A Few Good Pie Places

The Fasano Pie Company was a big pie manufacturer in Chicago from the late 1940s through the mid-1980s. Now, one of the founder’s grandsons, Peter Fasano, is trying to rebuild the business with recipes he saved and revived. He delivers pies, sells them from his trucks, and knows a lot about his family’s history in the pie-making world.

At WQED, the public television station in Pittsburgh, TV producer/narrator Rick Sebak and composer/musician Read Connolly talk about how they met, how they work together and how the music was created for A FEW GOOD PIE PLACES and A FEW GREAT BAKERIES.

On Highway 31 in rural Indiana, Lisa Sparks, her husband Jim and her crew of bakers have a big beautiful bakery where they produce a lot of baked goods that have earned them recognitions in many pie competitions around the state and the country. They also make Indiana’s official State Pie, the sugar cream, and they have lots of loyal customers.

Pie In The Sky is a wonderful bakery, where we spent a cold and windy Friday in January 2015 with the shop’s owner Jeste Burton as she prepped, baked and waited on a steady stream of customers. Although she doesn’t make as many pies as the previous owner of the shop did, Jeste makes unusual small ones, and she let us watch while she prepared and baked some excellent Blueberry-Apricot-Malbec Pies.

While shooting at Woodruff’s Café & Pie Shop in rural Virginia, owner Angle Woodruff Scott mentioned that she and her family and the staff sometimes sing for their customers. At a slow moment in mid-morning, we asked if they’d sing a song for us, and they performed a family favorite called “I’ll Search Heaven For You.” We included one verse of the song in the program, but the whole song is great.

There’s something tasty, often sweet, fruity and All-American about a really good piece of pie. In this delicious documentary, travel across America and visit shops, restaurants, cafes and even a few homes where to find some excellent pies.