Piebury Corner began as a stall in Paul and Nicky Campbell’s front garden in Highbury in 2011. The couple lives just a stone’s throw away from the Emirates stadium and would sell their home-made gourmet pies to supporters passing by on match days.
“We believed that football fans were getting a raw deal and wanted to improve the quality of food on offer,” explains Paul, the co-owner, as we sit at a table together in his King’s Cross diner.
“My wife and I have always been big festival goers—we spent our honeymoon at Glastonbury, where everything you touch is labelled as artisan. We thought, everyone loves a pie, so why not try it ourselves?”
Piebury Corner now has two permanent homes—the Arsenal ‘Pie Deli’ in Holloway, which started up in 2012, and the diner in King’s Cross that opened five years later.
Just last week, Paul and Nicky celebrated winning five medals at the British Pie Awards, racking up an impressive two golds and four silvers at the event in Melton Mowbray. The ox cheek and venison pie, and the chicken, ham and leek, were among the top performers.
“We sent in exactly the same pies to the competition that a customer can get on match day or at King’s Cross,” Paul assures me, before adding jokily, “We don’t jazz them up, or use any fancy ‘wagyu’ beef.”
It’s a victory Paul celebrated by posting a photo of him and his wife holding the winning silverware on Twitter, with the caption: ‘In the eight years Piebury’s been going we’ve won two more trophies than Tottenham. Never saw that coming in 2011.’
Arsenal FC is impossible to separate from the Piebury brand.
The shop in Holloway is a Mecca for Gooners—there are photographs of the old Highbury stadium being built, faces of The Invincibles (the squad who remained unbeaten for the entire 2003-4 season) staring in from every wall, and four old turnstiles have been turned into dining tables. Most importantly, every pie on the menu is named after an Arsenal legend.
“There’s the Ian Wright lamb and mint Pie, ‘cause he’s such a mint geezer,” Paul explains, “and the Veg Reg, named after Reg Lewis who scored two goals in 1950 FA cup final.” My personal favourite is the Patrick Vieirageterian.
“The players love giving their seal of the approval.
Sol Campbell once told me that he wouldn’t step foot in the shop until we named a pie after him.”
Most regulars will religiously order their pie by its first name, Paul tells me. And if they come to eat before the game and find their favourite is sold out they can get superstitious, very quickly.
“You can always spot our regular Spurs fans who come into the shop, as they’ll do the opposite—they always order the pie by the recipe, and never by its name,” he adds, with a grin.
Devising the puns is Paul’s pride and joy, and a valuable part of his job description. As is his energy—when he orders me a vegan mushroom, cream, and paprika pie to taste, he abruptly sprints down the stairs after the waitress to make sure she grabs some veggie gravy for me to try.
The pie filling is creamy, lightly spiced, and the gravy not too heavy. And the pastry is stellar, sufficiently flaky—vegan pastry is hard to do well.
Aside from the pie puns, it’s clear that the success of the businesses has been down to the couple’s hard work and dedication.
“No-one would lend us money so we had to fund both shops entirely by ourselves.
Everything you see here is me and Nicky.”
Paul heaps praise on his wife, “If you were to put us into a team, and say who does what, she runs 80 per cent of the business—overseeing it, managing the staff—and I run the other 20.” He pauses, “So when we say girl power, that’s her, and you can quote me on that.”
But, as a joiner from Ayrshire, Paul himself also played an important role in refurbishing and decorating the shops from scratch. “All the design is my work,” he admits, “We didn’t have contractors or anything.”
Piebury Corner’s success is no doubt partly due to Paul and Nicky’s willingness to adapt its menu—away from the traditional pies and mash one would expect—to changing customer demands. “We’ve got four vegan recipes on our menu, and our vegan pies sell out every week,” he says.
When I dare to ask him about the famous Greggs vegan sausage roll Paul scoffs, “there was a lot of money spent on that. And we’ve never really spent a penny on any marketing, ever.”
With such a strong community presence (the shop donates all leftover food to the Pillion Trust Homeless Charity for young people) and football fan base behind it, Piebury Corner doesn’t need to. Besides, the menu speaks for itself.
I tell Paul that I’ve never seen an item on a menu that screams ‘2019’ more than a beetroot and madras flavoured scotch egg, so he insists that I give it a try.
I can’t help but think it tastes like how falafel ought to taste—less like cardboard, actually fresh, and with a great depth of flavour. It’s definitely not one-pound packet you bring on picnics—Paul tells me the same scotch egg company supplies Buckingham Palace.
With five awards under its belt this year alone, Paul hopes Piebury Corner will continue to go from strength to strength in the coming years.
After all, it was only back in 2012 when Piebury Corner won the Fan’s Choice Award at the Football Pie League awards, only to have their Emirates stadium caterers claim it for themselves.
“They posed for the photograph and they stole the trophy, and took it back to the Emirates. It was rightfully ours—we only got it back two years later when someone in PR found it lurking in a trophy cabinet.”
