The Porch at Christies: Neighborhood Eatery With A Mission

Pride, potential, purpose, passion, and a love for all positive P words are the founding ideals of The Porch at Christies, and the core of their mission. Included in this list of P’s is of course Pecoriello, the founding family and owners of The Porch and partner organization, Sweet P Bakery. 

The Porch serves a delicious menu of items from baked goods, to breakfast bowls, sandwiches, salads, coffee, and more. There is truly something for everyone. However, visiting The Porch is not solely a culinary experience. The inviting atmosphere of inclusivity and community makes it hard to simply grab a meal and go. The Porch is the perfect spot for a nice meal with family, coffee with friends, and even a place to meet someone new. 

“We named it Sweet P Bakery because of the letter P and all of the positive P words. It happens to also be that Pecoriello starts with P, and Porch starts with P, but words like proud and pride, and one of our very favorites is potential because everybody has potential. Our other favorite word is purpose because everybody wants to have a purpose in life and way to be part of their community and Sweet P Bakery and The Porch have done that for many, many people,” Andrea Pecoriello said.

Andrea and Bill Pecoriello’s journey began with their three childrens’ involvement with an organization in high school that paired them with peers with special needs. The Pecoriello kids’ passion inspired the family to partner with this organization to start a baking program, birthing Sweet P Bakery. The goal of the bakery was to teach adults with intellectual and cognitive disabilities how to bake as a skill for employment. 

The program began in February of 2020, meaning the first class of bakers was disrupted by the Covid pandemic. Nonetheless Sweet P adapted. Students learned to make granola and the proceeds of sales were donated to healthcare workers. After learning the foundational skills in the kitchen, students moved onto the Baking Two course which trained them to make the signature Sweet P Bakery goods.

“We quickly realized that it could be so much more,” Andrea said.

Ninety five percent of goods at The Porch are homemade and baked and produced throughout the day. “As quickly as we put them out they disappear,” Andrea said. “…I always love when somebody orders lunch at The Porch, orders a Colossal Cookie, I hand them the cookie and they usually eat the cookie before their lunch is ready.”

“We always say sometimes the world out there is kind of a not so nice place but once you step up on the porch you’re a friend, and you’re included, and it’s a really nice community gathering space,” Andrea said.

The bakery was looking for a space to sell their treats, and as fate would have it, Christie’s, an old town staple that had been around for almost 100 years, was available. Instead of just opening a bakery, the Pecoriello’s decided to continue Christie’s legacy and opened The Porch at Christie’s in 2021. 

“Everybody has those happy memories [of Christie’s] and I wanted the next generation to have that,” Andread said. “...The world moves really fast for children now and for teenagers, and this is kind of taking you back to the past, another great P word, where times were a little simpler and maybe you’re just hanging out with friends on The Porch and talking and you’re not on your cell phone or your tablet, and for a little while you don’t have to worry about homework or anything like that.”

All students from the first round of baking classes through Sweet P bakery are still employed at The Porch, and the program has continued to train even more students.

“We hire here as well to give job experience in a very safe and nurturing environment. It could take you an hour to stock my beverage cooler and that is absolutely fine because you’re learning really valuable skills that hopefully you can someday take to another job,” Andrea said. 

In addition to the benefits that The Porch provides for employees, it is also fostering an even more accepting community amongst Westporters. 

“I always say when a young child walks in and they see someone they may have a disability and they’re just like the two of us are but there’s just something a little different about them that maybe if they see a child with a disability in their class they will think nothing of it and include them and be a friend. So that has become our higher purpose here,” Andrea said.

“A lot of people call me over and love everything about it and they don’t even know our story and then when I tell them the mission and the story it’s just the cherry on top of the cake,” Andrea said. It’s really cool that you can have a wonderful dining experience, and delicious food, and this lovely setting, and then also feel like you have a whole purpose and you’re doing something really good in the world.”

When cultivating the menu for the Porch, the Pecoriello’s wanted The Porch to feel like a break from the stresses of everyday life so chose foods that they love to eat on vacations.

“People talk about almost feeling like they’re on vacation when they eat here like they’re in Nantucket or they’re somewhere else in New England. We chose a menu here at The Porch that was everything that Bill and I like to eat or that we would find on a vacation. We thought, wouldn't it be great if we could find really good coffee somewhere, a breakfast bowl like you could get on the west coast, bowls and salads like you get in Manhattan, but all in one place that was charming and inviting. That’s what this has become.”

“We’ve really become a place of community, inclusion and good food, and where you go to meet a friend for coffee but also just where everybody belongs. And that’s our tagline, hello friend,”

As far as the Pecoriello’s are concerned, The Porch is here to stay. 

“This will always be the only Porch. My husband and I have lived in Westport for 29 years. We love this town, our kids went through all the public schools, so The Porch has become our way of just giving back to a community that we love.”

For those who want to support The Porch and its mission, according to Andrea, the best thing you can do is to “Tell two friends every time [you] eat at The Porch, if you have a great meal at The Porch, if you’ve done delicious catering, put a little postout on social media, we get so many new consumers,” she said. “We always say we’re a little bit off the beaten path, we’re not on Post Road, we’re not on Main Street, but we love where we are and we would not want The Porch anywhere else because it wouldn’t work anywhere else. But you have to actually know about us to come to us… so just keep spreading the word, think about us for catering… the more that we are supported the more that we can support the people we want to.”

And looking to the future, the Pecoriello’s hope to expand the wholesale business alongside the products at The Porch. Implementing a shipping operation would allow for more employees to pack, label, etc., alongside baking positions, creating an opportunity to change even more lives.

It still must be acknowledged how much amazing work The Porch, Sweet P Bakery, and the Pecoriello’s have already done.

“I guess what I’m most proud of is Bill and I no experience in the restaurant industry, in the baking industry, our head pastry chef who developed the program had never taught a day in her life, but we really believed in the mission that we could make a difference and somebody doesn’t have to be employed 40 hours a week to make a difference in their life. We have bakers and employees at The Porch that work one three hour shift and it’s life changing,” Andrea said. “... We started with an idea and we really brought it to fruition. In my wildest dreams this is what The Porch was going to look like and that’s what Sweet P Bakery would look like. And when I’m packing with young families, and grandparents on a Saturday, in my wildest dreams that’s what I imagined, and in less than two years open, that’s what we accomplished.”

The Porch is located at 161 Cross Highway in Westport. You can check out their website to learn more, information on catering, or Sweet P Bakery's site for donations. Also check out their Instagram or Facebook @theporchatchristies for updates!