Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, HRL

Pie, Mash, and Comic Shop Piecaramaba! Opens Second Store in Southampton

Published Fri, 15 Dec 2017 11:00:42 -0600

Piecaramba! is an unusual comic book shop in that its biggest seller isn't Doomsday Clock or Game Of Thrones POPs, but The Pioneer, a traditional mince beef and onion pie in red wine gravy. The restaurant in Winchester, Hampshire, England which serves pie and mash alongside its comic books and graphic novels got a great write-up in the Guardian a couple of months ago:

Naturally, Piecaramba! is also a quality comic shop; if you want a vintage copy of Fantastic Four or The Thing, they'll sell it to you. There are Roy Lichtenstein-style blow-ups of comic strip frames on the walls and, hanging on hooks from the ends of the tables, packs of Top Trumps. Enjoy the loo with the headless Supergirl mannequin, the Batman-shaped mirror and the hand dryer hidden away inside Darth Vader's head.

But they also loved the pies:

A classic like the Holy Cow is filled with beef that has been slow cooked so that each piece is waiting to fall apart and bound in a gravy based on ale from Ballards Brewery. It has the necessary dark, savoury tones. The gravy is so effective I would have expected it to be used in a game pie of Hampshire partridge, pheasant and venison. Instead it utilises something altogether lighter and funkier, sweetened with redcurrant jelly and with the airy waft of bay. Another classic, the Freeranger, a take on chicken and leek, is rich in cheddar and grain mustard, as it should be.

…and concluded:

Piecaramaba! has just celebrated its first birthday and is about to open a second branch in nearby Southampton. To which I can only say: lucky Southampton.

And indeed that is what has just happened. A new pie, mash, and comic shop has opened with a new Piecaramba! Southampton, 30A Carlton Place, SO15 2DX.

Diamond Comic Distributors has been running special programmes to encourage comic book stores to expand with new outlets, creating chains, as it is seen as a more efficient way of creating new comic book stores than starting from scratch, with very generous start-up packages.

Not sure how that applies to pies, but you never know.

Bleeding Cool is happy to celebrate new comic stores opening, as well as marking when comic stores close. Do let us know when there are new comic book stores opening in your community — email richjohnston@gmail.com.

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