Pie Lab

Wes and I finally made it to Pie Lab back in December after talking about it for months. Pie Lab is a quick drive down 69 South to the quaint town of Greensboro. It has a really cool ambiance. With just one big open room, with exposed brick walls and tables and benches, the place feels like small town meets cool hip city place.
The concept of this pie shop is pretty cool. On Facebook, they say this:
PieLab is a pie shop meant to gather communities together. It’s founded on the idea that simple things, like delicious pie and good conversation, can bring us together and spread joy.Pie+Conversation = Ideas.Ideas+Design =Positive Change.

The menu is different everyday. They offer a couple of lunch options and several pie options. If you follow them on Facebook you can see the selection for the day. We went on a Saturday when there was a sandwich option and two quiche options and about 5 pies.

Wes went for the pimento cheese  BLT. How can you go wrong with a BLT that ads the yummy goodness of homemade pimento cheese. You can always tell homemade pimento cheese, it is nice and creamy and not thick like the store bought kind. You can see in the picture, it was so good we barely stopped to take a picture. As a side, he had pasta salad. It was really flavorful and fresh.

Pimento cheese BLT

I had one of the daily quiche special. It was a spinach, mushroom, and goat cheese quiche and it was delicious. Of course, they are great at pie crusts, so the crust of the quiche was perfect. I had the side salad instead of the pasta salad and it had homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing. And, in the picture below, you can see the drinks come in mason jars.

quiche and salad

But, of course, the main course isn't why I wanted to go to the Pie Lab. I wanted to try the pies!! We both got a piece of pie. Wes went with banana pudding pie and I had the honey pumpkin pie with whip cream. I watched as they made my whip cream fresh right then. And, it was the absolute perfect topping to the pie. In all honesty, it might have been my favorite part of the entire meal.

banana pudding pie & honey pumpkin pie with whip cream

The concept is great. The food is great. And, I can't wait to go back and try some more. It isn't a bad drive from Tuscaloosa and the place has such character, and cute shops nearby, that it is a must stop for Tuscaloosians.

Saturday Fun

This Saturday I had several businesses that I wanted to stop by for an open house or special event. It seemed like a perfect girls day out, so my friend Laura and her two girls let me tag along with them.

We started at The Purse Man. If you haven't visited Richard's store in Northport, then you are missing out on tons of affordable bags, bows, and bangles. This is the same Purse Man that used to set up his camper at the corner of 69 and Skyland. A year ago he opened this store in Northport offering a huge selection of seriously well priced merchandise. And, Richard is one of the nicest guys in town. So, a visit to The Purse Man is always a treat! Laura stocked up on bows for the girls and I made a request for Richard to check at market for day clutches. I saw them in People Style Watch this past month and I am so excited about having a couple for this season. (It is really just a larger size clutch.)

The next stop was Uptown Art Uncorked. This is a fun little studio where you paint your own masterpieces. You can see the calendar online and sign up for classes where the instructors will guide you in painting you own work of art. But, this day they had an open house with an open studio where you could select whichever painting you wanted and complete it on your own time.  Laura, the girls, and I didn't do that, but we all contributed to the community painting.

I love going for girl's nights to paint. This is the same downtown Tuscaloosa location where the painting place was before, just a new name. It is so much easier than you might think. I wouldn't consider myself artistic at all!!! But, every time I go, they make sure you leave with a painting that looks good.

Our final stop on girls day was Mary's Cakes and Pastries. During the months of February and March, they have a cookie throwdown. This is a cookie decorating contest. Each week had a theme, and this week was dinosaurs and monsters. They break the kids down into groups by ages and then select winners in the end. All the kids under 5 win, so Rainy walked away a winner while the rest of us just got to eat our yummy shortbread cookie.

Mary's always has a great section of cookies, the shortbread are the specialty, and yummy pastries and breads. Their cakes are beautiful and creative and also taste wonderful.

So, all three of our stops were fun. It was a great Saturday out and about in Tuscaloosa.

Book Club & Free Yogurt

My favorite group got together last night. TCBC, or Tuscaloosa Coolest Book Club, had our monthly dinner. I started up the book club about 2 years ago when The Help first came out. We have lost a few members and gained a few over the time, but we have always had a great time. Oh, yeah, and sometimes we read a book and talk about it. Wes jokes that we are the most non-reading book club ever, but we just went through that one phase where we saw movies for a few months last year :).

This month, we read the second and third books in The Hunger Games series. Next month we will go see the movie, so a month without a book, and so we had to get the full story read before the movie. I love The Hunger Games series if you are looking for a book to read right now!

But, what I wanted to talk about was the food we had. We ate dinner at Mellow Mushroom. This is a chain but the one in Tuscaloosa always has a good quality of food. The servers are often times less than attentive and the food can come out slowly. But, if  you have been before, then you know that going in, right? FYI, the Kosmic Karma pizza is awesome!!

After dinner we walked across the street to Sweet Cici's. This was their first night open and we got free yogurt. There is really nothing better than that, right? This is one of the self serve yogurts places where you put your own toppings on too. How is this one different? Well, it had a fun and festive vibe. Bright colors, fun decorations, and a cheerful spirit. And the toppings might have a little more variety than some of the other locations in town. They are displayed really nicely in tubes and the fresh fruit is supposed to be local. Mine was great. But, it seems to be really similar to the other options in town. I am excited they have outside tables and free wi-fi. I see this being an afternoon work spot in my near future on pretty days!!