Four years after buying Poorhouse Pies and moving it to Underhill’s main thoroughfare, Suzanne Tomlinson will add a second location in Cambridge across from Boyden Farm. The new Poorhouse, at 286 Old Route 15, will have a large production kitchen to meet demand for pie and for the business’ full-service catering arm, Tomlinson said. A counter-service café there will serve baked goods, specialty sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, and espresso, plus a selection of pies, quiches and daily doughnuts.
Tomlinson hopes to open the new café by the end of March. Poorhouse’s Underhill pie shop at 419 Vermont Route 15 will remain the same.
Tomlinson, 52, bought the small home-based bakery — which was known for its charming, backyard self-serve pie shed — from founding chefs Jamie and Paula Eisenberg in late 2021. She moved it to a new bakery space and gradually expanded the menu to include savory pies, quiches and pocket pies, as well as bringing back occasional doughnuts and building a catering operation.
“We have exploded,” Tomlinson said. “We were out of room.”
Poorhouse Pies bought the 4,500-square-foot Cambridge building that was most recently Taste of Texas BBQ. Tomlinson is working with her husband, contractor Jon LeBlanc, to build out a full catering kitchen and cozy café space. “It will be something between a coffee shop and a pie shop,” she said.
Tomlinson recently hired executive chef Chris Lataille, most recently of Bleu Northeast Kitchen in Burlington; and banquet chef Mike Schake, who held that position at Stowe’s Topnotch Resort. (Bleu closed on December 31, and a new restaurant is in development for the space.)
The Cambridge Poorhouse Pies will also have a liquor license. Tomlinson plans to host pop-ups such as weekly tapas and wine tastings with master sommelier David Keck of Stella14 Wines, which grows grapes at Boyden Farm across the street.
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