If you’re an Anglophile foodie, Grumpy’s Meat Pies in Pacific Beach is your kind of place.

Craig Woolard, owner of Grumpy’s, previously owned a sandwich shop in Leucadia, and was an attorney prior to that, before finally staking out a claim in the restaurant business specializing in meat pies.

“Actually, this (food) concept is from Australia and New Zealand,” he said characterizing the cuisine as “an everyman’s street food almost like a hot dog. It’s a really good, hearty home-cooked kind of food. It’s Australian comfort food. You can get it (pies) with sides of peas, bell peppers, mashed potatoes, and mixing vegetables, then it becomes like a little meal.”

A meat pie is a hand-sized pie containing diced or minced meat and gravy, sometimes with onion, mushrooms, or cheese, and is often consumed as a takeaway food snack. Australian meat pies were introduced into the United States in 1994 by Mark Allen, of Boort, Victoria, when he and his wife, Wendy, began operation of Pacific Products, Inc. in Marietta, Ga.

Pacific Products was a wholesale-only business, selling their pies to chain retailers throughout the United States. Although Pacific Products is no longer in business, Allen and his partner Neville Steele opened the Australian Bakery Cafe in Marietta, a retail bakery that also ships its products throughout the USA.

Among the thing that distinguish meat pies are their different fillings, which Woolard said are almost like a stew. “I have Tri-tip steak, chicken breast, mince (ground beef), and Leg of Lamb that come with Monterey Jack cheese, rosemary and garlic, caramelized onions, Portobello mushrooms, sausage rolls, and sweet pies,” he said. “They eat it all over the world where meat pies are sold at gas stations and corner stores like our 7-Elevens.”

Of his clientele, Woolard said, “It’s a lot of Australians and New Zealanders and surfers that have traveled the world. I get Australians who come down from as far away as Los Angeles.”

Woolard noted people the world over eat meat pies, with gravy inside them, off little trays. Aussies put ketchup on them in packets, which they call tomato sauce, so the restaurateur has to keep plenty on hand.

Woolard became a restaurateur in a uniquely roundabout way. “I was in the legal system and used to be a private investigator,” he said adding that ultimately prove unfulfilling. He’d worked in restaurants putting himself through law school adding, “I’d always wanted to own a restaurant. I love to cook. I guess that’s where that came from.”

Woolard revealed the origin of Grumpy’s business name. “It’s from a moonshine runner on the East Coast who opened a bakery and that was his name,” he said adding, “Everyone really enjoys the name of that place in Virginia on the East Coast.”

GRUMPY’S MEAT PIES

Where: 1146 Garnet. Ave.

Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily.

Información: grumpysmeatpies.net, 619-792-0835.