Pie in the Sky Cafe ‘s Boysenberry Pie

Where To Get Some of the Best Pie You’ve Ever Tasted—And the Story Behind the People Who Make It

By Kimberly Wilkes. Most Photographs by Patrick Wilkes.

Pie. It’s everywhere in the Eastern Sierra. Sure, Idaho is known for its huckleberry pie. But in the Eastern Sierra it’s all about variety. You have your pick of just about any flavor that’s ever existed as well as some more creative varieties. Depending on the day, take your pick of pear-cheddar, Dutch apple, mango apple, plum blueberry, boysenberry, banana cream, coconut cream, pumpkin, peach, cherry, mud pie, and many more.

What about Oregon, you say? Oregon is known for its pies. But the Eastern Sierra definitely gives Oregon a run for its money. Drive from Hope Valley to Lone Pine and about every half hour (or less) you’ll encounter a restaurant that serves pie. Same with every café in every mountain canyon between Hope Valley and Big Pine.

In this blog post, some of the best-known pie bakers in the Eastern Sierra reveal their secrets for making a flaky crust and delicious filling. And you’ll discover which of the Eastern Sierra’s most well-known pie bakers makes homemade ice cream to go with her baked treats, who uses vodka in her crust, who also serves some of the moistest scones you’ll ever taste, and what it’s like to bake 3,000 or more pies every year.

And be sure to look at the handy chart at the end of the article, which lists all the places in the Eastern Sierra where you can eat pie to your heart’s content.

A Slice of Pie in the Sky

Sue King of Pie in the Sky Cafe

[Note: Sue is partially retired now. Instead of serving pie, Sue and her daughter are baking crisps, cobblers, and crumbles. We can speak from personal experience when we say these are just as delicious as Sue’s pies. The restaurant also has more flavors of ice cream now.]

Sue King, owner of Pie in the Sky Café and Rock Creek Lakes Resort, always knew her pies made people smile. But, according to one mother, Sue’s pies can do so much more. When the mother was visiting the café, she told Sue her son was very ill and that he couldn’t even travel to visit Rock Creek with his family. When the mother returned home, she took her son some of Sue’s pie.

“She said he ate the pie and it was a turning point. He started getting better,” Sue recalls. “Probably just a coincidence, but it was sweet because she was just insistent that it was the pie. The more I thought about it pie is good medicine. It makes people happy.”

Sue’s pies have made campers, hikers, and anglers happy for almost 37 years, ever since 1979 when Sue and her husband Jim bought the resort from two couples. The previous owners had baked pies at the resort for 20 years, so Sue and Jim had to maintain a long tradition in Rock Creek Canyon.

“When we bought it they said, ‘Oh, by the way, if you’re going to buy this resort you have to make pie,'” Sue says. “Kind of joking, but sort of not joking. I loved to bake, but I had never made very many pies.”

The first year, one of the previous owners stayed on to train Sue and her husband about resort operations—including how to bake pie. Sue inherited the previous owner’s cream pie recipes. But they had used canned filling for their fruit pies. Sue was a vegetarian and believed in natural, wholesome foods. As soon as she took over the resort she started using fresh fruit for her pies. She developed her own recipes using different cookbooks as inspiration.

Back then, Sue only needed to make six or seven pies a day. Now, she has to make 30.
In fact, a few years ago Sue and her team decided to count how many pies they made from June through the first week in October. The final tally? They had baked more than 3,300 pies!

“It was kind of like whoa!” Sue says. “Maybe I don’t want to know. A day at a time, right? Then people always go ‘Can’t you make more pie?’ Because they come in at the end of the day and it’s like, ‘No, we really can’t make more pie. That’s just all we can do.'”

If you want the best selection of pies, plan on arriving at Pie in the Sky by 11 a.m. By noon, the selection will dwindle and by 1 p.m. you’re probably out of luck if you want a fruit or cream pie. The berry pies are always the first to go, Sue says.

When we were there on a recent Sunday, the boysenberry pie was gone by around noon. My husband Patrick was lucky enough to get the last piece. I devoured a pear cheddar pie à la mode, something I wanted to try for years. The cheddar adds just a hint of tangy to the sweetness of the pears. It was delicious. I also love Sue’s Dutch apple pie, with slices of apples stacked high and a streusel topping. Sue and her daughter are starting to make a lot more fruit crumbles (sort of like a cobbler) because they can feed more people, but we noticed that this also disappeared quickly.

Pear Cheddar Pie at Pie in the Sky Cafe. Yum!

