Pie Spy in LA County

Spoiler alert! Serious foodporn follows.

Although no one responded to my blog request for suggested venues for our May Pie Safari, we were met with a wealth of choices, mystery spots, and Plan B-level selections when we arrived in LA County.

In addition to all the places we visited that did NOT have pie, Pie Spy and POPS managed to hit and sample many fine pie establishments in LA, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, and Altadena. The obvious choices were places that had the word PIE in their names, but we dug a little deeper for some true gems. No, gentle reader, we did not flinch from overeating in the service of research! This area is rich with great cuisine of all sorts, and every dining experience we had there was very, very good. A little bit of sticker shock in Pasadena itself - we agreed that we could have gone to France with just what we spent on food there - but otherwise, it was a delight to wander and find something really wonderful around every corner. The down side of that is, of course, that there are only so many spots you can visit in a short vacation. We will be saving many, many of them on our Next Time List.

That includes Larkin's, in Eagle Rock at 1496 Colorado Boulevard (larkinsjoint.com). Terrific, spiced-up southern cooking and BBQ, with one of the most interesting salad ideas we've seen in quite a long time - mixed greens with okra croquettes! We would have loved some of Larkin's mom's own sweet potato pie after dinner, but we were just too, too full after the salad, some barbecued portobello mushrooms, and two sides. In fact, we didn't even feel hungry the next day.

Next Time List also includes Auntie Em's - 4616 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock (auntieemskitchen.com). Somebody beat us to the cherry-berry pie while we were ordering lunch, and they bought the whole thing. Even more of a pie nut than we are, apparently. Chef Teri Wahl does savory pot pies from time to time, as well as desserts.

So let's get rolling on the inventory.

Pie N Burger - 913 E. California, Pasadena (pienburger.com). The place looks like it's been there forever - since 1963, in fact. The menu is on the wall at the front and back of the diner. Lunch was a big salad and a garden burger, but that was only to buy us some time in making our selection for a pie slice. There were a couple of dozen pie choices, and many of them were fresh fruit. We settled on boysenberry. Win! Look how gorgeous this is. The flavor of boysenberry (a fruit that was perfected and made popular down in Orange County, at Knott's Berry Farm, not the amusement park) was clean and unmuddled by excessive refined sugar. Really, really great. Definitely $4.50 worth of fun. And we loved the clock!

Gourmet Cobbler Factory, 33 N Catalina Ave., Pasadena (thegourmetcobblerfactory.com) - While Pie Spy was busy being entertained in a stuffy conference room, POPS was out and about scouting for goodies. POPS has a nose for bakeries, which he follows faithfully, and it never fails. He snagged us a golden baby sweet potato pie from the cobbler joint. Try as we might, we could not damp down the almost radioactive orange color of this tiny pie in the photo. By the way, we appreciate that the POPS has the will power to delay gratification and share these yummies with yours truly, instead of snarfing them up when we are not looking. Creamy, spicy, definitely rich and flavorful, but not overtly sweet - we spooned up the sweet potato pie-ette as breakfast and were very happy. Props to the Cobbler Factory for selling fruit cobblers in foil tins from the personal to vat-sized.

POPS happened across a few Armenian bakeries with very reasonably priced treats, some of which were new discoveries. Why don't we have any talented Armenian bakers here in SacTown? Here are the highlights:

Old Sasoon Bakery - 1132 N. Allen Ave, Pasadena. Our favorite was their swiss chard turnover (panjar) and tiny spinach pie (beorag). Neither of these was anything like a traditional Greek-style spanakopita, or any other spinach pie we've tried. The swiss chard hand pie was made of a sturdy dough and a mysterious combination of seasonings (including tahini and onion) that imparted a reddish color and spicy kick to the filling. This is something we want more of - it makes an excellent lunch. No messy flakes or greasy fingers, either. Old Sasoon has a website, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Two other Armenian bakeries, close by:

Panos - 1649 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena (panosbakery.com). No pie- all cookies, baklava, and other Mediterranean-inflected sweets. Which we sampled; many.

Vrej - 1074 N. Allen, Pasadena (vrejpastry.net) - All cookies, baklava, and gorgeous, lovely cakes. Half a pound of cookies was about three dollars.

