SPECIAL SERIES
This is the second story in a three-part series featuring restaurants set to open fall 2015 at Liberty Center in Butler County’s Liberty Twp.
Already published Sunday: Rusty Bucket promises fresh but casual fare
Today: Pies & Pints is not your average pizza joint
Coming Tuesday: Flip Side's gourmet burgers feature a side of homemade sauces
ONLINE ONLY
Get all the news about Liberty Center in one place, with photos and videos online only at: www.journal-news.com/data/news/liberty-center-project/
There, you’ll find video from our tour of Pies & Pints new store opened in Columbus’ Short North, a preview of what’s to come at Liberty Center
PIES & PINTS
What: Columbus-based restaurant chain serving craft beer and pizza
When: The first Cincinnati-area location opens at Liberty Center in October 2015
Where: Liberty Center is the $350 million development under construction in Liberty Twp. at the intersection of Interstate 75, Ohio 129 and Liberty Way
Website: piesandpies.net
Employees: Each store employs about 80-90 full- and part-time workers
3 QUESTIONS WITH PIES & PINTS OWNER
Rob Lindeman, co-owner of Pies & Pints, answered the following questions about the restaurant chain, which opens October 2015 in Butler County.
1. What makes it different?
A: "I always like to tell them go in and order a couple of items, pizza-wise, that you would never-ever order, and then you tell me what's different. They always tell me 'I can't believe the flavor.'"
It’s for diners with “an appreciation for high quality, real bold, intense flavors, at a very, very fair price.”
“I would say expect the unexpected. It’s a great crust… it’s thin with a little bit of crispness to it.”
“If there are better ingredients out there that I don’t have, I will stop buying what I have and get those.”
2. Why’d you want to be part of Liberty Center?
A: "Cincinnati's always been part of our strategy…"
“We think that regional draw that Liberty town center’s going to create — Union Centre, Tylersville Road, all of that’s fantastic on its own — but (Liberty Center’s) going to pull from the entire market so then it sets us up from a development perspective to then do Over The Rhine, Kenwood.”
“The demographics are off the charts. You mix that with great retail, great office, residential on top of you, we’ve got a great location inside the center, it just made sense.”
3. How do you balance being a mom-and-pop, with growth, and keeping it from feeling too much like a chain?
A: "(At a publicly-traded company) You have this short-term pressure on earnings and results every quarter where sometimes decisions might be in the best interest to take a longer term perspective."
“… I have a lot of love and respect for chains and what they go through, but there are compromises and sacrifices you have to make in order to grow as a chain.”
“(With Pies & Pints) there’s no expectations. I could open no stores for the next five years and be fine. Or, we’re very opportunistic… when we see real estate that makes sense for us in a market, we take it down and we do it but only when it makes sense for us.”
“We grow to satisfy our people and ourselves.”
PIES & PINTS
What: Columbus-based restaurant chain serving craft beer and pizza
When: The first Cincinnati-area location opens at Liberty Center in October 2015
Where: Liberty Center is the $350 million development under construction in Liberty Twp. at the intersection of Interstate 75, Ohio 129 and Liberty Way
Website: piesandpies.net
Employees: Each store employs about 80-90 full- and part-time workers
3 QUESTIONS WITH PIES & PINTS OWNER
Rob Lindeman, co-owner of Pies & Pints, answered the following questions about the restaurant chain, which opens October 2015 in Butler County.
1. What makes it different?
A: "I always like to tell them go in and order a couple of items, pizza-wise, that you would never-ever order, and then you tell me what's different. They always tell me 'I can't believe the flavor.'"
It’s for diners with “an appreciation for high quality, real bold, intense flavors, at a very, very fair price.”
“I would say expect the unexpected. It’s a great crust… it’s thin with a little bit of crispness to it.”
“If there are better ingredients out there that I don’t have, I will stop buying what I have and get those.”
2. Why’d you want to be part of Liberty Center?
A: "Cincinnati's always been part of our strategy…"
“We think that regional draw that Liberty town center’s going to create — Union Centre, Tylersville Road, all of that’s fantastic on its own — but (Liberty Center’s) going to pull from the entire market so then it sets us up from a development perspective to then do Over The Rhine, Kenwood.”
“The demographics are off the charts. You mix that with great retail, great office, residential on top of you, we’ve got a great location inside the center, it just made sense.”
