For most of his life, Pete Sterk has served food that makes people happy.
His foray into the food industry began in 1974 when he was 16, running his mom’s pizza shop, Papa Jo’s Pizza, in Vermilion. Then, in 1977, she founded the restaurant Sterk’s Wakeman House in Wakeman, Ohio. She was having trouble finding the time and space to make pies to sell at the restaurant when Sterk volunteered to make pies out of the pizza oven before the pizza shop opened every day.
So, Sterk started creating dessert pies alongside the usual pizza pies. Being in the food industry near Put-in-Bay, a tourist area, was difficult. However, he quickly began seeing repeat customers each season. Visitors from central Ohio kept telling him the same thing.
“They said, ‘Why don’t you come down here? We need something down here,’” says Sterk.
Sterk searched around Columbus for the perfect location for his new pie shop, Just Pies, The Best Of, Just Pies is featured alongside four other dessert shops. Then, in 2004, Oprah featured Just Pies as one of her favorite shops in the country. From there, business took off.
“You didn’t have time to think about it; you just had to go with it. The phones were going crazy, trying to ship them across the country,” says Sterk. “It was nuts.”
To keep up with demand, Sterk opened another Just Pies in Westerville in 2004. And while getting featured on two major shows in such a short time may go to some people’s heads, Sterk admits he doesn’t think much about it. He just focuses on what he does best: making pie.
While the name Just Pies implies a level of specificity, Sterk makes all types of pie. Sure, you can get your pecan, cherry and rhubarb pies, but you can also find pecan chocolate chip, strawberry cream cheese, and even pot pies like turkey and chicken. Sterk enjoys the creativity of pie making and is always trying new things.
“What I tease about is that you can make a pie out of everything,” he says. “You can mix things up, you can do whatever you want, and just say, ‘Boy, is that bad,’ or, ‘Boy, that’s good.’”
Sterk’s personal favorite is his cherry pie (find the recipe on page 28) and his apple crumb and pecan remain customer favorites. He admits not everything he creates is a winner, but the mellow, gently speaking chef often turns out something wonderful.
“I had a key lime pie and that tastes pretty good, so I said, ‘Let’s put (on) some cream cheese,” he says, “and I said, ‘That’s pretty doggone good.’”
Sterk estimates that the shop sells 42 flavors of pie – though not all at once. Fans of Just Pies should be sure to come back year-round to check out the rotating seasonal offerings. However, it seems Westerville residents already got that memo.
“Just like the chicken pot pies we started; ‘Why don’t you try to make those?’ I don’t know, I can try it. Then I got those and they said, ‘You got any beef?’ and I said sure,” he says. “You just give them what they want and they’ll support you. They know I make good stuff.”
He feels supported by the Westerville community year-round, whereas in Vermilion his sales depended on the season. Plus, his business has grown and changed during his time in central Ohio – something he felt wasn’t as well-received in northern Ohio.
“Down here, you have more growth and opportunity for growth,” Sterk says. “You can do whatever you want down here and people will accept you.”
In 2016, Sterk found himself behind cameras once again, and appeared in the first season of the Cooking Channel’s Sugar Showdown, where he was tasked with creating an amusement park pie. However, Sterk doesn’t talk much about his televised past; instead, he looks to the future.
“I just take it in and keep on going,” Sterk says. “My grandma says things happen for a reason.”
He’s looking forward to expanding his pot pie line, and is playing with the idea of shepherd’s pie or barbecue pork pot pie. No matter what Sterk comes up with, Just Pies fans can expect something delicious.
“What I try to do is be a little bit different,” says Sterk. “It might not work, but I might as well try it and see what happens.”
Running a business – no matter the kind – is hard work. But Sterk says Westerville is supportive and friendly. Plus, when you’re serving them locally made pie, people are bound to be happy.
“There’s hardly a person that comes in that shop with a frown on their face,” Sterk says. “They want pie and they’re happy. It makes them happy.”
Amanda DePerro is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
