Side Dishes: Parker Pie Company to open second location
First, the good news: The Parker Pie Company of West Glover will open a second location this fall.
Next, the not-so-good news, at least for pizza fans on the west side of the Green Mountains: The second location, like the first, will be in the Northeast Kingdom. But it may well be worth the drive.
Parker Pie owners Cavan Meese and his partner, Ben Trevits, are renovating a hangar at the Newport airport for their new branch, which will have the same menu with the likely addition of a full bar (the original Parker Pie only serves beer and wine).
“In West Glover, we’re busier than we’d like to be,” says Meese, a bustle to which anyone who has waited on line at Parker Pie can attest. “We really feel like we are moving food out of our kitchen about as fast as we possibly can,” he adds. “We’re trying to expand in a way that gives people the option of another place to go, and we wanted to have something close to Newport, yet close to our existing restaurant.”
Easing crowds is only part of the story, though: Meese is passionate about both Newport and emerging transportation options, and he is taking flying lessons. “I’m personally driven to look at the future of transport in the Northeast Kingdom and Vermont,” says Meese. “I’m looking ahead to trains and taxis and airplanes for travel, and the airport is part of all that.” Meese is working on nascent plans for a “food-centric” train to run between White River Junction and Newport.
Meese says the new space will allow Parker Pie to hold more concerts, too. “It’s a bigger, better venue for music,” he says.