Sooooo....according to the Rolling Stones “You can’t always get what you want”... but if you want a fried pie, I got the place. As you are aware your intrepid diner is always on the lookout for high quality, out of the ordinary dining experiences. These take me far and wide in the service of the fine dining public, but I cannot complain... I do it out of love.
Recently I had the occasion to dine with afine Lutheran Pastor on a run to Springfield Missouri and we ate ate Super Smokers in Eureka Missouri. That of course is a well established location and needs no props from The Diner Review. More importantly I spied while in Eureka The Original Fried Pie Company. I have a fairly deep passion for fried pies. Normally served as “pastys” and done poorly like most Irish food (they really know how to boil their meat) but when done properly, there is nothing more tasty than a pasty.
It is hard to find a quality reason to travel out to Eureka. Something about proximity to 6 Flags, Times Beach, the Legends and other disasters. Before I go too far this is a chain. Not a very good chain or a very expensive chain (you can get a franchise for 25k). There are pieces that are missing. They have the dreaded Lipton Iced tea System which like the hated North peak System claims to be fresh brewed when actually it is a mix run through tubes behind the bins. This is insidious because they make it look like it is a reular urn which they fill with fresh product, but it is actually a fountain system that when you open the top of the urn reveals a lot of plastic tubes mixing undrinkable product. Also, the decor is not much and you eat out of wax paper lined basket (but I like that).
http://www.theoriginalfriedpieshop.com/Locations.html
it is at best a non-pretentious place with a cement floor. The counter has the pie making area and deep friers directly behind the counter and in plain site (“In Sight It Must be Right”... could Steak n’ Shake be wrong?) The menu contains a number of different meat pies and then they also have a number of cheese, cream and fruit desert pies. A combo can be purchased for about 7 bucks with one of each and a drink.
We arrived at about 7 on a Saturday and there was one table there. We were able to take it in and placed our order with a very pleasant, solicitous young lady who explained the menu and how all the pies were made and also that they were all fried in peanut oil in case we had any allergies or “what not”. I ordered a “comfort pie” which was a light cheese sauce and polish sausage and a blackberry desert pie with some icing on it. Sandy got a chicken and vegetable pie (which was similar to the traditional “pot pie”. She got a cherry pie for desert.
We ordered and got our drinks. I think it is a Pepsi/Dr. Pepper place and engaged some small talk with the night manager. I asked if they were doing well and he said very well. They had opened last fall and did box car business during the Six Flags season but survived the winter and they were now “killing it” again. That was good to hear. The place was clean and non descript and we were anxious to taste the product which came up after about 5 minutes. Since there was no one else there we asked to have the desert pies put in later. Our pies were fresh, hot and delicious. Arguably they could have had a little more meat but it was plenty to eat all by itself. The desert pies were filled with fruit filling rather than fresh fruit which was a little bit of a bummer and they gave you a little cup of icing to pour over the hot pie. Though i was hesitant the result was decadent and excellent. We gobbled them up with our plastic knives and forks.
This place is not a destination for great food. It is really good and it is off beat and worth a trip just to do something a little different. And that is what summer is all about.
Recently I had the occasion to dine with afine Lutheran Pastor on a run to Springfield Missouri and we ate ate Super Smokers in Eureka Missouri. That of course is a well established location and needs no props from The Diner Review. More importantly I spied while in Eureka The Original Fried Pie Company. I have a fairly deep passion for fried pies. Normally served as “pastys” and done poorly like most Irish food (they really know how to boil their meat) but when done properly, there is nothing more tasty than a pasty.
It is hard to find a quality reason to travel out to Eureka. Something about proximity to 6 Flags, Times Beach, the Legends and other disasters. Before I go too far this is a chain. Not a very good chain or a very expensive chain (you can get a franchise for 25k). There are pieces that are missing. They have the dreaded Lipton Iced tea System which like the hated North peak System claims to be fresh brewed when actually it is a mix run through tubes behind the bins. This is insidious because they make it look like it is a reular urn which they fill with fresh product, but it is actually a fountain system that when you open the top of the urn reveals a lot of plastic tubes mixing undrinkable product. Also, the decor is not much and you eat out of wax paper lined basket (but I like that).
http://www.theoriginalfriedpieshop.com/Locations.html
it is at best a non-pretentious place with a cement floor. The counter has the pie making area and deep friers directly behind the counter and in plain site (“In Sight It Must be Right”... could Steak n’ Shake be wrong?) The menu contains a number of different meat pies and then they also have a number of cheese, cream and fruit desert pies. A combo can be purchased for about 7 bucks with one of each and a drink.
We arrived at about 7 on a Saturday and there was one table there. We were able to take it in and placed our order with a very pleasant, solicitous young lady who explained the menu and how all the pies were made and also that they were all fried in peanut oil in case we had any allergies or “what not”. I ordered a “comfort pie” which was a light cheese sauce and polish sausage and a blackberry desert pie with some icing on it. Sandy got a chicken and vegetable pie (which was similar to the traditional “pot pie”. She got a cherry pie for desert.
We ordered and got our drinks. I think it is a Pepsi/Dr. Pepper place and engaged some small talk with the night manager. I asked if they were doing well and he said very well. They had opened last fall and did box car business during the Six Flags season but survived the winter and they were now “killing it” again. That was good to hear. The place was clean and non descript and we were anxious to taste the product which came up after about 5 minutes. Since there was no one else there we asked to have the desert pies put in later. Our pies were fresh, hot and delicious. Arguably they could have had a little more meat but it was plenty to eat all by itself. The desert pies were filled with fruit filling rather than fresh fruit which was a little bit of a bummer and they gave you a little cup of icing to pour over the hot pie. Though i was hesitant the result was decadent and excellent. We gobbled them up with our plastic knives and forks.
This place is not a destination for great food. It is really good and it is off beat and worth a trip just to do something a little different. And that is what summer is all about.
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