Grand Traverse Pie Company Spotlight: Traverse City, Michigan

Michigan produces more tart cherries than any other state in the country, and Traverse City is at the center of that production. Grand Traverse Pie Company built a business around taking that fact seriously, and what started as a Traverse City pie shop has grown into one of the most recognized Michigan food brands in the state.

The first Grand Traverse Pie Company opened in Traverse City, grounded in the conviction that Northern Michigan fruit and a well-made pie crust are a combination that needs no improvement. Tart cherry pie is the flagship, using Montmorency cherries from the region in a filling that has the right balance of sweet and tart and a crust that flakes properly. Blueberry, peach, apple, and seasonal specialties round out a menu that stretches across sweet and savory.

The savory pot pies deserve mention alongside the dessert pies: rich, deep-filled, and built with the same quality approach that makes the sweet pies work. The full café menu means Grand Traverse Pie Company functions as a genuine meal destination as well as a spot for dessert or a box to take home.

Multiple locations have opened across Michigan since the original, making the brand accessible throughout the state while keeping the Traverse City location as the home base in the cherry country that started it all. A slice of the tart cherry here, in the city that grows the fruit, is the version worth comparing all others against.

Visit at gtpie.com.

Michigan Small Business Spotlight is proud to feature Grand Traverse Pie Company as one of Northern Michigan’s most celebrated and proudly local food businesses.