David and I recently rewatched a fun PBS show. About pie. Because pie is crucially important. OK, maybe not as earth shaking as the 2016 presidential primaries or who’s winning “The Voice,” but it’s pie! “A Few Good Pie Places” introduces some of America’s best pie purveyors, many of them in small towns, including our own backyard here in the Flathead.
In Westfield, NY (population of 3,100), Portage Pie is a family business owned by the Thayer’s. They start early and sell warm pies all day long with scrumptious crusts made of flour, Crisco, salt, and water (in case you want to try it yourself).
At the Grant Bar in Millvale, Penn. (population 3,725), Frank Rozumberka, 80 years young, arrives before sunrise each morning to begin baking his pies. His immigrant parents started the bar and eventually sold it to the employees. His coconut cream pie is world famous. No doubt.
At the Woodruff Store in Elon, Va. (so small there are no population figures available), Angela Woodruff Scott and her mother Mary Fannie Woodruff serve a nice lunch with a piece of pie because “people really feel loved when they’re eating pie.” They also make fried pies. Sounds crazy good doesn’t it?
Poorhouse Pies in Underhill, Vt. (population 3,067) got started by Paula and Jamie Eisenberg after Jamie lost her job during the recession and needed to find a way to avoid “the poorhouse”. They place their pies in a shed where buyers take a pie and leave their money – all on the honor system.
In Roanoke, Ind. (population 1,706), Natalie Warner, proprietor of the Rolling Pin Bake House, makes sugar cream pies in her home. It’s her mom’s secret recipe. Customers meet her in the driveway to buy her pies.
In the comparatively big small town of Golden Valley, Minn. (population 20,845), story teller and pie maker extraordinary Rose McGee invites folks to her house parties for her delicious sweet potato pie, the “sacred dessert of the south.”
Also featured on the show was our own Loula’s Café in Whitefish. Loula’s is where Mary Lou Covey and an extraordinary team make some of the best pie ever and run a restaurant that’s warm and welcoming. (Disclaimer, David and I are huge Loula’s fans and patrons!)
I love these pie stories. They encapsulate so many of small town America’s great business advantages. These pie businesses are diverse; family run, paid on the honor system, started by immigrants, multi-generational, employee-owned, and home-based, you name it. More importantly though, they all reflect the hard-working, innovative business spirit that small towns have in abundance.
Why pies? Because “pies have the simple, sweet ability to please people.”
Best pie? The “one you’re eating at the moment.”
Yep. Can’t wait to hit Loula’s for some huckleberry-peach pie!
Learn more about Diane by following her column here or visit American Rural at AmericanRural.org.