The Town Tart is an old fashioned lunch counter and pie shop in Hamden, Connecticut.
Owner, Val McKee, is taking her popular home kitchen pie business to a larger audience and adding more to the menu, but she needs your help! Val is transforming a neighborhood clock shop into a restaurant, which means there is much work to be done. Aside from the usual upgrades to the space, there must be a complete renovation to build a commercial kitchen, restrooms, countertops (you can't have a proper lunch counter without one!), booths (for those who prefer not to sit shoulder to shoulder), coffee and ice cream bar, and much, much more!
Val could have rented a space already equipped with a kitchen, but location was extremely important to her. She wanted to open The Town Tart in a walkable, family friendly neighborhood; a place where people can come on their lunch breaks, children can come after school, and families can come on the weekends. See, Val lives in Spring Glen neighborhood in Hamden, Connecticut. Her three boys attend Spring Glen Elementary. She knew this neighborhood needed a spot like The Town Tart, as it's lacking a cozy lunch spot and place for community to gather. She knew she could provide a place for neighborhood residents and beyond to come and cozy up with the greatest comfort food of all: PIE!
We want all guests of The Town Tart to arrive feeling welcome and comfortable and leave with full, satisfied bellies. We want families to build food memories while sitting at our counter. We want customers to find joy in the modern take on traditional Southern fare, from pimento cheese sandwiches to Val's favorite lemon meringue pie on a gingersnap crust.
We hope you will consider helping Val make this dream a reality! Please consider making a donation to help The Town Tart open its doors.
*The Town Tart will serve lunch from 11:00am-3:00pm. Pie, coffee, and ice cream floats from 10:00am - 8:00pm.*
---About Val---
Val McKee is a native Tennessean who set roots in Connecticut in 2004. She is a writer, musician, and teacher of both, but the joy of her life is being mom to her three sons.
Val has many interests in life, but watching someone take a bite of a pie she has baked tops the fun list.
Her greatest hope is for someone to take a bite of apple pie, twenty years from now, and say something like: "This reminds me of that pie we had at The Town Tart...remember? When the kids were little and we stopped for lunch after spending the morning at the park." She wants to help people build the same lovely food memories she made with her grandfather.
Val owes her sweet tooth to her grandfather, who loved coconut cake, always had fig newtons in the cupboard, and had a secret candy drawer in his office. When her mother told him his grandchildren could only have candy once a week, he'd arrive at the door on Saturday morning with a bag full of his favorites. We called it Saturday morning candy. When Val left home for school, her grandfather would write every week and include a single piece of Big Red gum in the envelope.
Her grandfather was a business owner in her small hometown and Val hopes to make her customers feel even a smidgen of the love he gave to each and every person who walked through his business's doors. She hopes to make every Town Tart customer feel like they are sitting at her dining room table when they take a seat in this new space; whether they dig into a piece of her pie, bite into a sandwich, or take a sip of an artisanal ice cream float.
This shop is inspired by and dedicated to you, Nana.
