Mighty Fine pie cafe opens in Huntington

The concept behind Mighty Fine in Huntington started with Daria Lamb’s desire to take pie to another level, but neither her imagination nor her ambition could be contained within a 10-inch crust. Her pie-centric "all-day-cafe" opened last weekend with sweet and savory pies, quiches, sandwiches, roast chickens, cookies, coffee, a full bar, a kids’ play area — all contained in the stately old house that, for more than 30 years, was Finley's of Green Street.

Her most innovative idea might be the design-your-own-pie bar: Choose your crust (7- or 10-inch) and then, Chipotle-style, direct a server to scoop in your desired fillings from buckets of fruit in the repurposed ice-cream display case. Next, would you like your pie topped with crumb or streusel or more pastry? Or with no topping at all? Forty-five minutes to an hour later (depending on the size) your pie is ready to be eaten or taken home.

"When you get people talking about pie," she said, "everyone has their own favorite. I thought, why should they be limited to what we make?"

What is it about pie that sparked Lamb’s interest? First, she recognized that "we’ve raised our standards for pizza, bread, coffee — and yet even bakery pies can be mediocre, using commercial crusts, buckets of premade filling. There is such a big difference between a mediocre pie and a great pie."

And Lamb’s kitchen delivers. Her pies bear the unmistakable stamp of human hands: The crusts are super flaky thanks to a mostly-butter crust that uses some shortening for stability, and baked just past golden brown. The sweet fillings are fruit-forward with no glop; the savory fillings (including classic chicken, chicken tikka masala and filet mignon-mushroom), thick but not stodgy. Flavors change but you’ll usually find apple (packed to the gills with Honeycrisp for flavor, Granny Smith for texture) and maple-bacon-walnut pie (because Lamb considers pecan pie "a little one-note") and, perhaps, blueberry-cinnamon crumb, strawberry-rhubarb, mixed-berry "Pop-Tart" pie topped with rainbow sprinkles or an open-faced zesty lemon custard pie crowned with whipped cream.

A 7-inch pie is $21, 10-inch is $34, a slice is $7.50. (For $15, adults can enjoy a "slice and sip" where the pie is paired with a complementary liqueur such as maple-bacon-walnut with bourbon, lemon with limoncello.)

Other baked items include loaf cakes, cookies and brownies. Savory offerings include sandwiches ($15 to $19) such as rib-eye with Muenster, bechamel, pickled onions and greens on rosemary focaccia, and truffle-butter grilled cheese on brioche, plus salads and Wagyu pigs in blankets. Succulent whole roast chickens with homemade cranberry-apple chutney are $19, $25 with four buttermilk biscuits. There are also gluten-free and vegan options.

"We have a lot of arrows in our quiver" is how Lamb describes her menu. And that applies to the layout as well. The dog-friendly front patio will soon accommodate a putting green. Finley’s old dining room has been reconfigured to accommodate the DIY pie bar, an ordering counter and casual seating for about 35. Out back is a massive 100-seat deck (tented from weather and equipped with heat lamps), a separate bar and a space in the middle for kids to play within their parents’ view. Plus a movie screen and foosball table.

Lamb’s first stint in Long Island hospitality was owning and operating Page Two Bakery and Bookmark Café in Oyster Bay. But for the last 15 years or so she’s been in corporate consulting. "But then I had a sabbatical and started wondering about how I could be my own boss," she recalled. Pie was the answer.

In 2024, she and her husband, David, a landscape architect, bought an old commercial building in Bay Shore (9 Third Ave.) with the intention of turning it into Mighty Fine. Since the structure had not been a food-service establishment, the process of turning it into one has proved long and laborious. (They are hoping it comes to fruition later this year.) In the meantime, they started looking for a second location in Huntington and fell in love with Finley’s.

Mighty Fine, 43 Green St., Huntington, 631-683-5500, mightyfinecafe.com. Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily