09:52 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 27, 2005

BY GAIL CIAMPA
Journal Food Editor

LITTLE COMPTON -- During his two-week Little Compton vacation in August 2003, Paul Bergeron bought 150 pints of blueberries and baked pie after pie. In the morning he'd leave a little sign on a table by the side of West Main Road. It said, "Pies coming at noon."

Al Weems

Chef Paul Bergeron's blueberry pie and homemade ice cream to match are now available from the Sakonnet River Pie Company.

Come 12 p.m., he'd put out the warm pies in their glass pie plates, leave a price list and an honor box, and return to his house. Within a few hours, he'd be sold out.

"It was the lemonade stand I never had," he said.

So marked the humble beginnings of the Sakonnet River Pie Company and a different kind of retirement for 10-year summer residents Bergeron, the chef, and Chuck Hamlin, the businessman.

Last summer, they did all the prep work. Architect Stephen Greenleaf designed a tiny guest house on their Swamp Road property into a state-of-the-art kitchen. Meanwhile, Bergeron tasted every berry from nearly every farm in Rhode Island until he found the perfect fruit for most of his pies at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown.

"He spent most of last summer rejecting berries," is how Hamlin describes the project.

With kitchen construction done and berry worries aside, Bergeron this year retired from his job as private chef for a New York City family and Hamlin left his Washington, D.C., marketing job, to sell some of the prettiest pies you'll ever see.

The lemonade-stand beginnings have given way to a small store, manned six afternoons a week by Hamlin in Tiverton Four Corners. But the artisan nature of the yummy business hasn't changed.

Bergeron makes all his pies each morning by hand. When they are gone for the day, they're gone. A phone order is the only way to guarantee a pie in the simple white box with tissue paper and a blue ribbon.

It's also the only way to get a tart (lemon or chocolate mint) or either of the two homemade ice creams Bergeron prepares to complement the pie of the week. (Tahitian vanilla and lemon are on this week's menu.)

These are not mass-produced items but rather artisan cooking at its best.

In fact, the variety of pies is rightly decided by what fruit is in season. Blueberry and raspberry pies are now available. (The blueberries come from Berry Hill Farm in Westport, Mass.) A second growth of raspberries means they'll be offered again from late next month into September, Hamlin said. The blueberry season is expected to extend longer than usual.

Sour cherry and blackberry will be on the menu early next month, and peaches will star throughout the month. A peach-blueberry variety will then appear on the menu as well. Apple pie will start appearing about mid-September. Then it's fall, and the holiday menu of pies will be extensive. Pumpkins, pecans and cranberries are sure to be involved.

Bergeron is a Rhode Island native who grew up in Central Falls. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

He returned to Providence for his first job, at Carr's Caterers. But he eventually found his niche in New York City cooking for a family that did lots of entertaining. Their dining room table seated 35; their menus were elaborate.

Baking pies is a nice change.

"Making pies is the simplest thing in life," he said.

CREATING FLAKY PIE dough, slicing berries, weaving lattice tops over soon-to-be baked pies, and enjoying the airy white kitchen -- this is what Bergeron wanted.

But simple it doesn't seem. Bergeron has perfected a Shaker-style weave to top his pies. A full pastry top is also offered. But the lattice adds an elegance, and lots of labor, to every dessert.

His mother, Doris Bergeron, was a pie maker, and she taught him to appreciate the lattice top. She also never failed to check a pie's doneness by looking at the bottom crust through the glass plate.

Perhaps that's why all Bergeron's large pies ($30 and serves eight) come in a glass pie plate. Customers can keep the plate, or return it for $1 back.

The smaller pies, a medium ($15 and serves four) and small ($8 and serves two) come in metal pans. Return those for 50 cents back. Berry pockets serve one ($4) and are the only items shipped from Sakonnet River Pies.

The $30 price tag for the large pie reflects the fact that it's baked in a glass dish (makes a perfect hostess gift), the lattice pies are labor-intensive, and there are high-priced berries, and lots of them, in each pie. There are approximately three pints of blueberries in each pie, two quarts of strawberries and 3 1/2 pints of raspberries.

When he still had the honor box, Bergeron remembers walking out to see one pie remaining at the roadside, and two cars arriving.

The first woman hopped out of her car and asked how much? He told her $30 and she said, "Oh no." A second woman came running with $50 in her hand and said, "That pie is mine."

Apparently, Bergeron's customers approve of everything from berry choice to glass pie plates. Back when he was trying out this pie idea, Bergeron didn't just find money in the honor box at his roadside stand.

"People left me nice notes in the money box," he said.

Clearly, they found inspiration in a simple, perfect pie.

Orders for Sakonnet River Pies can be placed daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at (401) 635-0022. They are also sold Tuesday through Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. (or until sold out) on the ground-floor lobby at The Mill Pond Shops, 3964 Main Rd., Tiverton. Learn more at www.sakonnetriverpie.com.