This popular London-based pie shop is operating a one-day-only pop-up in NYC this month

British food jokes tend to travel faster than British food itself, but Willy’s Pies is betting New Yorkers are ready to rethink the punchline.

The London-based, chef-founded pie shop is returning to Brooklyn for a one-day-only pop-up at Layla on Sunday, February 22, bringing the proper, gravy-forward comfort food that has quietly been winning converts on the other side of the Atlantic. Founders Will Lewis and Josh Barnard will both be in town for the event to defend their British cuisine on American soil.

This isn’t Willy’s first New York City rodeo. Last year’s pop-up sold out within 24 hours, a strong showing for a food category many Americans still associate with soggy pastry and questionable fillings. This year’s menu sticks to a single, focused offering: a chicken, pancetta and tarragon pie, served the correct way—with mash, gravy and buttered greens. It’s classic British comfort food, made with restaurant-level technique.

Willy’s Pies got its start as a lockdown project in London, launched after Lewis was furloughed from his chef job and decided to channel his frustration into pastry. What started as a delivery-only operation has since grown into a full-scale, chef-led business producing around 10,000 pies a week, all still hand-pressed, made with in-house stock and filled with high-quality British and Irish meat. 

But while the company’s scale has increased, the standards haven’t dropped. Part of the brand’s mission is pushing back against the idea that pies should be cheap, anonymous and beige. Willy’s makes the case that a good pie—properly seasoned, carefully filled and wrapped in crisp pastry—doesn’t need to be humble food at all. When done right, it’s comforting without being boring, rich without being sloppy and deeply satisfying.

Willy’s doesn’t have a permanent U.S. presence and this is a rare chance to try the pies without booking a flight to London Fields. Bookings open this Wednesday, February 11, and if last year is any indication, they won’t hang around long.

British food redemption arc? Consider this your edible evidence.