If you arrive at Pie in the Sky after 1 p.m., your best chance of acquiring a piece of pie is the mud pie. We noticed that the salted caramel mud pie and mud pie with coffee ice cream didn’t disappear until after 2 p.m. We liked to watch the faces of people who ordered the mud pie. When the giant slice, loaded with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce arrived, their eyes grew almost as huge as the pie. It’s a skyscraper on a plate, enough for two or three people.

The Secret to Sue’s Scrumptious Pies

Sue’s pies disappear so quickly because it’s the perfect combination of flakey crust and fresh fruit filling. For her crust, Sue uses a recipe that was on the Crisco container. But because she bakes the pies at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, she had to adjust the recipe by adding more water and less flour to stop the crust from becoming too dry.

“It’s a very simple recipe,” she says. “Nothing fancy. No secret ingredient. People tell me, ‘Oh my recipe has vodka in it and vinegar’ and mine’s just flour, salt, Crisco, and water. It’s really, really basic but people comment on the crust more than anything.”

Then there’s the fruit. Whenever possible, she buys the fruit—peaches, nectarines, apricots, pears, apples, and berries—from Apple Hill orchard south of Bishop. Some of the fruit is organic. She also receives a shipment of berries every year from Oregon in August. She likes to mix up loganberries and blackberries in one pie.

“It’s all about the fruit,” she says. “If your fruit’s good it’s going to make an amazing pie. And if the fruit’s not so good than it’s going to be okay. Having this local organic fruit is just so nice because it’s so fresh and really good quality. It’s not your typical grocery store kind of fruit that’s been in storage for who knows how long.”

The nearly 10,000-foot elevation at Rock Creek Lakes Resort came with some challenges. Sue quickly learned she had to adjust many recipes.

“Sugar does something funny up here,” she says. “It melts and I cut the sugar back in everything I make up here. Because it won’t set up. It liquefies. Pecan pie would come out like soup. I had to keep working with the recipe.”

Sue bakes more than 3,300 pies every year!

Like most of the Eastern Sierra pie bakers, Sue usually doesn’t eat her pies to protect herself against the extra calories. But there are two pies she finds the most tempting. First, there’s her pumpkin pie. She found the melt-in-your-mouth pie recipe just a few years ago. Then there’s the cranberry walnut pie. A customer sent her the recipe about a decade ago.

“It has a topping on it that’s almost like a little cake,” Sue describes. “It’s a thick layer that puts a nice crust on it, and served with whipped cream that’s a really nice pie, too.”

I can attest to what Sue says. I had her cranberry walnut pie three years ago and I still have fond memories of it.

Why Is Pie So Popular in the Eastern Sierra?

Sue believes the reason why pie is so popular in the Eastern Sierra has a lot to do with where the pie is served. Eating pie at a resort that’s old-fashioned and homey is comforting.

“I’ve heard from customers that they really love coming to a place that hasn’t changed,” Sue says. “There’s something grounding about coming back and it’s like oh it’s still the same old little place.”

That’s the reason why Sue and her daughter resist making any changes to the restaurant. Many people love sitting at the seven-seat counter, where patrons chat with each other and make new friends. Customers have begged Sue never to take out the counter.

“I see it all the time, people just out there chatting,” Sue says. “It’s nice to see people do that. Not being on their cellphones. Actually talking to each other.”

Others enjoy sitting outside on the deck, where they can gaze out at the aspens surrounding the resort.

The outdoor deck at Pie in the Sky Cafe

After nearly 37 years and thousands of pies to her name, Sue still loves baking.

“It’s just fun for me,” she says. “You’d think after all these years I’d be sick of it but I do still enjoy it.”

Even so, she’s thinking about retiring because she wants to spend more time with her family and more time outdoors.

Burgers and BBQ Sauce, Too

During prime camping, hiking, and fishing season (through late September), Pie in the Sky Café also serves breakfast and lunch. The bread they use for their French toast is from Great Basin Bakery in Bishop. And one of their most popular lunch items is the “Miller & Son BBQ Bacon Burger.” Created by head grill cook, Steve Miller, the burger has melted cheddar cheese and grilled onions, and is smothered in Miller & Son BBQ Brewing Company’s “craft brewed” BBQ sauce. Patrick had one of these burgers when we ate lunch there recently and he was so impressed with the BBQ sauce that he bought two bottles to take home with us.

Pie in the Sky Café is located on Rock Creek Road, near Tom’s Place.

