“I am blessed and very excited about it,” Brian Phillips said. “We want to keep it the way it’s always been and also improve and try to find new markets to get into to sell our brand.”
Mehaffies Pies has served the community for more than 90 years. The Mehaffie family sold the business in the 1990s to a group that ran it for more than 25 years and the Phillips bought it from them at the end of last year.
Phillips said the business has dedicated workers and a strong customer base that it is trying to expand.
“The people that come into Mehaffies are unbelievable, they are nice, loyal customers who have come in for years,” Brian Phillips said. “And now we’re seeing with upgrades to our website and Facebook, people are coming in who have never been here before.”
The Phillips ran a homemade pie business in the 1990s in Springfield that delivered to local grocery stores and customers and considered opening a storefront but decided that it wasn’t the right time. Brian went into manufacturing instead, he said, but the couple decided now was the time to buy a business and Mehaffies was for sale.
“This kind of fell into our lap and we felt led by the Lord that this was where we need to be,” he said.
Brian Phillips is a big Bengals fan and was excited to see the team defeat the Kansas City Chiefs last week to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. The business is now offering deals named after Bengals players to celebrate their success.
Who Dey! Super Bowl Party Packs are now on sale at the pie shop. The Joe Burrow package includes a nine-inch Pumpkin Pie along with nine snails, a choice of another nine-inch pie and nine cheesecake on a stick.
The Bengals quarterback wears the No. 9 jersey and told reporters during the holidays that he was a “big pumpkin pie guy” when asked what his favorite food was.
Mehaffies is also celebrating rookies Ja’Marr Chase, a star wide receiver, and kicker Evan McPherson with their own packages. Chase, who wears the No. 1 jersey, has a package named after him called “The Chase” and it comes with one pie, one cheesecake, one dozen snails and one dozen cheesecake on a stick.
McPherson meanwhile comes with three pies and other treats in groups of three in honor of the points scored by the kicker when he makes a field goal. It also comes with “the extra point” which is a cheesecake sampler.
The packages range from $50 to $60 and more information about them can be found on the business’ Facebook page.
Brian Phillips said his customers root for a variety of NFL teams but he’s received good feedback about the Who Dey! packages. He also said some fans have made buying pies a playoff tradition they don’t want to break.
“You can just see through the whole playoff run, the customers are coming in on game day and are saying ‘I got to get my pie.’ ”
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