Grand Traverse Pie Company Celebrates 30 Years of Making Handcrafted Pie
Grand Traverse Pie Company founded by Mike and Denise Busley will turn 30 years old this July. Known for their award-winning handcrafted pies, GT Pie is proud of its journey sharing Michigan’s bounty through pie. Each GT Pie location will be celebrating three delicious decades of pie and made from scratch meals July 19-25 with specials and surprises each day. Sunday, July 19th will kick off the Birthday week, with a party. During the week guests will enjoy coffee mug giveaways, a tote bag giveaway, BOGO Wednesday, and even a Birthday BINGO Party on Saturday, July 25th. Guests will want to visit each day 3:30-4:30 of the birthday week for Pie Social Hour featuring a FREE Scoop of Ice Cream on Any Slice of Pie.
Also highlighting the birthday week menu are the famous Mini Fruit Pies. Guests can purchase THREE of their favorite flavors of Mini Pies for just $30.
More about Grand Traverse Pie Company and their founders…….
Reflections on Our 30 Year Journey With Pie – Written by Mike Busley, Co-Founder
Denise and I opened the doors of Grand Traverse Pie on July 19, 1996. Baking up a bit – we met at MSU (Dooleys Bar) in 1977. Go Green!. Upon graduation we moved to Southern California to begin our careers – Denise in Medical Sales, myself in the defense industry. After 15 years we decided to move back to Michigan and try something simpler, real, community based. Our main obstacles – we had never made pie, we had never owned a business, we had never lived in Traverse City, and we had very little money. But we had a plan and the support of the owner of the Julian Pie company (Liz Smothers) in Julian California who helped us learn how to make pie, and Dan Druskovich at Empire bank who gave us a SBA loan when others declined to do so. And the support of the Ken Zaks and Don Cruse who agreed to rent us the space for our shop at 525 West Front St. Without the faith and support of these folks our dream never would have started.
Our first Pie team consisted of our children Kellee (11), Bobby (6), my mom, and 4 employees who somehow had faith that this new business was going to make it, at least for a brief time. 30 years has gone by; we have grown in ways that we could not have imagined. We now have 6 company owned Pie Shops, 5 Franchise locations, and our central production/distribution center. We ship pies to all 50 states; we are in over 800 supermarkets throughout the Midwest and beyond. Through this evolution one thing has not changed – how we make our pies. We make them one at time using raw fruit (all of our apples, cherries, and blueberries from Michigan farmers and processors), we make our dough and toppings in small batches, and we slow bake the pies for maximum taste and texture in every Pie Shop.
It’s about the pie, and its also about the people. We are so very grateful to share in this Pie journey with folks who apply their incredible efforts every day to uphold and advance our brand. Many of our Pie Family have been part of our team for over 15 years. Our partner Tim Rice was our first wholesale customer as a director of Prevo’s Family markets. This relationship started two months after we opened. Tim became our partner in our growth beyond Traverse City in 2001 and we are still partners today.
Jerry Running started doing our financial work in 1998. He is still doing this today. Smeltzer’s Orchard Company delivered our fruit from Frankfort in the back of a F150 when we opened. They are still our primary fruit supplier today, delivered through Lipari Foods. We have several Pie Shop General Managers and franchisees who have been with us over 15 years (thank you Lucy, Heather, Nik, Dave and Beth, Ryan, and many more). The most satisfying part of this journey is being on it with people who believe in us and our company. We call our journey and mission the Power of Pie. Powered by respect. We try to lead with respect – to our pie family, to our guests, to our suppliers, and to our communities. We strive to be a warm welcoming place serving pie that’s makes grandmas proud, along with our other classic comfort foods in an authentic way – no kiosk, no drive through, just people serving people. If we can do this every day with a positive, productive, and good-hearted attitude we should garner loyalty from our team, our guests, and our communities. Loyalty leads to growth, growth fuels giving, and giving leads to respect, and that is what we call our “delicious cycle”. Denise has been leading the giving element of our brand for many years. Her passion for children in need has lead us to support several Children’s Advocacy Centers across Michigan, as well as several other entities dedicated to providing critical support to disadvantaged youth. Her willingness to learn about the more sobering and uncomfortable situations that many face in all regions, in all demographics has inspired us to help in making a positive impact on this population. We feel it is our duty as a business to be a voice and a financial contributor to those doing the work every day. Children are our future so let’s give them the tools to succeed. We are 30 years into this journey, and we are still loving working and learning with our team and our communities. Onward with Pie!