It all started at a tennis match in East Hampton. After being randomly paired, Mike “Abe” Abelson and Chris Cobb discovered a shared passion for food, wine, and entertaining. What began as backyard dinners for friends on the East End evolved into a full-fledged business — Pies with Abe became a sought-after at-home dining experience offering curated pizza and wine dinners. We spoke with them to learn more.
What inspired you to start Pies with Abe?
Pies With Abe really started the way a lot of good things in the Hamptons do, through a tennis match and a long dinner afterward. After being matched at random for a Monday night game, we discovered a shared passion for food, wine, and entertaining. Abe had been obsessively making pizza for years, hosting friends, experimenting with dough, and picking up shifts at Fini in Amagansett just to learn more about the craft. Chris had always gravitated toward hosting, wine, music, and creating atmosphere, especially growing up in his father’s restaurant. Over time, we realized the thing people were responding to wasn’t just the pizza itself, but the feeling around it – the pacing of the night, the music, the martinis, the table, the people gathered around it. What began as casual dinners for friends out East slowly evolved into something much more intentional: a hospitality experience centered around pizza, wine, and entertaining at home.
Why did you choose the Hamptons as your home base?
The Hamptons felt like the natural place for Pies With Abe to take shape because entertaining is already such a big part of life out here. People spend all year looking forward to having friends over, cooking outside, opening wine, lingering around the table. There’s also something about the pace of summer out East that allows dinners to unfold differently – people stay longer, conversations stretch later into the night, and hosting feels less performative and more personal. Pies With Abe grew organically through that rhythm. We started hosting backyard dinners for friends in the Springs and Sag Harbor, and word spread from there.
How does the Hamptons influence your flavors or approach?
The Hamptons influences almost everything about the way we approach a dinner. The produce is incredible in the summer, so the menus naturally become more seasonal and ingredient-driven. We source from local farms and markets whenever possible, and a lot of the pies are inspired by what’s available that week. But beyond the food itself, the homes and landscapes out East really shape the atmosphere of each dinner. A modern house in Amagansett calls for a completely different energy than a garden dinner in Sag Harbor. We think a lot about flow, lighting, music, flowers, pacing, and how the environment changes the way people experience the meal.
What’s your personal favorite on the menu?
Three favorites come to mind, and they couldn’t be more different. The first is the NY plain, the marker of every great pizzamaker. It looks simple, but it’s probably the hardest pie to execute because there’s nowhere to hide. The dough, the fermentation, the sauce, the cheese – every component has to stand on its own. It’s always the first pie we serve because it sets the tone and standard for everything to follow.
The second is our corn pie, which has become a summer favorite. We source the corn from Balsam Farms in East Hampton and pair it with a cream base, mozzarella, and surprisingly, fontina, which is the secret to the rich, buttery tastes that reminds you of eating a classic corn on the cob. It’s the kind of pie that captures what we love most about cooking out East in the summer, letting incredible local ingredients speak for themselves.
Last but not least, the Pitti sausage pie. The spicy and sweet combination allows for some of the more complex red wine pairings. The richness and spice open the door to wines with a little more structure and depth, which completely changes the way people experience both the wine and pizza.
What’s next for Pies with Abe?
Right now we’re focused on continuing to refine the experience and keep it feeling intimate, thoughtful, and personal as demand grows. We’re booked throughout the summer in the Hamptons, but we’re also beginning to collaborate more with artists, designers, and brands in a way that still feels aligned with the spirit of what we do. Long-term, we’re interested in exploring how Pies With Abe can exist beyond just private dinners, whether that’s through collaborations, destination-based experiences, or creating spaces that capture the same feeling as the dinners themselves.
