the next two months. Each year, we take a break and close for the first two weeks of January to recover, so this is the big baking party to end the year with a bang.
Wilmington has a strong sense of community, and local businesses play an important role in shaping its character. How has the Wilmington community supported Pie Slayer, and are there any local partnerships, that allow you to give back and connect with the people who make this city feel like home?
Our community has been nothing but welcoming and supportive. We met through fundraising and activism when Keala hosted a bake sale to raise money for women’s health. Local businesses and people from the community donated ingredients, contributed their time, and purchased lots of baked goods to support us. It was a huge success, and it always means so much to see everyone sticking together and showing up for what they believe in. We hope to host more bake sales in the future, and we always want community support to be a foundation of our business.
Last year, we partnered with Northside Food Co-op for its Thanksgiving food boxes and holiday community dinner. So many people donated so many pies, and together we were able to make the holidays special for a lot of people. We never want anyone to go without a pie on Thanksgiving, so that experience inspired us to start our Give a Pie campaign, where anyone can donate a pie for $10 directly through our website. That $10 covers the ingredients and packaging, and we donate our labor and love.
We were able to donate more than 100 pies last year, and we hope to do the same, or even more, this year to make everyone’s holiday a little sweeter.
Comments