JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In the kitchen of the Mixed Fillings Pie Shop, chef and baker Natasha Burton and her husband are hard at work at their labor of love.
The pair has been baking pies professionally in Jacksonville since 2019. With years of experience in the food industry, they decided to bake up a new idea in the River City.
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The pair officially opened up their brick-and-mortar store in Historic Five Points over the summer.
A move the pair said was needed, after booming business and online orders.
“Everyone loves a beautiful tasty pie. And it gives you something to talk about,” Burton said to Action News Jax’s Chandler Morgan. “It reminds you of times, like times with your grandmother … time sitting around with friends and having really important conversations.”
“Pie is really great for building memories and like creating bonds.”
— Natasha Burton
“That’s really what our business is about. It’s about getting people to share their stories, and mixed feelings,” Burton said.
Their pie shop is lovingly called “Mixed Fillings” – a play on words; a theme which carries into the creative names of the shop’s pies.
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“We’re not just a bakery, we’re not just a pie shop, like we actually get people to share their stories. And because our pies, every pie has a story, we really encourage our customers to share their stories as well,” Burton said.
Burton knows people by first name. She knows what people’s favorite pies are, the things that they like, and that they don’t like.
She said that’s how they’ve been able to build such a loyal “cutie” following.
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“That’s what we call our customers – ‘cuties,’” Burton said.
“I am a “PIE-fessional,” Burton said, referencing a ‘pie-professional’.
“We love to bring people into the, into our pie shop and give them professional tips and tricks because there’s a lot of anxiety around making pie,” Burton said. ”There’s always a reason to celebrate. But you don’t have to be stressed out when you’re creating something for people.”
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During the entire interview with Action News Jax, Burton was handmaking fresh pie crust.
“I’m so impressed with this multi-tasking,” Morgan said.
“Right? We do everything by hand,” Burton said. “We use old-school techniques. We don’t have any machinery or anything fancy. It’s just our hands just getting it done every day.”
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So what’s the next step for the shop? They want to expand.
Burton said she’s had multiple people reach out to them for franchise opportunities, and they recently toured several cities in Georgia for possible expansions.
Burton’s shop also offers pie-making classes. You can find their shop in the Historic Five Points neighborhood of Jacksonville.
Video from the last time we caught up with Mixed Fillings in 2020:
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