By John Flood
 joe hu/town crier Ian Sanders and Tony Wu are co-owners of the Cravery on Main Street. The Cravery specializes in gourmet potpies and pastries. |
It’s been said that everything old is new again. And the potpie, that relic of a simpler age in culinary sensibilities, is undergoing a bit of an upgrade right here in Los Altos.
Stop in the Cravery, the new potpie restaurant that opened on Main Street Oct. 9, and you’ll notice that the unpretentious dish has come a long way since the C.A. Swanson company started selling its frozen chicken potpie in 1951 to Americans interested in convenience over taste.
Today, instead of potpies in aluminum pie pans with ingredients loaded with salt, the Cravery uses fresh ingredients, light, flaky crusts and regional and international recipes. And the Cravery staff bakes the potpies daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Understand the almost limitless possibilities of the potpie concept, and you quickly absorb the Cravery’s fundamental tenet.
“You can put anything into that crust,” said Ian Sanders, Cravery co-owner.
And their menu reflects it. The restaurant cleverly incorporates American favorites into its potpies, including scrambled eggs, hamburgers, grilled chicken and even pizza, which can be washed down with wine, beer and Peet’s coffees and teas.
The restaurant touts free Wi-Fi and also offers soups and salads. The atmosphere suggests Starbucks without the oversized easy chairs. Choose your potpie from a selection behind the counter. Take it home or eat on the premises. The Cravery accepts telephone orders, too. One potpie serves one for about $5.
“This food is popular in ex-British Empire countries like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and we felt it was right for Los Altos,” Sanders said.
“This community is a sophisticated market … and we felt that they would like it.”
Sanders and co-owner Tony Wu, former executives who previously worked for disk-drive companies, started looking for a location for the Cravery in 2005.
“The Cravery is suitable for a small-town, high street atmosphere,” the London-born Sanders said. “We looked in Menlo Park, Los Gatos, Palo Alto and Mountain View. We wanted a location with a lot of foot traffic, an informal, casual but upscale atmosphere.”
The Cravery is a franchise company based in Gardena. It has three locations in the Los Angeles area. The Los Altos store is the first to open outside Southern California.
The Cravery concept was born when its CEO, Brian Khoddam, noticed the appeal of the portable potpie while visiting South Africa. He soon enlisted the help of a chef who had worked for other chain restaurants to develop and refine the recipe and ingredients.
“This is mobile or dine-out food,” Sanders said. “It appeals to young and old, from students to people in their 90s.”
Sanders and Wu are planning a grand opening after they are satisfied that Cravery staff has been trained to meet increased demand.
“To some extent we’ve been overwhelmed,” Sanders said. “And we haven’t done any advertising. We sold more than 150 potpies the first day, and we have sold out every day.”
The Cravery is located at 378 Main St. It is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Sundays. For more information, call 498-8886 or visit www.thecravery.com.
