Pineapple cream pie and other inventions
| Charles Ferruzza Collection |
Well, now that February is almost over, I’m glad I remembered that this month was Great American Pies month.
Pies really are one of the great American desserts and used to be a staple on most restaurant menus. Today, when most dessert lists are dominated by European confections — tiramisu, creme brulee and flan, to name a few — it’s increasingly harder to find a slab of good ol’ pie on the menu. Unless, of course, you’re in a diner.
The ne plus ultra of local diners, the Town Topic, serves pies baked at the big commercial Golden Boy Pie Bakery in Overland Park. A lot of smaller restaurants do, actually; it’s not that pies are so labor-intensive, it’s just that they’ve gotten a lot less fashionable.
But the pies are still freshly baked at the venerable Englewood Cafe at 10904 Winner Road in Independence. This home-style diner — where the waitresses call their male customers “Baby doll” — is famous for its lengthy list of pies; the cooks here also bake the pies for their sister restaurant in Grandview, the proudly smoky TJ’s Cafe.
