New York’s Most Prized Pies

When it comes to desserts, New York boasts everything from organic ice creams to artisanal whoopie pies.  But we’ve never been known for our pies until just recently.  A new crop of shops & bakers have emerged from around the five burroughs with inspired, old-fashioned pies.  Not only has Pies & Thighs finally resurfaced after two, long years with their trademark, banana cream pie encrusted in chocolate shortbread, but also the Elsen sisters and their strawberry balsamic vinegar pie with a buttery crust at Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Alison Kave’s first-prize S’mores pie at Fatty Cue.   There’s plenty of quaint, new shops and eateries embracing the genre of thick-crusted American pies

Two Little Red Hens
Address: 1652 2nd Avenue, near 86^th Street
Phone: (212)452-0476
Better known for its artful cakes and elegant tarts, this Upper East Side bakery bakes just as fabulous pies.    They’re double-crusted and filled with hyper fresh, ripe berries.  This summer, Two Little Red Hens features strawberry, rhubarb, apple and an enchanting combination of blackberry and apple.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Address: 439 3rd Avenue, near
8^th
Street (Brooklyn)
Phone: (718) 499-2917
Pie-making must run in the Elsen family.  Sisters Emily and Melissa
Elsen inherited their talent from their grandmother, who baked the pies
at their family restaurant in
South Dakota.  Their double-crusted pies are extra-thick and buttery,
filled with beautifully balanced fruits and artisanal ingredients,
including a strawberry-balsamic, honey rhubarb (pictured right) or a salted caramel apple pie.  It’s these
pies that have propelled the two from baking out of their Crown Heights
apartment to a sunny, corner shop with wood farm tables, tin ceilings
and an open kitchen where you can watch the magic happen.

Pies n Thighs
Address: 166 S.4th Street, at Driggs Street (Brooklyn)
Phone: (347)529-6090
It’s been a long, two years since the original shop shuttered, but Brooklynites
can finally get their Southern grub on again.  Pies n Thighs became an overnight success, famous for its fried chicken and flaky biscuits, and as the name implies, their old school pies.  There’s good reason lines trail out the door, such as a buttery rhubarb pie with a golden brown crust and the banana cream pie with a
chocolate shortbread crust.

Little Pie Company
Address: 424 West 43^rd Street, btwn. 9^th & 10^th
Aves; or 295 Greenwich Street (two locations)
Phone: (212) 736-4780; or  (212)
748-5290
This is old-fashioned pie-making at its best.   They make their crusts the traditional way with a little lard and plenty of seasonal fruit caramelized to perfection.  If you’re in the mood for chocolate, it doesn’t get much better or richer, for that matter, than the Mississippi mud pie.   The Coconut Cream Pie is wonderfully complex, filled with coconut-laced custard, banana slices, a mountain of whipped cream
and a buttery crust.  Sure, it’s big enough to share, but why would you want to
split something this phenomenal? 

First Prize Pies
firstprizepies.com
Classic sweets, like Root Beer Floats, Take Five candy bars and S’mores
are marvelous in their own right, so can you imagine how awesome they would be in pie
form?
Allison Kave can.  Many of her pies are inspired by these childhood
favorites.   You really can’t go wrong, but we’re most obsessed with a crunchy, nutty Chocolate Peanut Butter
Pretzel Pie.   Allison Kave launched her business after winning the Brooklyn Pie Bake-Off with her Bourbon
Ginger
Pie only a year ago.  Now she sells her “First Prize Pies” at Fatty Cue and various, city markets, including Hester Street Fair.

Square Meal
Address: 30 East 92nd Street, near 3^rd
Avenue
Phone: (212)860-9872
You’ll feel like you’re eating in someone’s home at this charming, UES spot with creative comfort food, like a watermelon and straweberry salad, a burger with housemade ketchup, and juicy blueberry pies.  The dessert menu changes daily, but you really can’t go wrong with any of her homemade pies, especially the
vanilla mango pie.