“It’s like beef stew with bread on top!”
Standing behind the counter of the newly opened NoFo Pot Pies Country Market, employee Isabella LoPiccolo is quick to gush about the products found at the new grab-and-go spot in Mattituck. Her favorite item on offer at the store, the short rib pot pie, can be found stacked neatly inside freezers alongside chicken, turkey, vegetarian, lobster, jambalaya, British games, corned beef, Shepherd’s and chicken marsala varieties.
NoFo Pot Pies may have a warm and inviting new home in Mattituck, but comfort food lovers will recognize the local brand from the Cooperage Inn in Baiting Hollow, where they’ve been sold since 2020 at a to-go window next to the restaurant. The idea was the brainchild of owner Jonathan Perkins.
“NoFo Pot Pies was created and developed back during Covid,” says Perkins. “When the restaurant was closed we had to think of something, so I decided to start selling the pot pies.”
The pies were a hit, so much so that the menu quickly expanded to include sweet dessert pies such as key lime mousse, coconut cream and others that can also be found at the new market. The pies are also sold in some Hamptons shops, as well as locations up-island, and Perkins plans to continue expanding and selling at food stores all over Long Island.
But this new country market is a dream come true for Perkins, who wants to give customers a taste of something new in Mattituck.
“We wanted to put some unique and different items in here, and a lot of grab-and-go comfort food [from the Cooperage],” says Perkins. In addition to the savory and sweet pies, NoFo Pot Pies Country Market sells house-made products like soups, salad dressings, sauces, sides and even whole meals to bring home and heat. Everything in the store is made and prepared at Cooperage Inn’s commercial kitchen in Baiting Hollow.
Perkins attributes the success of the pot pies to the locally sourced ingredients and the love put into the recipes for each.
“I developed all the recipes with [executive chef] Jeff Russell and the team,” Perkins explains. “The difference is the ingredients we use, how we capture all the juices and everything. The way we make them — there’s a lot of process involved. We roast the chicken, we pull it, we cool it, we make the pie. They’re handmade.”
The shop’s manager and vice president of operations, Scott Hopkins, who developed all the branding and who Perkins credits as an asset to the team, having helped develop the brand, is excited to open the store in Mattituck, a bit further east than Cooperage Inn, perfect for locals or visitors to the area.
“People are coming here to get a pie, but they’ll also get [other items like] a salad dressing,” Hopkins says.
Pot pies come frozen, while grab-and-go meals and desserts are refrigerated. Chicken, turkey and short rib pies come in both 24- and 64 ounces, while the other pies are 24 ounces and feed two people — or one hungry adult!
When pressed with a tough question — which pie does he like the most? — Perkins doesn’t want to play favorites with his beloved creations.
“I don’t really have a favorite,” he says. “I love them all.”
Check out NoFo Pot Pies Country Market at 11160 Main Road, Mattituck and online at nofopotpies.com.
