Flavors of Westwood: simplethings offers ‘cutie pies,’ healthy sandwiches

Another excuse to eat more pie just hit Westwood.

Focused on a comfortable family atmosphere and simple healthy food, simplethings, located just off of Westwood Boulevard on Kinross Avenue, offers a wide range of salads, sandwiches and “cutie pies.”

This is the second location for simplethings. The first opened on Third Street near The Grove about three years ago.

“We always liked Westwood a lot. We even looked here when deciding where to open the first simplethings,” said Andy Paxson, co-owner of simplethings. “In choosing restaurant locations for us, first and foremost, it’s about the neighborhood it’s in and obviously Westwood Village has a great diverse neighborhood.”

Owners Paxson and Ryan Handel met while working at their previous jobs for a restaurant management company and got the idea for opening their own place because they both wanted to provide healthy food accessibly and in a warm atmosphere.

“One of our ideas was for a ‘better ingredients’ sandwich shop. Which it is, but we wanted to offer more as well, so we also have salads, pot pies, and side items and soup,” Paxson said. “But for dessert, we just really wanted to offer one dessert and try to do it really well.”

That dessert is pie. They wanted to make pie easier to eat as a one-person dessert, so they created the “cutie pie,” which is a small individual pie that doesn’t need to be sliced.

There are 14 flavors of pies, ranging from the traditional cherry and blueberry to chocolate peanut butter and “banoffee,” a banana-coffee mixture.

Paxson and Handel said they have stayed true to their vision of the “better ingredients” sandwich shop, as their menu now includes 17 different sandwiches.

“There are a few sandwiches that are our best sellers, especially our pulled chicken sandwich, which is like a barbequed chicken sandwich on a soft pretzel roll with garlic aioli, chèvre spread and chipotle bbq sauce,” Paxson said.

The owners said they are excited to open this Westwood location because this is the first step in expanding simplethings.

“We’ve always liked the idea of being a Southern California company, having locations around L.A. to begin with,” Paxson said. “We know in L.A. and around Southern California there are a lot of neighborhoods we could fit into.”