The Culinary Institute of America graduate brought three pot pies and three quiches to a man at a local farmers' market to see if they would sell.
“They sold right away. He called me back, said, ‘Give me ten more of each.’ Called me back again, ‘Give me twenty more of each,’” Cheevers recalled.
The popularity forced Cheevers to quickly come up with a name for her business. Her husband suggested, Keep Your Eyes Off My Pies. But her daughter said, “No way. You want eyes on the pies,” she said.
And so Shannon’s Eyes On The Pies was born.
Cheevers, who grew up in West Milford and lives in Sussex County, makes everything from scratch in her small shop, and her family pitches in.
“The kitchen is like my comfort zone. It is where I feel I belong,” she said.
The most popular items are the skirt steak pot pies and chicken pot pies, she said, and she also sells items like fresh quiches, fruit pies, cookies, salads, wraps and sandwiches.
The spot opened a few months ago and is already getting rave reviews.
“Picked up a medium pot pie to bring home to my family for lunch and had to resist eating the whole pie by myself. So good. The perfect comfort food,” Meghan Joyce wrote on Facebook.
Cheevers said running her own business is hard work, but she is used to long hours in the culinary world, and happy to be working on her own to benefit her family.
Cheevers is a breast cancer survivor, who has been cancer-free for about seven years. She made her pie boxes pink to raise breast cancer awareness, and she plans to donate a portion of her profits to a breast cancer charity during October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“I have people that just come in here because they heard my boxes are pink and why they are pink … People will high-five me over the counter and say ‘I am a survivor too,’" she said.
“It was a hard road to get here … it wasn’t easy, but we kept plugging,” she said.
Shannon’s Eyes On The Pies is located at 1939 Union Valley Rd. in West Milford. For more information CLICK HERE.
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