Four & Twenty Blackbirds

Do you like pie? Of course you do!!! Unless you are absolutely, irreparably, bat-shit crazy! Which I hope you are not. Please don’t kill me.

When you need to satisfy your murderous (yet entirely sane) craving for delicious pie, inevitably you end up at Four & Twenty Blackbirds. Located in Gowanus, Four & Twenty has been an anchor of the Third Avenue renaissance, drawing people from all over the city with its single- and double-crusted siren song.

Owned by Emily and Melissa Elsen, the shop opened in 2010, and has maintained enviable popularity ever since. It always seems to be filled with smiling, creepily-happy types, but maybe that’s just what pie does to people. In addition to a selection of various seasonal pies, Four & Twenty offers coffee drinks, soups, salads & other baked treats.

‘Twas a bright & sunny May Sunday when I first visited Four & Twenty Blackbirds several years ago, and had stopped in for a treat to enjoy in Prospect Park. Did I mention that the ladies who work here are super nice? They are. One of them insisted that I get whipped cream with the pie, which I was hesitant to do since we’d be traveling with it. But what the hell, right?! After all, you only eat pie every time you feel like going out to eat pie!

And nothing says “springtime” like pie in the park. Park pie. Well a lot of things say springtime more than that, but fuck it. It was pie time! We ordered a slice of the Strawberry Balsamic pie, and a Rosemary Garlic Scone, then hustled over to the park to save the whipped cream from the warming day.

You are probably looking at that bite of pie and thinking, “What’re you kidding me??!” And no I’m not kidding you!! That pie was unbelievably good, and the whipped cream had such integrity that it laughed in the face of the 70-degree weather. It was unaffected! And the savory scone, which reminded me more of a biscuit, was equally delightful. This entire experience made me want to weep and toss my Kitchen-Aid out of my third-story window, as I’d never be able to match the wonderfulness of these treats. Okay that was hyperbole but seriously try this stuff.

One word of wisdom: try to get there early – the best and most exciting pies definitely sell out before the end of the day. And there is no more despair-inducing scenario than having high, up-in-the-sky, apple-pie hopes reduced to pie-less disappointment.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds
439 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215
Corner of 8th St & 3rd Avenue
Park Slope / Gowanus
T (718) 499 2917

Originally published by Brooklynography on May 16, 2011 .