Former Grapevine-Colleyville ISD teacher Judy Balunda reached an important milestone Sept. 29, celebrating the date she first opened JudyPie in 2016. The shop sells an assortment of cookies, cakes, pies and gluten-free sweets, which has attracted customers since the business first started. “A pie shop is a novelty, and I’m fortunate enough to truly be in a great location with all the things that the city of Grapevine does to promote tourism and hotels,” Balunda said. Although JudyPie offers ice cream, cookies and other sweet treats, the pies remain its star attraction, Balunda said. Popular pie fillings include strawberry rhubarb, lemon meringue and chocolate cream—many of which are recipes from her family, particularly her mother, Rhoda, for whom the shop’s pecan pie is named. “What I remember is every weekend my mother would bake a pie,” she said. “[I remember] watching my mother and begging to lick the pan. … I can remember going to my aunt’s house, who had a lot of pecan trees. We’d pick pecans, go home, shell them and bake pies. Back then they didn’t have store-bought pie crusts, so there was no choice except to make [crusts] from scratch.” Baking is not an easy task, Balunda said, and as the owner, she has high standards for her products. “I expect every pie to look pretty much the same, but most of all I expect it to taste the same,” she said. That dedication to quality has earned her recognition from several media outlets, such as the “Texas Country Reporter” television show. Another reason Balunda’s pies are so successful is because of the nostalgic memories they invoke, she said. In the future Balunda said she would like to open a second location and is exploring options with the goal to keep the business within the family. “I would like to have at least one more—one for my son and one for my daughter,” she said. “I think each child should end up with their own pie shop. … I couldn’t have done it without the support of my children.” JudyPie 520 S. Main St., Ste. 200, Grapevine 817-400-7437 www.judypie.com Hours: Mon.-Tue. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Wed. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Thu. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.