The aroma of freshly baked pies fills the room as you step inside Marble Slab Creamery on Kasuri Road in Gulberg. A cute little pie corner awaits its customers with smartly dressed servers standing behind the counter. You can’t also help notice the signature bicycle parked in the front.

Although Piecycle is an almost two-year-old venture, it is only recently that its owner Azhar Zaheer acquired a prominent place. It could well be called the house of desserts. The current, season-inspired offerings include apple, blueberries, and maple walnut pies.

Their signature apple pie is a must-try; it is prepared with sweet and tart apples combined with lemons and jiggery and a blend of spices inside a delicious flaky crust all of which create a zesty sweetness.

They have recently introduced Apple-Blueberry, Cinnamon Peach, Peach-Blueberry and Pumpkin Pies, served either with whipped cream or ice cream on top in a lovingly woven lattice crust. The result is an all-organic, dessert experience.

A steaming cup of coffee or tea along with the seasonal pie makes for a heavenly combo to beat the blues of the day.

Zaheer quips that he almost always found desserts as too sweet for his liking. As the story goes, he went to America on a Fulbright scholarship and was based in North Carolina where some friends introduced him to homemade pies. "I soon realised it was the start of a new love relationship at a time when I was consuming half a pie daily," he tells TNS.

Zaheer reveals that the backyard of his lodgings had pear and apple trees from where he would get the fruit when he started to bake. Later, when he returned to Pakistan, the quest for pies took him around. "But nothing would ever satiate my craving and so I began to create my own [pies]."

Starting off as a side business, Piecycle soon managed to garner popularity at Lahore’s now well-known Khaalis Food Market editions, doing well every single time he put up a stall. Interestingly, Piecycle’s core team consists of Zaheer, his mother and a fully trained chef.

The pies, Zaheer proudly claims, are "without additives, preservatives and artificial sugar," and each slice contains no more than a quarter spoon of sugar which gives you another reason to dig the place.

The price per pie varies between Rs1,600-1,800 while each slice costs between Rs180-220.

To ensure they bake you the best homemade pies that taste fresh, "we select the freshest and finest fruit." Besides, as Zaheer claims, only freshly ground spices are used, to ensure maximum flavour. The result is a pie that derives much of its sweetness from the fruit itself and allows you to taste the delicious spiced flavour of the fruit in every bite.