Festival for a town ‘that likes its pie’

Pie lovers, grab a fork and come hungry.

What started out as an impromptu two-person competition last month to see who could bake the best pie in town is now turning into a full-fledged festival — the first Charlottesville Pie Fest — complete with sponsors, judges, a to-be-decided beneficiary and lots of pie submissions.

“For some reason, this is a community that likes its pie,” city Mayor Dave Norris said.

Organizers hope that the opening gathering, scheduled for Oct. 3 at the Mudhouse in Crozet, will become as popular as many of the other local festivals that are held annually.

Albemarle County resident Steve Whitaker described the first pie event, May’s Charlottesville Pie Down, as a “half joke” between competitors Marijean Jaggers and Brian Geiger, who both claimed they made Charlottesville’s best pie. Modeled after the Food Network show “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” the contest featured Jaggers and Geiger each baking two pies that were judged by four people.

That event was held at the Mudhouse on the Downtown Mall. Norris was the scorekeeper and Whitaker, who is the main organizer behind the bigger festival, was one of the judges.

“I have been a pie-eater my entire life,” Whitaker said. “I’ve got a sweet tooth that won’t quit. If you put a pecan pie in front of me, I’ll eat until you tell me to stop.”

Norris, who said people have called the taste of his pies old-fashioned, is a fan of apple.

Instead of a head-to-head battle, Jaggers said the festival plans to have multiple pie categories and competitors, along with teams of judges to deem the best bakers. On the festival’s Web site, cvillepiefest.com, Jaggers is listed as one of two bakers so far. She said she’ll probably make two or three pies for the event.

“The kinds of pies are carefully guarded secrets,” Jaggers said.

The fact that Charlottesville has no festival dedicated to the pastry — when there are ones for film, books, photography, vegetarians and much more — has baffled many who will be participating in the October event.

“It does seem odd,” said Geiger, who won the Pie Down and wants to judge in the fall competition.

But the city government has no hand in this festival, and Norris said part of this event’s charm is the grass roots way it came about.

“It’s a new frontier,” he said.

It’s no secret that area residents love pie. Last summer, with colleague Sean Tubbs and then-intern Ben Doernberg, Albemarle resident Brian Wheeler — the executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow, a local Web site that covers development and local government — traveled 160 miles around the rural areas south, west and north of Charlottesville searching for the best homebaked pie. The trip lasted more than 9.5 hours as the three visited country stores and orchards to munch on the locally made treats.

Jaggers said Charlottes-ville is a “foodie” community, and she thinks this festival will fit in quite well with the area’s culture. Pie, she said, is one of those things that bring people together, and with the current rough times many are facing, sometimes what people need is some classic comfort food.

“It’s so exciting to see how many people in the community are coming together to support this,” Jaggers said.

Wheeler said he has already agreed to be a judge for the upcoming festival. Apart from Wheeler and Whitaker, WINA radio host Coy Barefoot is also on the judge’s list, according to the festival’s Web site.

Charlottesville Tomorrow likely will have another pie day of its own, and though this festival will be different because it will be more competitive, Wheeler said that it would be “glorious in its own ways.”

Whitaker said that there would be a pie auction and possibly a raffle to help raise proceeds for a local organization. Which one has yet to be decided, but he said People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry, which runs a seasonal homeless shelter, has been considered. Whitaker also said that a ward of the University of Virginia Medical Center could also be a contender.

Organizers will keep planning over the next few months. Geiger said he’s not sure how big the upcoming event will be, but he suspects that the event will be able to continue past this year. He thinks it could even happen more than once per year because of seasonal ingredients — music to pie-eaters’ ears — and Jaggers hopes that the venue could change so that multiple communities will be able to indulge in the festivities.

“People like to eat pie,” she said.