Fat Bastard Pies

Famous pie shop in Invercargill using local flavours and ingredients.

Like most good things, Fat Bastard Pies was founded in a back-street fish & chip shop in the suburbs of Invercargill. The year was 2016 and James Owen, a qualified chef with experience in some of Queenstowns top restaurants, wanted to make pies.

“I really wanted to make pies, proper Southland cuisine"

James' diversion into fast food began when he opened the fish and chip shop, Salt and Batter after moving home to Invercargill. With an underlying desire to create amazing pies, James thought he could sell gourmet fish and chips and have his chef’s quality pies on the side.

As Salt and Batter grew, 13 staff and flat out, James started to wonder how he was ever going to make his pies. He took over an adjoining shop and set up the pie business there with the help of a business partner. “I’d always wanted to make pies but it was hard to concentrate with Salt and Batter getting so busy”. In the end James decided to sell the fish and chip shop and move the pie trade into town on Tay street where it is located today.

The bakery has become its own local institution, with lines of people out the door. Today 60 percent of the pie trade is local and 40 percent are tourists. Locals regularly stop in for a pie and tourists are actually making the shop a destination point in their travels.

"It's something a bit different, a bit unique.”