Smith’s Pies has been part of Tasmania since 1983. What started in the back room of a takeaway shop - with family recipes, a big butcher-block table and a long-neck beer bottle for a rolling pin - grew into a family business, a long-running Salamanca Market stall and a pie Tasmanians know by name.
Our Story
1983 - Where it started.
Smith’s began in the back room of the Busy Bee takeaway in Glenorchy, run by Shirley Smith and her daughters Suellen and Elizabeth.
When Shirley’s son Stephen finished work on the Bowen Bridge, he started making savoury pies using his mum’s recipes. The pastry was rolled by hand on a huge butcher-block-style table - with a long-neck beer bottle for a rolling pin.
The first pies were Chunky Steak, Beef & Mushroom and Beef & Bacon, sold through the takeaway before finding their way into local shops and butcher stores.
The pies took off.
It didn’t take long before the pies outgrew the back room.
Smith’s moved into a larger premises off Albert Road in Glenorchy and began supplying more stores around Hobart.
Some of the earliest customers included the Blue Strawberry in Sandy Bay and the Renown café and lolly shop on Elizabeth Street.
One family story has Stephen arriving late to the Blue Strawberry with a crate of pies over his head, only to find customers already waiting at 8am. As quickly as he could hand the pies across the counter, they were sold and out the door.
Salamanca changed everything.
Around the time Smith’s moved into its purpose-built Cambridge bakery, the family also began selling at Salamanca Market.
Back then it was a gazebo, trestle tables and a 6am set-up so locals could come and collect their weekly Smith’s pies.
The curried scallop pie was originally made specifically for the Salamanca stall. It became such a favourite with locals and visitors that before long, Hobart stockists were asking for it too.
More than three decades later, Smith’s is still at Salamanca every Saturday.
Still made the Smith’s way.
A lot has changed since 1983, but plenty hasn’t.
Many of the recipes we still use today began with Shirley - including the curry sauces, gravies and white sauces that became part of the Smith’s range.
Stephen became known in the family for his pastry. Shirley used to say that even pastry chefs couldn’t get it to puff the way he could.
That combination of family recipes, proper pastry and doing things by hand is still a big part of how Smith’s pies are made today.
The next chapter
In 2023, Sarah and Kristian took over Smith’s Pies.
The goal wasn’t to turn Smith’s into something completely different. It was to make sure people recognised that the pie they loved was a Smith’s pie - not just “that great scallop pie at Salamanca”.
Since then, the range has grown, the brand has had a freshen-up and the Pie Yard has opened at the Cambridge bakery - giving people somewhere to come straight to the source for a hot pie, cold drink and a spot on the lawn.
Smith’s is still proudly Tasmanian owned and operated, still making pies by hand in Cambridge, and still building on what the Smith family started back in 1983.