(sigh)...Back to pie.

Dutch Oven Bakery - 2281 Lake Ave., Altadena. Sunday we found fresh apple turnovers at this very unassuming little bakery. This is not the kind of bakery that has a web site. No puff pastry and Denny's style filling here - just a simple, easy-to-handle firm dough and fresh apples with cinnamon. This little gem also sold peach cobbler in vats, as at the Cobbler Factory. One of their menu items is an old-school sweet bean pie, but none were available. It was Sunday, after all, on a holiday weekend. Put that on the Next Time List. Prices were very reasonable here, too.

EuroPane - 345 E Colorado, Pasadena. EuroPane has a newer location at 950 E. Colorado, where we had terrific blueberry brioche and apple strudel on our first day. We loved the large, rough-hewn wooden table made out of a single slab. The interior is quite beautiful and a great place to sip your coffee in peace. At the original location, which is smaller and more lively, we sampled the apple pie-ette with lattice crust. For breakfast, oh yeah! And it was completely satisfying in all respects - a very homemade quality, excellent flavors, and extremely fresh. POPS was able to use the Spy Cam to get into the prep area and snap a few shots of the pie master at work. Note that she is multitasking.

If we can digress for just a minute - You must visit Bulgarini Gelato at 749 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena (bulgarinigelato.com). It is in an unassuming strip-mall location that you may have to miss a couple of times before you find it. But it is definitely worth multiple visits. Handmade gelati of various flavors, including unconventional ones like goat's milk straciatella, Florentine salted chocolate, and best of all, plain yogurt gelato with olive oil drizzled on top. This last one was perfectly balanced between sweet and tart, and very rich - almost like eating cream cheese. The half-teaspoon of olive oil was an unexpected complement to the flavor. Our server told us that they serve this gelato often at wine tastings, and we can appreciate how it would be well received as such, but we could eat it every day, whether there is any wine involved or not.

Trails Cafe - 2333 Ferndell Road, Los Feliz (thetrailslosfeliz.com, not much of a website) - Just inside Griffith Park on Ferndell Road in LA is the very popular Trails Cafe. Just a few short years ago, there was nothing here but a Coke machine. We found out about the Trails through LA Weekly, and are glad we did. The cafe serves all kinds of snacks, a few salads, coffee, and more substantial fare in addition to pie. The line was long but the wait was not. We spied the very tall apple pie through the glass (see the photo at the top of today's post) and knew we had to have it. Our server told us there were also some individual cherry crisps on hand. We had to have that too, for back stock. All the baked items are 'from scratch,' a friendly sign informed us.


Our pie was served warm, a slice large enough for a village. It looks wonderful in the photo - that brown, flaky crust, chunky fruit, et cetera, right? The pie had skins-on chunks of Golden Delicious that were just firm enough, with delicate flavor. Leaving the skins on was not a good choice. The pie had a weird, stringy brown goo inside, which tasted cinnamony-sweet but was visually unappealing - it would stretch almost like warm mozzarella. We found the crust hard to pierce with a recyclable plastic fork. Make no mistake, though - we ate the whole thing! At $4.50 a slice, we felt we could not let any go to waste.

The cherry crisp was in the mini-pie shell on the upper left of the photo below. We saved it until we came home to Sac, and it traveled very well. The cherries were perfectly sweet/tart and chewy, with no goo. The pie shell was made of the same very firm dough formulation as the apple pie, but it seemed to work a lot better as a bowl for the cherries and oatmeal crisp topping. Worth the five bucks! Good job, Trails. Keep this one on the menu!

House of Pies, 1869 N. Vermont, Los Angeles (houseofpiesrestaurant.com) - No pie safari can be undertaken without at least a look in at the House of Pies, the last holdout of what was once a large chain throughout the LA region. The sign alone lets the imagination run wild. We stopped in about 30 minutes after we ate the apple pie at the Trails. In retrospect, this was probably too soon. At this point, all Pie Spy's pie receptors were redlined, and nothing in the case looked good. On view in the cases were multiple pies of the custard, meringue, and cheesecake varieties. We did not spy any fruit pies, and in truth, didn't want any! But we had to know. And now we do.

