Stepping foot into City Pork Kitchen & Pie feels like stepping into a homey, countryside cabin. Though located in one of the busiest parts of town near Siegen Lane, the third City Pork restaurant offers patrons a cozy breakfast and lunch hideaway.
The walls are paneled with aged, hand-cut two-by-four pallets that co-owner Stephen Hightower and his team collected around town. The heavy door to the private dining area was a scrapyard find from Monroe. Dark wooden chairs and chalkboard menus top off the restaurant’s rustic look.
The building that previously housed Exchequer Restaurant has undergone serious remodeling. Hightower turned the old private dining room into a massive, full-service butcher space and closed off a section of the main dining room for private events. Still, the restaurant seats 120 in the main room and an additional 50 in the private room.
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But let’s get to the pie part of the restaurant’s name—something of a new direction for City Pork. The pie menu currently features housemade strawberry, chocolate cream, bourbon pecan, apple, buttermilk chess and coconut cream pies, but Hightower says he is looking to develop as many as 50-100 different pie recipes. City Pork Kitchen & Pie also features an original chef’s pie each week, for which inspiration will come from customer suggestions.
“We’re really looking for great customer interaction,” Hightower says. “We want people to request flavors and give us new ideas.”
The restaurant currently only offers dessert pies, but Hightower says he and the chefs are brainstorming savory flavors such as pulled pork and brisket pies.
“I see the beauty of the pies as being savory to sweet to seasonal, and to the chefs just experimenting and seeing what they can create,” he says.
The rest of the menu pays homage to the first two locations with City Pork classics like the Big Pig and smoked chicken club sandwiches. It also features items exclusive to the new location, like Southern chicken and dumplings and The Cajun (a sandwich with local ham, housemade andouille sausage, bacon, pepperjack cheese, red onion and a Crystal hot sauce aioli).
The Kitchen & Pie menu also offers weekly lunch specials including red beans and rice on Mondays and shrimp Creole on Fridays.
The newest City Pork location won’t serve weekend brunch like its sister restaurants, but it offers an extensive breakfast menu on weekdays. On the menu are items such as French toast, a variety of omelets and breakfast sandwiches, a smoked corn grits bowl and a fried pork chop with eggs.
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But the real differentiating factor is the take-home butcher meats and pies, says Hightower, who oversees operations at all City Pork locations. A deli counter sits between the main dining area and the kitchen, stocked with a variety of fresh, local meats and whole pies for purchase.
“I think we have a great concept here,” Hightower says. “There are many great local bakeries, but I really see the value in the pie sector and in being exclusive about it. I also think we have a great location here and we’re doing a great thing, expanding the classic City Pork menu.”
City Pork Kitchen & Pie is open 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday, but the hours are likely to be extended in the future in order to encompass City Pork specials like “Take-home Tuesdays,” which are family dinners prepared for takeout. The restaurant is at 6721 Exchequer Drive.
