Baker and musician Naomi Senzer. Alice McGill Photos.
Inside Mitchell Library, it was almost pie o’ clock. Pushing a cart full of pre-cut pie slices, several young volunteers made their way into Beecher Park, an air of secrecy buzzing among them. Outside, a growing crowd watched the slices multiply, each nestled snugly in its own box. At 6:30 p.m., the line began to move as the first person placed their order.
That was the scene at a recent “Hi-Fi Pie” night, held last Monday outside of the Mitchell Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library. A project of the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA), the series celebrates both pie and music, for an evening of sweet and savory neighborhood entertainment. In the interest of full disclosure, this reporter's mom is the executive director of WVRA.
The next Hi-Fi Pie event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on August 5, with “freestyle” pies and the band Carlos y Su Momento Musical. Learn more and get updates here.
Last Monday, families sprawled out on blankets, passing around plates of savory pie as judges debated a winner. The options were vast--roasted tomato, white and sweet potato, caramelized onions, meat, squash, and even mac n’ cheese. As the Nu Haven Kapelye began to play, kids ran across the grass, climbed trees and decorated the sidewalk with chalk.
Around the side of the library in the parking lot, Taqueria Tlaxcala served up its signature tacos, just in case pie wasn’t enough.
The tradition is a sweet one in the neighborhood. Eleven years ago, Westville was already running a summer concert series, but then-WVRA-director Chris Heitmann felt like something was missing. He reached out to Westvillian Naomi Senzer, a home baker who teaches flute at UConn, about the possibility of folding in a baking competition. The creative combination was a hit.
On a recent Monday, the event's vibrant community energy was just as visible “backstage” as it was out on the lawn. In the library’s event room, volunteers prepared pie slices for judge Joy Vhu. Vhu is the owner of Poké Olii, a poké and boba shop that opened in Westville in 2023. Vhu is the most recent addition to the long list of New Haven chefs and bakers to guest judge the competition (other recent judges have included Arturo Camacho, Senzer herself, and Malby Rojas).
“The community here is very close, and there are a lot of good events here,” Vhu said. “That's why I chose to have my first restaurant here.”
Back outside, volunteers gathered beneath multiple white tents, passing out slices of pie to customers as a long queue formed down the sidewalk. Craning their necks, attendees in line examined a sandwich board listing the varieties of pie, carefully weighing their options.
Meanwhile, the volunteers running the show--elementary school age kids up to adults--cut slices and folded pie boxes, recounting past competitions' most innovative pies. Multiple people remembered a pie entered years prior with Pop Rocks cooked into it.
One of the series’ most dedicated volunteers is 11-year-old Theodora “Teddy” Anderholdt, who comes most weeks. Monday, Teddy arrived at the library before almost anyone else. “I try and get here as early possible,” she said.
After she began volunteering, Teddy added, she was inspired to start competing herself, and is now one of many kids who contribute to contests in the youth category. Senzer introduced a youth division years ago when her own children started wanting to enter their own pies.
“I’m looking forward to a new generation of junior bakers,” Senzer said. Monday, the youth category was a hit: Vhu crowned young adult Nero Fuller's squash pie as her favorite.
“It's a surprise to me because it's a squash pie and squash is usually kind of bland but the flavor in it are so vibrant,” She said.
Many generations were not only represented on the plate; they were also on the stage. The Nu Haven Kapele, a community based Klezmer ensemble founded in December of 1998, contains members from 16-year-olds to people in their 90s. Klezmer is a Jewish folk music, and the group plays different songs in Yiddish from many different eras of history.
Much like the pie competition, the Nu Haven Kapele has members with varieties of experience. Some of the group's members work professionally as musicians and have decades of playing under their belt. Others play on the side and have less experience. The group's founder and artistic director, David Chevan, expressed the importance of community to the group.
“Anybody of any level who just has an interest in playing this music is welcome to join,” he said. The Kapele values highly both performance, and educating interested people on Klezmer music, by allowing them to play regardless of their prior experience.
As the band played, Cynthia Astmann’s rich soprano reached across the grass. Some kids and families abandoned their blankets to dance in the open stretch of green between the sea of picnics and the band. As attendees scraped the last crumbs of pie from their plates and the Kapele finished its final song, Vhu prepared to announce her decisions.
As she described her favorites from the night, she spoke with an understanding of flavors that made it clear she was still wearing her culinary hat. The winner, Miriam Berkman, and the runner up, Tim Kane, had both baked tomato tarts.In the children's category, Nero’s squash zucchini tart took the gold and the runner up was Alison Fitzpatrick’s stuffed meatball pie.
The audience cheered loudly for the winners before quickly realizing the youth champions had wandered off. Both ultimately returned to claim their Poké Oli gift cards.
After the announcements, musicians packed up their instruments and the final pies were sold. Before she left, lifelong Westville resident Sophia Perrone basked in the sense of tight-knit community.
“There's ice cream, there's pie, there's live music,” she said. “It's perfect.”
This article comes from the 2024 Cohort of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative. Alice McGill is a rising senior at James Hillhouse High School and ACES Educational Center for the Arts.