Meat Pies From A Lindy & Grundy Butcher | Los Angeles

Melissa Cortina refers to herself on Twitter as a "Butcher, baker, not yet candlestick maker."

Having trained with famed Tuscan butcher Dario Cecchini and currently working as the manager of Lindy & Grundy, she's done justice to that first claim.

Cortina's new venture, Pig & Pastry Pie Co., is an attempt to beef up the second.

Cortina's single-serving potpies (pictured; $12) are available at Lindy & Grundy (she restocks the freezer on Saturdays) and hit a high nostalgia note, the buttery crust and vegetable-heavy chicken filling recalling the best of childhood's frozen dinners. We're certain Cortina is working with better raw products than any supermarket potpie, though, as all the meats she uses are procured from Lindy & Grundy.

Pig & Pastry recently served Reuben hand pies and pork-belly pasties at a certain underground food swap, and Cortina will soon debut a beef shank pie with marrow and a potato gratin crust. So potpie is by no means her endgame.

There's no word of Cortina starting a beef-tallow candle business, but we wouldn't put it past her.

Lindy & Grundy, 801 N. Fairfax Ave., Mid-City; facebook.com/pigandpastry