3. How do you balance being a mom-and-pop, with growth, and keeping it from feeling too much like a chain?
A: "(At a publicly-traded company) You have this short-term pressure on earnings and results every quarter where sometimes decisions might be in the best interest to take a longer term perspective."
“… I have a lot of love and respect for chains and what they go through, but there are compromises and sacrifices you have to make in order to grow as a chain.”
“(With Pies & Pints) there’s no expectations. I could open no stores for the next five years and be fine. Or, we’re very opportunistic… when we see real estate that makes sense for us in a market, we take it down and we do it but only when it makes sense for us.”
“We grow to satisfy our people and ourselves.”
Customers of Pies & Pints’ new Liberty Center restaurant opening this fall can expect bold flavors made with high quality ingredients for a fair price, said co-owner Rob Lindeman.
Pies & Pints will break into the Cincinnati market with its unique pizza flavors and beer combinations when it opens in October at the $350 million Liberty Center development, under construction now.
Here’s just a sampling of the specialty pies on the menu: Grape & Gorgonzola, Mediterranean Shrimp and Cuban Pork.
About the flavors — “They’re not safe,” Lindeman says.
The menu also lists a Classic pizza featuring homemade sausage, pepperoni, in-house roasted mushrooms and banana peppers, topping off the restaurant’s own sauce recipe. “That’s about as safe as it gets. Everything else, like our Cuban pulled pork pizza, we slow roast the pork six to eight hours in-house. Our Chipotle Chicken pizza, it’s got a real intense heat to it that isn’t overpowering, but it’s got bite to it,” Lindeman said.
“That’s the thing, when you’ve eaten at Pies & Pints, you know you’ve eaten at Pies & Pints,” he said.
Besides red grapes on a cheese pizza flaked with rosemary, one of the restaurant’s other unique features is its emphasis on beer.
Diners can expect to see 36 draft beer handles, filled out by locally-brewed choices. Each location has root beer on tap and Pabst Blue Ribbon, Lindeman said. The rest of the options include local and craft beers.
Every server and bartender has Cicerone beer certification, comparable to a wine sommelier credential, and servers can recommend drink complements for meals.
Pies & Pints employs a “beer dude” — that’s the title on the business card — who facilitates continuing education for staff.
“That’s how passionate we are about craft beer. That’s what’s we do and it’s not to be pretentious or snobby, it’s to be educational,” Lindeman said.
Lindeman met with the Journal-News on the April 20 opening day of a new restaurant on High Street in the Short North area of Columbus, to give a preview of what future patrons can expect in Liberty Twp.
Pies & Pints was founded in West Virginia, but Lindeman and partners bought the business in 2011. It’s now based in the Columbus area. And while the first Greater Cincinnati Pies & Pints will open at Liberty Center, the restaurant is already located at developer Steiner & Associates’ other retail centers The Greene in Beavercreek and Easton Town Center in Columbus.
Despite being a growing chain, Lindeman said Pies & Pints is managed like a mom-and-pop establishment.
“We’re hands-on. We’re in our restaurants constantly,” he said.
“There’s not a detail in here that we haven’t personally designed or touched and it’s the same way with our food. Our food, it’s made from scratch in our kitchen.”
Lindeman’s past experience was as president and chief executive officer of Max & Erma’s Restaurants Inc. But one of the biggest differences between growing a publicly-traded chain and a smaller, private one, is there are no expectations.
Currently, there are eight Pies & Pints locations.
“I could open no stores for the next five years and be fine. Or, we’re very opportunistic… when we see real estate that makes sense for us in a market, we take it down and we do it, but only when it makes sense for us,” he said.
Liberty Center is the name of the mixed-use mega complex being built in Butler County's Liberty Twp. near the intersection of Interstate 75, Ohio 129 and Liberty Way. Three anchor tenants — Dillard's department store, dinner-and-movie theater CineBistro and Dick's Sporting Goods — have been announced along with AC Hotels by Marriott.
Estimates are for Liberty Center’s retailers, restaurants and other businesses to create approximately 3,500 new jobs in Butler County by 2018, according to Liberty Twp. Economic Development Director Caroline McKinney.
Other previously announced restaurants to date include Brio Tuscan Grille, Cheesecake Factory, Kona Grill, Rusty Bucket and Flip Side.
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