You don't have to travel far to find a great slice of pie in the USA. Many have stood the test of time, with recipes that have barely changed in decades. From a classic Key lime pie in Florida to a chocolate meringue creation in Mississippi, we've rounded up the most historic – and delicious – pies in America.
Got a penchant for pie? Click or scroll through our gallery to discover where to find America's most classic pies, still made to their original recipes.
A classic Midwestern treat, sugar cream pie is a deliciously sweet and indulgent dessert made with vanilla, cinnamon, and plenty of sugar. It was made famous by Wick's Pies in the 1940s, when Duane 'Wick' Wickersham started selling pies made to his grandmother's recipes. The desserts were a big hit and decades later they're still just as popular. Along with numerous other varieties of pie, slices of sugar cream pie are sold from Mrs. Wick's Restaurant, part of Wick's Pies, in eastern Indiana.
Duarte's Tavern dates right back to 1894, when it was established as a saloon and barbershop. Some four decades later, Emma Duarte, wife of owner Frank Duarte, began making and serving pies to hungry customers using fruit grown in their backyard. Her signature dessert quickly became a sharp-yet-sweet olallieberry pie and some 90 years later, it remains as popular as ever.
While the daily lunch specials are a favorite with locals at this long-running diner (the original location in Shreveport has been operational for more than 75 years), it's Strawn's Eat Shop's time-honored ice box pie recipe that keeps punters pouring in. Flavors include chocolate, banana, and seasonal peach, but you really can't beat the fresh strawberry, which sees a generous layer of berries topped with a cloud of thick cream.
No visit to the Florida Keys would be complete without sampling a slice (or three) of Key lime pie. Although the dessert has a somewhat complex origin story, there’s no debating that the oldest café in Key West serves a mean slice. Pepe's Cafe was established in 1909 and still draws in customers with its big breakfasts, belly-busting burgers and, of course, its perfectly tart Key lime pie. The addition of egg whites to the filling makes Pepe's version extra light and utterly irresistible.
Classic apple pie is one of the most popular desserts in America and the historic recipe at legendary Lou's has a huge fanbase. Standing some five inches tall, it's dubbed the 'Mile High Apple Pie' and features thick, buttery pastry crammed full of apples, sugar, and cinnamon. Unsurprisingly, this particular pie has been a crowd-pleaser since the 1940s, when Lou Bressett first opened his beloved diner.
While it's technically more a cake than a pie, no ode to America's historic desserts would be complete without this cream-filled favorite. Invented at Boston's Parker House (now the Omni Parker House) in the 19th century, a classic Boston cream pie sees pillowy sponge layered with vanilla custard and topped with chocolate icing. You can still sample this delectable sweet treat at its birthplace, and even get it delivered from the hotel to your door.
For those that favor a savory pie, The Walnut Room – the plush, long-standing restaurant in Macy's Chicago – serves one of America's most famous chicken pot pies. It's well-loved for its warming, veg-packed filling of chicken, corn, and other veggies, as well as its wonderfully flaky pastry top. Barely changed for decades, the pie served today is based on an original recipe from 1890.
For four nights per week, this historic dinner club in central Alabama opens to the public. This is southern cooking at its best, with the shrimp, fried green tomatoes, and rib-eye steak all menu favorites. But the long-standing star of the show is the black bottom pie – a Southern-style dessert with a chocolatey base, a rum mousse or meringue, and a puff of whipped cream.
Paulette's Restaurant has been a Memphis institution for more than four decades and its towering Kahlua-mocha parfait pie – or K-pie for short – has been on the menu since day dot. The enduring dessert is a mountain of coffee ice cream in a delicious pecan-coconut crust with whipped cream, chocolate, and a glug of Kahlua (coffee liqueur) to finish. A full pie weighs 6lbs (2.7kg) and is the brainchild of the eponymous Paulette herself.
While Simply Soulful Cafe is much younger than some other spots listed here, the roots of its historic sweet potato pie recipe stretch way back. It began with Mississippi native Elizabeth Hammond, who was born in the 1920s. She eventually moved to Spokane, Washington, bringing with her a delectable recipe for traditional sweet potato pie. Today Elizabeth's daughter, Barbara, serves desserts made to her mother's recipe at her Seattle shop, Simply Soulful Cafe.
A proud sign hails Ted's Bakery as the 'home of the original chocolate haupia cream pie.' The bakery, on Oahu's North Shore, opened in 1987 and when the now-famous chocolate haupia cream pie was introduced, the punters came pouring in. It's not hard to see why: this is an indulgent treat with buttery pastry, a rich chocolate base, and plenty of cream. Its popularity shows no sign of waning.
