Charlotte Sun Herald Reader's Choice Awards 2007
Best Gourmet Foods
Runner Up:
Best Restaurant for Wraps & Panini
Best Restaurant for Desserts 2006
Best Gourmet Foods
Runner Up:
Best Restaurants for Desserts
Best Gift Shop 2005
Runner Up:
Best Restaurant for a Cup of Coffee
Best Gourmet Foods 2004
Best Gourmet Foods
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May 2008 - Pies & Plates awarded
Gold Plate Award
by The Best Independent Restaurant Association ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ January 2006 - Pies & Plates Wins
National Award Gourmet News Magazine » Retail Leadership Special Achievement «
Dateline: January 14, 2006
Cindee Murphy got a nice Christmas present last month. On Christmas Eve, she learned her Punta Gorda specialty shop, Pies & Plates, won the 2005 Retail Leadership Award presented by a national newspaper for the gourmet industry. “Their editorial board met and decided to award it to us,” Murphy said Tuesday. “We’re real excited about it.”
Gourmet News, a Maine-based newspaper devoted to the gourmet and specialty food business, selected Pies & Plates and one other retailer, DeLaurenti's gourment store in Seattle, for the honor.
Murphy said she would travel to San Francisco for the Jan. 22 awards ceremony, held at Restaurant Lulu as part of the Winter Fancy Food Show. Although the event is sponsored by the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade, Editor Anna Wolfe emphasized that Gourmet News is an independent business newspaper.
“We’ve been publishing since 1990,” she said, “and have been giving retail awards for years. We’ve been awarding the Retail Leadership Award for the last three years to one or two retailers who have done something noteworthy.”
Pies & Plates’ recovery from Hurricane Charley certainly qualifies, as the newspaper discovered when it did a story on the gourmet store and espresso bar last year. Pies & Plates was severely damaged in the 2004 storm, but has come back strong.
“Not only are we flourishing, but we overcame a lot,” Murphy said last month upon learning that Pies & Plates was a finalist for the award.
Wolfe and Gourmet News Managing Editor Katie Gallagher visited Pies & Plates in mid-December. Wolfe said they were “really impressed” with the store and its owner.
Wolfe said Murphy “tweaked her format” to better help her fulfill the two principal objectives of a gourmet or speciality shop.
“You have to service the needs of your customers, and you have to introduce new products to them they don’t know they need yet,” Wolfe said.
With big-box retailers putting increasing competitive pressure on smaller merchants, Wolfe said it is important for gourmet retailers to obtain and market the latest products available.
“You have to go the extra mile and stay on the cutting edge of new products and technology,” she said. “Gourmet retailers must educate their customers about new products.”
Pies & Plates, however, was not selected for the award solely because of its successful recovery from Charley or for Murphy’s business acumen. The owner’s work within the local and national businesses communities was also a huge factor.
“She was very helpful after Hurricane Katrina,” Wolfe said, “offering affected business owners her supplier lists and giving advice on insurance claims.
“She has a very generous, giving spirit,” Wolfe added.
While the award is clearly a benchmark for Pies & Plates, it could also be seen as a milepost for area businesses as a whole.
“It’s something we needed in Punta Gorda,” Murphy said. “It can be a great launching pad for future retail efforts in the city.”
Past winners of the Retail Leadership Award include several businesses Wolfe said were well known in gourmet circles, including Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Southern Seasons in Chapel Hill, N.C.; and DiPalo’s in the Little Italy section of New York City.
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