We.`Are. Back.
Hey, hey! Jeanne and I are BACK IN COLUMBIA! And while we still can’t tell you what we were doing for the past month, trust us when we say it was epic fun and you will get to be a part of every single bit of it relatively soon - we promise. BIG NEWS IS COMING.
But let’s talk about our other big news: PJP WEST END. Here’s everything you’ll want to know about our soon-to-be second store:
TWO STORES????? I know. We are 50% excited (and 50% anxious). True story.
PJP West End? Tell us more. From the inception of PJP, we’ve intentionally branded our name and location with the long term goal of more than one storefront. PJP Stadium sounded like we were about to play football rather than bake pies. Jeanne happened to say “PJP West End” one day and it’s so darn charming, right? We knew it was the right fit.
I’m confused about the location…will you be in the old Macy’s building? Goodness no, that’s a lot of space and I’ll forever be waiting for Home Goods to arrive. We will be directly east of Panchero’s in the former Gap Outlet location. We aren’t taking the entire space - it is being divided by the landlord into three spaces. We will have two neighbors further to our east (both stores we love…and you will too!). We will occupy around 2200 square feet, similar to our Nifong location.
Are you baking pies at the new store or just selling them? Yes, indeed we are baking! PJP West End will be a dupe of PJP Nifong, baking sweet pies, savory pies, and quiches. All should function the same as PJP Nifong, just closer to our west side friends (and hopefully new friends as well!). It’s a small step toward #worldpiedomination.
How did you pick the location? Last fall, the MBA students at Mizzou worked on a semester project to help us narrow down a possible second location. They did research and sent out surveys to our current customers with options for a second store. Overwhelmingly, the response focused on the west side of Columbia. (Not that we don’t want a PJP on the east or north side, but we wanted to branch out in an area that voiced the most demand to make this not 100% terrifying.)
How long have you been working on this project? Since last fall, though we’ve been thinking about it for longer. The goal has always been multiple PJPs and we can’t start with that until we have more than one! We started looking at possible locations late last summer.
How is all going to work? Will you work at both stores? We don’t know how it is all going to work. It is like when you have a second baby and you have no idea how you will have enough love, time, and energy for both and you worry so much about it all…and then the second baby arrives and it turns out your heart has more than enough for the new addition. Obviously, the addition of Behind-the-Scenes Jason to PJP was well thought out and planned for the ownership needs of two stores.
What does Jeanne have to say about this? She is 0% worried about any of this, because that’s how she rolls.
Will there be a drive-thru? Sadly not, though Jeanne has always admired the headsets a drive-thru necessitates. Personally, I think a drive-thru adds a whole extra layer of stress to what we do, but Jeanne thinks it would totally awesome. At any rate, the end unit of our space was already leased by the time we settled on Shoppes at Stadium, so we couldn’t even tussle around about it.
What’s Next? Well, our plans need to be approved by the city and that will probably require all of our prayers and the blood of my firstborn. The landlord will do the construction to subdivide the space and get it all ready for our friends at Beacon Street Construction to take over and make it a PJP. We are a bit early for a solid idea of dates, but our plan is early fall. As long as it isn’t two days before Thanksgiving, right? Could you even imagine?
