Here’s a Jeopardy-style trivia question for you. The category is Awesome Local Cities, for $1,000.

Oh, it’s a Daily Double. Answer: This city, located in Northwest Arkansas, will soon be home to a new restaurant specializing in cream pies, fruit pies, and savory pies served out of an Airstream trailer.

Did you answer with the question “What is Fayetteville?” Boom. You win.

The new restaurant is a project by local pie maker, Shannon Strickland, who is carrying on a tradition started by her great grandfather, Thurston Parks, almost a century ago.

“It’s a family business that started in 1925 in Indiana,” she said. “It was called Parks Purity Pie Co., and it changed hands a couple times over the years, but it was open and thriving for a long time.”

Strickland has been working to outfit the Airstream trailer at the Yacht Club on College, formerly home Hawaiian Brian’s, with ovens and other pie-making supplies needed for her new business.

Strickland has been operating the business out of her home for about a year now, but is excited to expand into a physical location – even if it technically has wheels – very soon.

The plan, she said, is to serve a different fruit, cream and savory pot pie each day by the slice, and to fulfill special orders of any type of pie as well. Whole pies will range from $8-25, and most slices will sell for about $3.50, Strickland said.

“You’ll be able to stop by and get coffee, and a slice of pie and ice cream any day,” she said. “I also do a six-inch pie that’s great for one or two people, I think those will be pretty popular, too.”

Strickland said she has created a menu, but that it’s really just a jumping off point.

“I’ll do plenty of off-menu stuff by request – cookies, cakes, whatever people are looking for,” she said. “Someone requested a buttermilk pie recently which I’d never done, but it was so good once we tried it, we just added it to the menu.”

If all goes well, Parks Purity Pie Co. will be open and selling pies in Fayetteville sometime next week.

Strickland’s new business will occupy the Airstream trailer formerly home to Hawaiian Brian’s at the Yacht Club on College.

Staff photo