Thought to have been developed by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century, shoofly pie is made up of molasses, brown sugar, and cinnamon, encased in a flaky crust. Bird-in-Hand Bakery, located in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, is famous for its traditional wet-bottomed shoofly pie, which is baked according to a historic family recipe. You can sample a slice here, or order a shoofly pie to enjoy at home.
Emery's Berry Farm has been a New Jersey tradition for more than 50 years. The famous blueberry pies are available seasonally, when the summer brings a fresh bounty of berries, and you can even pick fruit from the on-site patch, if you want to whip up your own creations. In addition to those stellar pies, Emery's also sells muffins, babka, turnovers, donuts, cinnamon swirly bread, and more.
The Yesterday Cafe is a fitting name for this nostalgic spot in Greensboro, Georgia, which opened back in 1995. It's filled with black-and-white photos depicting Greensboro history and is also known as ‘the home of the buttermilk pie.’ The café has been making its famed pie to the same recipe for almost three decades, and it's praised for its creamy, custard-like filling and perfectly baked shell.
A steak and spaghetti house might not be the first place you'd expect to find a legendary slice of strawberry pie – but Jim's certainly delivers. Its annual Strawberry Pie Week began more than 40 years ago and is short but incredibly sweet. During this time, the restaurant usually serves more than 10,000 slices of its delicious fruit pie, which sees strawberries packed into a delicate crust, under a mountain of fresh cream.
It's rare to find Marlborough pie or pudding on dessert menus these days, but you can watch it being baked at Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum, which opened in 1946. Marlborough is a type of custardy apple pie, brought to America by English settlers; at the village it's baked faithfully to a historic recipe that was discovered in a cookbook from 1796.
This old-school spot in Okoboji, Iowa sits right on the water, serving all-day breakfasts, belly-busting sandwiches, and, of course, its famous pies. The lemon meringue pie is the one to plump for and has been served up to guests for around 70 years. One taste and you'll understand exactly why: this pie is so deliciously tart and light, it's no wonder it has stood the test of time.
They might not be a pie in the traditional sense – you can expect rich, moist chocolate cake filled with a generous puff of cream, instead of a buttery pastry and fruit filling, but whoopie pies have become one of Maine's most well-loved desserts. Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston claim to be the original whoopie pie purveyor in the state; come by for a taste of the traditional treat, still made as it was back in 1925.
Jerry and Diane Pletcher sell fried pies filled with oozy fruit and family heritage at the flagship Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies store in Davis. It was Jerry's grandmother, Maude, who first developed the recipe, selling the handheld pies to farmers and ranchers, eventually handing it down to her nine children. These days, you can sample the warm and flaky pies filled with cherry, apricot, peach, and more at several locations in Oklahoma, plus Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas.
New York state has plenty of bakeries, and little shortage of places to find a mouth-watering pumpkin pie – but the offering from Ithaca Bakery, which was established in 1910, has truly endured. The delightfully sweet and spicy pumpkin pies served here were added to the menu in the 1980s, and they've proved a crowd favorite ever since.
The oldest family-owned and operated bakery in Houston, Flying Saucer Pie Company has been baking specialty pies since 1967. The bakery describes its pie recipes as 'traditional time-tested masterpieces' and loyal customers can't get enough. The freshly baked goodies on offer here include a selection of fruit pies, both in pastry and topped with cream, as well as the delectable pecan pie – a Texan classic if there ever was one.
Tipped as the oldest continually operating restaurant in Ohio, Golden Lamb in Lebanon is well-known for its Shaker sugar pie, a sweet dessert born from America's traditional Shaker communities. The spot, established in 1803, has been serving historic Sister Lizzie's Shaker sugar pie, made with brown sugar, light cream, vanilla, and cinnamon, since the 1920s.
Owned by a grandfather and granddaughter who share a love for baking and use family recipes passed down through the generations, A Pie Stop only opened in 2017, but its traditional baking methods have seen its popularity rise and rise. The star of the show is the classic cherry pie, with the gleaming fruit encased in a perfectly flaky, buttery crust.
This celebrated bakery in northern Mississippi was founded in 1997, and turns out cakes and pies made from scratch using generations-old family recipes. The star of the menu is the chocolate meringue pie, which founder Mary Russell prepares from a recipe passed down by her great grandmother. It's a mammoth dessert with a buttery crust, loads of indulgent chocolate filling, and a pound of light meringue. Russell even offers cooking classes for punters hoping to make their own.
This down-to-earth bistro has been feeding the folks of Salt Lake City since the 1980s and despite moving location more than once, its moreish desserts have stood the test of time. There are 12 desserts to choose from each day and the most famous of all is the Toll House Pie. It's whipped up by pastry chef Ramon Montelongo, who has worked here for decades, and is made with plenty of Nestle Toll House Chocolate Morsels and finished with whipped cream.
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Last updated by Emily Shardlow-Price.