Meat Pies and Mitres

The pastor at Cobble Hill's Christ Church has a thing for Myers of Keswick's English meat pies. And therefore I have a thing for the Richard Upjohn-designed church's annual Medieval Holiday Fair.

Every year the reverend drives into Manhattan and buys a couple hundred assorted meat pies from Myers of Keswick on Hudson Street, and then sells them at a slight profit. In doing so, he provides his church with perhaps the finest holiday eats layout of any church fair in Brooklyn (though the Danish Seaman's Church in Brooklyn Heights might be a close runner-up). There is also homemade chili, homemade empanadas, Brooklyn Brewery beers, and a lot of fine baked goods. No three-bean salad or jello molds for this congregation.




This year I went for a Beef and Onion Pie and Pork Pie with mustard. Two of these dense delicacies are about all I can handle at one sitting.



There are also craft tables selling various folksy items—nothing as exciting as the food offering. The second-best thing about the fair is that they show animated holiday classics like "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on a slide screen. Kids gather underneath for a schedule that runs about six hours long. There are also regular readings of "A Visit From St. Nicholas." Santa himself makes an appearance in typical English-style garb, red mitre and all.