According to a calendar I saw in a book store, today is National Pie Day!
In honor of this day, I decided to take a trip up to Mt. Lemmon, Arizona for a few reasons:
1) The Mount Lemmon Cafe is home to some famous home-made pies!
2) The Mt. Lemmon pies have, for various reasons, had some "not so nice" reviews over the years from the local papers and visitors. Sounds like a great pie-tasting challenge to me!
3) The pie place (as I call it!) survived the Mount Lemmon fires of 2003 -- the fires destroyed practically everything but this little pie shop made it!
4) The famous pie maker, Pamella Rinella, who along with her husband established the "pies" on Mt. Lemmon, died suddenly this past September.
After much "touch and go" about what would happen to the pie place after Mrs. Rinella died, local residents said her husband decided to keep his wife's tradition going - so he gets up very early every morning and, following his wife's recipes, begins making pies!
You'll never know what kind of pies will be available on any given day, but there is generally a selection of at least four homemade pies: sour cream apple, blueberry, strawberry rhubarb and peach. Go early though because that selection dwindles - FAST - as the comes to an end.
When I got to the pie place, these flavors were available: sour cream apple, chocolate cream and pumpkin. I had a slice of each - remember, it's National Pie Day and a good reason to sample pies! (There was also a really yummy looking chocolate cake - but I thought I would try that on National Cake Day!)
What did I think? I'll start by going back to #2 above. Things I've read that people did not like about the Mt. Lemmon pie place are:
1) It's a really old, tiny building and doesn't look to be clean.
2) The pies are made in the Rinella's cabin - up the street - and that makes people unsure about eating them if they can't inspect the baking area.
3) There is not enough of a pie selection.
OK - these are true! But - that doesn't necessarily make for bad tasting pies! If you can over-come these issues at least one time, I say, try it because:
1) Sure, the building is old, but it's cute and you can always sit outside on the nice patio, enjoy the fresh mountain air and look at the terrific views while eating pie! I have been in many restaurants around Tucson that look clean - only to read the Sunday paper and find out they did not pass health inspections. Looks aren't everything!
2) Yep - the pies are not made at the cafe. I asked my in-laws who have owned a cabin up there for nearly 40 years about this. Here is my mother-in-laws response: "These are just good old-fashioned pies -- and good old-fashioned pies aren't made in any fancy kitchen that I know of. Just enjoy what it is!"
3) Mt. Lemmon, Arizona is a small town and does not get high-volume traffic on a daily basis. The Mt. Lemmon pie making business is a simple, one-person operation that fits the community. If you go there knowing this - you'll be prepared for whatever pie choices are available and look at it as a chance to try something new!
3) I spent nearly $8 for each piece of pie (included tax)! Yikes you say??!! But each slice is 1/4 of the entire pie AND the slice was 3 inches thick. I got what I paid for!
4) The pies I ate tasted GOOD! And that was good enough for me to celebrate National Pie Day!
If you want to try the pies, Mt. Lemmon is a short 40 minute drive from the NE part of Tucson. Take Houghton Road north to Catalina Highway. Head east and you'll see the mountain. From the base, the town of Summerhaven is about 25 miles and once you get into the town, the first stop on your left will be the Mt.Lemmon Cafe! Enjoy!
Copyright Gabrielle (Kamahele) Rhind, protected by COPYSCAPE 2008. If you want to reprint parts of this - just email me for my permission rhindohana@msn.com . Buying or selling Tucson Real Estate? Click info@gabriellerhind.com and let me know how I can help you!
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