At Pie-O-Neer Pies in Pie Town, New Mexico, the only thing you can order is pie, really good [amazon_textlink asin=’1581573278′ text=’pie’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’theyums-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ed9ae609-6ffd-11e7-b909-f18eab83f387′]. After all, the town is named for this very American treat. It’s as American as say, apple pie, or pecan, or chocolate or the many others you’ll find here on any given day.
For most people, an impulse buy is a pair of shoes, a piece of jewelry or perhaps even a car. Kathy Knapp, owner of the old-timey pie emporium, took impulse buying a step further. In 1995, she and her family were driving through the remote town on US 60, a mile west of the Continental Divide, and a bit over 50 miles east of Arizona. They saw a sign on an old decrepit trading post: “There used to be pie in Pie Town, but there ain’t no more — 4 SALE”. She bought it. The rest is pie history.
For some, Pie Town is a serendipitous find as they travel cross-country. For others, it’s a destination. This blink-and-you-miss-it town, in the middle of nowhere, has garnered a lot of publicity. IN 2014 the town (and Pie-O-Neer was featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Knapp says that traffic picked up immediately after it aired and it hasn’t stopped. Pie Town has also been featured on Food Network’s The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and the Travel Channel’s Hungrytown. The town and the Pie-O-Neer have also been written about in major (as well as minor) publications and are the focus of The Pie Woman of Pie Town, an award-winning short documentary by Santa Fe filmmaker, Jane Rosemont. But, no matter how you get to Pie Town, stop for a piece of pie.
Location: 5613, U.S. 60, Pie Town, NM 87827 or as their website says: U.S. Pie Way 60.
Menu: Don’t come prepared to eat. Pie-O-Neer Pies only offers pie. You can buy an entire pie or a slice or two of your favorites. They also sell drinks, including coffee, iced coffee in season, tea, hot chocolate, lemonade and, of course, milk. The café’s repertoire includes the over 70 pies they have name tags for but Knapp says they’ve baked over 100 varieties over the years. New ones show up all the time. You will find about 15 to 20 different pies at any given time. , including some of their “all-time favorites such as apple, Cheer-y Cherry, Starry Starry Blueberry Night, Very Berry, Peachy Keen, cream pies (chocolate, coconut and banana), and their “signature” chile pies: Chocolate Chess with Red Chile, New Mexico Apple with Green Chile and Pine Nuts, and Peach Green Chile. Want to make sure your favorite is waiting for you? Call ahead (the day before or early on the day of your visit( and request it. If they have the time and the ingredients they’ll bake it for you and hold a slice or you can buy the entire pie. Pies constantly emerge from the oven throughout the day. Want the fresh scent of baking pie in your kitchen? You can purchase a Take and Bake Pie ready to go into your oven.
The café’s repertoire includes the over 70 pies they have name tags for but Knapp says they’ve baked over 100 varieties over the years. New ones show up all the time. You will find about 15 to 20 different pies at any given time. , including some of their all-time favorites such as apple, Cheer-y Cherry, Starry Starry Blueberry Night, Very Berry, Peachy Keen, cream pies (chocolate, coconut and banana), and their “signature” chile pies: Chocolate Chess with Red Chile, New Mexico Apple with Green Chile and Pine Nuts, and Peach Green Chile.
Want to make sure your favorite is waiting for you? Call ahead (the day before or early on the day of your visit) and request it. If they have the time and the ingredients they’ll bake it for you and hold a slice or you can buy the entire pie. Pies constantly emerge from the oven throughout the day. Want the fresh scent of baking pie in your kitchen? You can purchase a Take and Bake Pie ready to go into your oven.
Thoughts: From the minute you walk in the door, you feel like family. Knapp or Stan King (her partner in everything) or one of the staff greet customers. A big part of the Pie-O-Neer’s success is the dynamic woman who bought the place on a whim. She makes everyone who walks in the door feel at home and you never know what this delightfully zany woman has up her sleeve.
To put it simply, a visit to the Pie-O-Neer is fun. Slices of pies are laid out on the cafeteria-style Pie Bar. Each pie has a sign telling customers what it is. Peruse the offerings carefully; choosing the right pie from the 15 or 20 on offer is serious business unless you have an all-time, non-negotiable favorite. In that case, call ahead and request it. Knapp honors requests when she can. If you’re a pie-lover with a sense of humor or want to remember your Pie Town visit, you can go home with a “☮ of π” tee-shirt. Whether or not you buy the shirt, chances are you’ll always remember your visit to Pie Town and Pie-O-Neer Pies.
Prices: A slice of pie is $5.96; you can take home a whole pie for $29.80. Drinks are all $1.80, as is a scoop of ice cream for your pie.
Additional information: Pie-O-Neer Pies is open seasonally on Thursday to Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm. Because of Pie Town’s remote location, traffic dries up in the winter so the Pie-O-Neer takes a hiatus every year. They are open from Pi Day (March 14th) through the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend (though closed on Thanksgiving).
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Billie and Steve live have lived in Santa Fe, since 2004. They have been traveling together and sharing dining adventures for over 40 years.
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