Somewhat of an Edinburgh institution, The Piemaker has been baking hundreds of pies each day for almost three decades on the city's South Bridge.
Locals will no doubt be familiar with the sights and smells as they saunter on by or pop in for a pie, with the one-of-a-kind Old Town bakery having welcomed in customers for the first time back in 1995 after it was opened up by baker Johan Venter.
Following Johan's sad passing, the shop is now run by Lukasz Luczak, but Johan's wife Fiona and daughter Kirsty are still at the shop helping out, continuing on the family link with the business.
Yet despite The Piemaker being a permanent fixture on the map for the people of Edinburgh, every day Lukasz, Fiona and Kirsty are met with inquisitive looks from those taking their first steps in Edinburgh, with the pie shop being a major draw for tourists from every corner of the globe.
To celebrate British Pie Week, we caught up with Kirsty to find out why overseas visitors make the pilgrimage to The Piemaker whenever they're in town, what Americans make of a Scotch Pie and the secret behind the perfect traditional grab and go Scottish staple.
What kind of pies do you do and what's the most popular?
"The Scotch Pie is definitely the most popular, the macaroni pie as well.
"But we try to be a bit out there as well. Our tattie dogs, a pork sausage in a hash brown, is definitely up there in terms of popularity - we bake trayloads of those!
"We’ve recently grown our veggie and vegan options as well, for example we’ve got three different types of vegan Vergas pies - spinach, feta and mushroom. We’re trying to involve different spices and tastes there.
"On a good day, we get around 250 people popping by, so we’re baking hundreds of pies every day!"
What do people think of your pies?
"People just say the pies are really tasty, it’s just consistently good. People come in and want the same thing every day. The odd person will say ‘maybe I will push the boat and try something else’ and they’re really glad that they did.
"It’s about the variation and the vast amount. You arrive in the shop and you see the hot cabinet with our ten best sellers and people immediately go ‘oh my god there’s so many’, then they look behind the cabinet and see there’s all these sweet pies, haggis pies, the vegan ones and the bigger, chunkier ones we sell.
"People will stand there for 10 minutes undecided: ‘I came in for a sausage roll or a macaroni pie and then I saw you had this - oh god, now I want that as well!’"
Why do tourists love The Piemaker so much?
"Locals love a soup and a pie, but being this end of town we always get a lot of tourists, stopping off in between Greyfriars Bobby and the castle.
"We got lots of shoutouts in foreign travel magazines. We get a huge amount of Americans come in and say ‘I’ve got my Scottish brochure that says we should be a stop’, so that’s really nice to have.
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"A lot of our social media following is people from across the world, commenting: ‘oh, I came in 2013 and I wish I was back in Scotland’."
And what do they think of the Scotch Pie?
"They absolutely love it! Although I’ve had someone come in and ask what the most traditional pie is. When I told her it was the Scotch Pie, she took one look at it and just said: ‘no’.
"The Scots love their fat and grease!
What's the secret behind the perfect pie?
"Having a generous filling is the key thing. Quite often it can be a lot of pastry and you’re struggling to find the actual filling and the tasty bit.
"A good filling, with lots of seasoning is important, but it’s about making it a memorable experience as well, making it about ‘This is the Piemaker, this is our pie, it’s not just a pie you had off the supermarket shelf’."
To find out more about The Piemaker and for a look at all their incredibly tasty pies, you can visit them on Facebook here.
