PRRP Redux 1: Tip Top Savory Pies

My Baseline & 287 Restaurant Project came to an abrupt halt because the last two restaurants that I planned to visit for takeout, Mumtaz and Adesso, both closed (temporarily, I hope). To finish up the circuit of Lafayette for now, I thought we should loop back around to the few new places that have opened on Public Road since we did the PRRP in 2017-2018--that is, if they are open for takeout. The first one that occurred to me was Tip Top. The tiny shop at 105 N. Public Road is closed, and they are doing frozen deliveries only, but they are doing them in an incredibly wide area--86 zip codes! You have to order by midnight on Thursday, and they will deliver your order over the following Saturday, Sunday, or Monday: https://www.tiptopsavorypies.com/delivery.

Not all the pies are currently available frozen--for instance, the breakfast pies are not on the delivery menu--but most of the savory pies are. In addition, you can order sausage rolls; nippers (small pastry pockets stuffed with mac and cheese); and apple, cherry, or peach sweet pies. You can also order the ruff puff pastry by itself and make your own pie! The Tip Top pastry is a beautifully flaky yet sturdy version that is perfect for their handheld, New Zealand-style pies. 

I had had Tip Top pies several times in the pre-pandemic days, but there were quite a few things I hadn't tried before. We set up a video dinner date with our friends Deb and Dave because they had already ordered some Tip Top pies. There's no way to predict precisely when your order will arrive, but we live in Old Town and got ours at about 4:30 p.m. on a Saturday, and Deb and Dave live in Broomfield and got theirs at about 4:30 on a Sunday. We had some overlap in our orders because G and Dave both wanted a steak & ale pie. Deb had a steak & mushroom pie, and I tried the beef ragu pie because it was new to me. Each couple had a mac & cheese nipper with bacon to split. For dessert, G and I shared a cherry pie, and Deb and Dave shared a cherry and a peach (and might even have had leftovers for later).

We all loved our pies! The steak & ale pie has slow-braised Colorado beef, local hand-crafted ale, peas, carrots, and scratch-made gravy (descriptions from the website). The steak & mushroom pie has the same beef and gravy with glazed mushrooms (I have tried the meatless mushroom & ale pie in the past, and it is amazing if you love mushrooms). The beef ragu pie (also known as "mince") has slow-simmered ground beef in a creamy tomato-based gravy. I loved the texture of it and thought the flavors were delicious. The nippers are stuffed with mac & cheese made with a creamy bechamel sauce, and we got the kind with bacon crumbles. The cherry pie is on the tart side, which we all liked. It would have been excellent with a little ice cream, and I was envious that Deb and Dave had some in their freezer! They said the peach pie was also good, but they slightly preferred the cherry.

Overall, this was a great comfort-food dinner. Next time, I'll be adding some sausage rolls to the order!

I'm not putting the map in at the moment because the shop is currently closed.

Screen shot of Deb and Dave showing us their pies

Deb and Dave's pies: coming out of the oven (top), Deb's steak & ale pie and half a nipper (bottom left), and peach and cherry pie quarters (bottom right)

G's steak & ale pie

My beef ragu pie and the mac & cheese nipper with bacon (before I gave G his half of the nipper), plus a side of steamed broccoli (which did not come with the pies)

Our cherry pie