The little van bringing gourmet ‘best ranked pies in the North’ to Liverpool

A little food van has been selling out of ‘the best ranked pies in the North’ since it arrived this summer in Woolton Village.

Irrational Blackbird, which is owned by Robert Pettersen, launched at the end of July with a menu of multi-award winning artisan pies and fillings that wouldn’t look out of place in a fine dining restaurant.

Since then the van has become a regular foodie attraction on Church Road every Friday and Saturday, not just for the pies but for gourmet sides including clotted cream mash, two-day gravy and giant double cheese rarebits.

Robert, who moved to Liverpool 12 years ago after being a student here, decided to launch his first food business after a career working front of house running restaurants and pubs.

He explained:

“I was looking for an opportunity and I found Alex Melling, who runs Baldy’s Pies from Windy Arbour Farm Shop just outside Wigan,”

“Alex’s pies are absolutely stunning and they’ve won so many awards – he’s got 24 British Pie Awards, a British Street Food Award, and he’s been ranked number one in the North and number 4 in the country.

“He was selling a van, I wanted to do something for myself and loved what he did, so I bought it.

“Instead of Baldy’s Pies Liverpool, I changed the name to Irrational Blackbird because I liked the idea of the children’s nursery rhyme ‘four and 20 blackbirds’ and I added irrational because the mathematical number pi is an irrational number.”

Irrational Blackbird is the only stockist of Baldy’s Pies other than Alex himself and Robert says his flavours have already been a big hit in Liverpool.

“Probably our best seller is the Big Jim, which is a tribute to Alex’s dad. That’s a double award-winner which has 18-hour shin of beef with bone marrow, white truffle and pistachio crumb. 

“The triple cheese with truffle was awarded best in the country and that’s also very popular, with cave-aged Cheddar, red Leicester, vegetarian parmesan, potato and white truffle with a sesame crumb. It’s a cracking combination.

“Each week we change our menu and a few firm favourites make reappearances. We normally do three or four varieties and give people alternatives so for instance if I’ve sold out of Big Jim, we might have another beef pie, again with 18-hour shin of beef but with garlic, soy, oyster, ginger and bok choy.

“To complement Alex’s pies, I make a two-day gravy, clotted cream and double buttered mash, sausage rolls and rarebits about the size of your face, they’re enormous!”

Robert says everything is handmade and they try to use the best quality ingredients. The double-award winning chicken Kiev, for example, uses free range British chicken breast, leg & thigh mixed with garlic and herb béchamel and buttered leeks.

“It’s a lovely way to support local, treat yourself and have something that’s really nice quality in the comfort of your own home,” he adds. “All you need to do is put the pies in the oven for 15-20 minutes and microwave the mash and the gravy, so it couldn’t be much easier.”

As an independent business, 38-year-old Robert is keen for Irrational Blackbird to give back to the city too. He’s supporting Liverpool In Arms, whose outreach volunteers help provide food in the city centre for people who are homeless. 

“I’ve always been a supporter of trying to help other people, and there’s a pay it forward movement which is very popular in Italy especially, where you can buy a coffee and leave it for the next person,” he says.

“We do ‘pie it forward’, so people can buy one and give one. I’ve started working with Liverpool In Arms to give those out, as well as any we don’t sell because they’re always fresh, and they’ve been going down really well.”

Irrational Blackbird’s van is on Church Road in Woolton Village on Fridays and Saturdays, 10am-2pm, and in West Derby Village at the Sefton Arms on Thursday evenings, 5-8pm.

Find out more about Irrational Blackbird here.

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