Sophie's Choice
In our earliest days at PJP, we purchased a vintage refrigerator off a Craiglist posting so that we could have a place to merchandise our cream pies for sale. In retrospect, it seems ridiculous that our grand pie merchandising plan relied partly on a 1950s appliance, but that was all we could afford. I don’t know a lot of things for certain, but I do know that commercial refrigeration is outrageously priced - both in 2014 and now. And since this whole pie baking show started on a shoestring budget, we chose affording an oven over commercial refrigeration. It was a true appliance Sophie’s Choice.
At any rate, just as we opened PJP Buttonwood, we purchased some supremely subpar merchandising tables from a tack store going out of business and then turned to Craigslist for our refrigeration needs. We made a deal with a guy in Kansas City to purchase a vintage refrigerator he found in his mother-in-law’s basement and he even agreed to deliver it to us. The 2022 version of me would be certain he would arrive and kill us because Craigslist can be super sketchy. But the 2014 version of me was just hopeful that he wasn’t a killer and that the refrigerator actually worked when we plugged it in. (As it turns out, he was a delightful guy who was semi-worried on the drive over that we might be killers or be without cash, making it a scam deal.
For the next three years, we sold cream pies right out of that refrigerator. We just explained to customers to open the refrigerator and shop. We produced pies at a significantly smaller volume that we do now, but even so, we struggled to fit all the boxes into the refrigerator. On more than one occasion, the door wouldn’t be latched tightly and the refrigerator would defrost slowly overnight, draining water all over the floor. And once, someone scooted the refrigerator over and accidentally unplugged it, ruining all the pies in it. For what that workhorse of a refrigerator made up for in cost, it shorted us in digital temperature readings.
Overall, it was a beast of refrigerator unit. It always worked perfectly, minus our transgressions. And it served us well until we simply outgrew it and could finally purchase a traditional merchandising cooler unit. From there, it came home to the screened-in porch at my house. And from there, we stocked it with drinks and it made a great secondary bar during the summer when we invited people to our house.
At some point over this winter, the refrigerator passed away. It just stopped working, which is fair since it had outlasted at least two refrigerators Jason and I have purchased in the last 20 years. It basically lasted 70-ish years, which is 60-ish years longer than the refrigerators made and sold today. 70 years of service is notable and should be commended accordingly.
We had a local trash service haul it away late last week to dispose of it properly. RIP, vintage refrigerator…you served PJP well.