While we recognize that we were merely scratching the surface of potential pie opportunities, we think our trip was a total success. Pie Spy was inspired to find some new fillings to experiment with, to get brave with soft berries that are now in season, and to check in again with our local Sacramento scene and see what's on the menu. What have you had your eye on while we were away?

Pie Spy - On the Road to SoCal

Hey, pie lovers! Pie Spy is hitting the road again at the end of May, bound for the sunny south. POPS (Partner of Pie Spy - thank you for the acronym, Kim!) is also going on the adventure and is compiling a list of eateries to check out. We have some pie destinations in mind, and our voyage may splash over into Orange County. So we wanted to give all of you who enjoy SacPie a chance to contribute your suggestions for new or favorite places we should spy on.

Please post in your comments any pie stops that come to mind. Check out our posting of 19 March, Pie in Los Angeles, to see the hallowed ground we have already trod (trod?). We will not be revisiting those, but we will do our best to visit as many of the new ones as we can. Anything especially offbeat or just plain odd would place high on our growing list.

We will also be spending quality time on the beach in Orange County, so pie stops in Newport Beach, San Clemente, Seal Beach, or other coastal spots will give you double credits! So please help us plan our road trip and get in on the pie safari. Post your suggestions in comments by 21 May 2010. Thanks!

Pie Spy In Los Angeles

When you’re in LA, treading those boulevards of dreams, and you want to sit down and have something sweet, where ya gonna go?

Your Pie Spy visited several iconic establishments throughout the city, some of them better known for other selections than for pie. This turned into a mini urban pie safari. The featured stops along the way included these:

Musso and Frank (www.mussoandfrankgrill.com)

The Original Pantry (www.pantrycafe.com)

Clifton’s Brookdale (www.cliftoncafeteria.com)

And Pea Soup Andersen’s, on the way home, in Buellton (www.peasoupandersens.net).

There was no pie at the Pacific Dining Car, none at the Nickel Diner, or Rincon Criollo, or Tender Greens, or – understandably – at the Formosa Café.

Obviously there are many, many more pie venues in the big city than these, but there were other missions on the urban safari besides eating all the pie we could. It can get overwhelming if you don’t bite off small pieces.

Among these pies, Musso and Frank's apple pie (pictured above) was notable for being the thickest and being served on the prettiest china. Not a fancy restaurant, but it was a standout for the ambience. The fare at M &F is traditional, and maybe even plain. But eating pie where stars have dined – maybe even at our table! - has its own sparkly charm.

The Original Pantry’s apple pie (shown above) came warm and dressed with cinnamon sauce, which wasn’t mentioned on the menu, but turned out to be an interesting embellishment. It was $3.95 a slice, or $1.25 extra if you wanted ice cream with it. (But pretty good without!) That place is always hopping, and you might decide well before you’re hungry to go there – there is often a line out the door.

Clifton’s Brookdale had cherry pie as well as apple, but Pie Spy was tired of apple pie by the time we got there. The cherry (below) was the winner in the price category, at a bargain-licious $2.39 per slice. Tart fruit and buttery pastry. Home/cafeteria cooking that is hard to find in our own part of California. You gotta go to Clifton’s to experience the crazy décor as well as the pie. Notice the moose head and the fancy forest wall decoration, with tree trunk in the right foreground.

And let us not forget Pea Soup Andersen’s. It has been there by the highway so long that maybe you don’t even notice it anymore. Choices of food stops along the road are generally not very good for you. Pea Soup Andersen’s, however, is a welcome alternative to the burgers, pizzas, and chicken buckets. The eponymous soup is vegetarian and very, very delicious, full of protein, and just eating it makes us feel calmer. The copper-topped tables and the non-truck-stop lighting also make you feel more civilized. If you’re not into green soup, try the salad, and if you’ve had enough pie for one week, order a chocolate milk shake. Then you will have the courage to keep on driving. The pie was warm, but as you can see from the picture below, it was a little bit oozy. We neglected to inquire about the makeup of the pastry, but I believe it is vegetable shortening–based. In my opinion it is not quite as good as homemade pie, but even so one should be grateful that pie is anywhere to be had out there on the freeway. And we were very grateful!

The inaugural SoCal Pie Spy mission was a big success. When I can get back into the skinny jeans, I'll be ready for the second phase.