Baker floats idea to bring back pie cart to Adelaide streets
BEFORE there were food vans all over Adelaide, there was the pie cart. And the home of the pie floater could be about to roll back into town.
BEFORE there were food vans, there was the pie cart. And the home of the pie floater could again roll into town.
A search for Adelaide’s old pie vans has unearthed the old heritage-style cart from outside Adelaide Railway Station in Old Tailem Town village, an even older van at a Waikerie historic display and, most intriguing, the last pie van seen on our streets near Victoria Square in a secret location and being prepared to be put back into action.
There’s even talk of a return of the pie floaters, that unique mix of a pie and mushy peas.
Retired baker Michael Nickols is most advanced with his plan. He faces a tough battle though as he tries to negotiate controversial mobile food truck laws and the diversity of the modern industry.
Mr Nickols, who in March was fined $166,000 for continuing to operate his Beverly bakehouse against Health Department orders, has refurbished the original pie van and has it hidden in a secret, overgrown, location as he prepares to “return an Adelaide icon to its rightful place”.
Crippling rent costs, the fine and its impact on his reputation as a food industry operator and ailing health stand against him, but Mr Nickols said the pie cart belongs on the streets of Adelaide.
“I’ve had people come along and say they would put a yiros machine in it. That’s not what it’s for,” he said. “I’ve had people come from Melbourne wanting it as a pie cart over there. It’s a pie cart for Adelaide and it’s not leaving South Australia.”
Mr Nickols owned the pie van on Franklin St for about 10 years and it continued to run until about five years ago, but parking space rent of $1200 a month and council rates, coupled with poor trade during tramline upgrades, he said, forced it to close.
He was critical of the “cheap rents” paid by food van operators and said the pie van should be charged no more than those operations — now at $666 for all of winter and $1000 for all of summer — even though the pie cart would not fit the rules applied to city-operated food vans.
Joe Noone, organiser of food-van program Fork on the Road, said there was nothing keeping a pie cart from the food van circuit, but it would have to meet the same regulations which require the vans to fit in one carpark space and not have a permanent location.
“It would have to move and change locations in the rules applied to food vans. If the plan is for it to have a permanent location, then that’s a completely different negotiation,’’ he said.
Mr Noone said debate about a return of the pie van would be strong.
“It depends on what they see as the market. If we’re talking about the lunch trade in the city, we’ve probably moved past the pie for that. But perhaps not for late night trade.
The former Railway Station pie cart, which operated on North Terrace, is now an attraction in the Old Tailem Town tourist village near Tailem Bend.
Perth residents Bill and Katrina McKay said they’d like to see the van return to Adelaide. “I’m originally from Adelaide so I’ve visited this van once or twice in the early hours,’’ Mr McKay said.
“It’s been somewhere known to be a good place to soak up the alcohol of a big night out.’’
History of the pie cart
PIE carts in Adelaide date back to as far as the 1860s. Among the first to open was one outside the GPO on Franklin St and one at the corner of King William St and Rundle Mall.
THE pie cart was known for selling pie floaters — a meat pie submerged in pea soup often garnished with tomato sauce.
IN the 1880s, there were as many as 13 pie carts operating in King William St and North Tce in the CBD alone.
THIS number had reduced to nine by 1915 and by 1958 there were only two in the CBD — the Balfour’s pie-cart on North Tce, outside the Adelaide Railway Station, and Cowley’s outside the GPO.
IN 2003, the National Trust of Australia recognised the pie floater as a South Australian heritage icon.
WHEN, in 2007, the tramline was extended from Victoria Square along King William St and on to North Tce, the Balfour’s pie-cart was forced to close.
COWLEY’S pie cart closed in October 2010. The National Trust believes it was the longest-serving food venue in the state until its closure.
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