Pie in the Sky Café serves single slices of pie May through Columbus Day. I guess I will be “pie-ning” away for their desserts all winter long.

Hope Valley Resort Café: The Hope Girl’s Pies and Scones

Leesa Lopazanski is “The Hope Girl.”

The first day Leesa Lopazanski took over the helm at Hope Valley Resort Café and Market eight years ago, it was Fourth of July. The place was packed. And everyone wanted pie. The only problem? All Leesa had was cheesecake.

Leesa had to think. And think fast. So she grabbed a cookbook by Nick Malgieri, found some pie recipes, and made them her own. She baked enough pies to keep the crowds happy. From that moment on she became known for her fresh-baked homemade pies as well as other baked goods such as the moistest scones I’ve ever tasted, cookies, banana bread, and many other treats.

Recently, Patrick and I strolled into Hope Valley Resort Café to interview and photograph Leesa. A wave of sweet aromas greeted us: cookies baking, coffee brewing, and the smell of pies not long out of the oven. A sign dangled above the counter telling customers, “Eat Pie. Nothing But Pie.”

Many visitors and Tahoe and Gardnerville locals are very willing to obey that sign. Savoring a slice of pie or one of Leesa’s other baked goods bring smiles to the faces of her customers. This led her cook Marcos Torres to give Leesa the nickname “The Hope Girl.” The nickname stuck like flour to dough and now she sells T-shirts with the name and even has Hope Girl Bakery Café written on the back window of her car.

Leesa’s whole pies often get snapped up even before they’re out of the oven. People will reserve the pies before they’re finished baking. But Patrick and I have had good luck finding pie here even late afternoon on a Sunday.

The Fruit of Her Labors

Best known for unusual combinations of fruit, Leesa’s pies vary by the day but include flavors like tropical fruit and plum, plum blueberry, and mango apple along with other more traditional flavors like pumpkin or apple. Nectarines are also a favorite ingredient and recently she baked a nectarine raspberry pie and a nectarine plum pie. Because of the number of San Francisco Bay Area customers who visit Hope Valley Resort and the neighboring Sorensen’s Resort, Leesa feels like she needs to be more sophisticated in her offerings.

“I try to do unusual flavors,” she says. “I do use plum a lot, especially if I get Italian plums from somebody’s tree, because I think they’re amazing.  People don’t use them very much.”

Regular customers bring Leesa fruit as a gift. Visitors from Placerville and Sacramento brought her several crates of apples.

“People want you to keep doing what you do,” Leesa says. “Just like art. You buy someone’s art because you want them to keep painting. So people want me to keep baking. They bring me the most amazing things. Some people bring me chocolate from Australia. And they bring me inspiration.”

Leesa is not only known for her unique fruit combination pies, she’s also known for her pie crust. What makes it special?

“Real butter,” Leesa explains. “No oil. No lard. No Crisco. Butter has gone up some points in my eight-year career—$3.50 a pound and that’s expensive—but I still do it. I can’t scrimp. I tried margarine because you can get margarine for a dollar a pound. But it’s awful. I could taste it.”

One signature of her pies: they all have streusel on top, even the pumpkin pie. One of Leesa’s employees describes it as “an added treat after you bite into it.” The sister of renowned chef Deborah Madison once visited Hope Valley Resort Café and commented on how all the pies had streusel topping.

“She thought it was odd, but she loved it,” Leesa says.

On request, Leesa also bakes gluten-free, sugar-free pies. She sweetens them with the customer’s choice: honey, stevia, or maple syrup. Some gluten-free customers ask her not to use any sugar at all. Instead, they want her to use the sweetest fruit she has on hand.

Pie Almost 365 Days a Year

Because Hope Valley Resort Café is open year round, Leesa estimates that she makes at least 10,000 pies every year. On the day before Thanksgiving alone she makes 300.

Leesa also works seven days a week with only an occasional break to travel so she can sample the fare of other restaurants and bakeries. People often ask her how she can work all week without a break, and she tells them it’s the customers who inspire her.

Lisa explains: “The only way I can put it: I see a kid eat my cookies and I could cry.”

She receives this inspiration from all over the world with customers arriving from as far away as Australia or England. She’s even had people from England tell her they’ve never had a better scone—quite a compliment considering the English are known for their scones.

Leesa not only draws inspiration from her customers—she also is inspired by her role model, renowned chef Thomas Keller of Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, California.

“I have a fit if my employees move the trays so they’re not facing the customer,” says Leesa. “I know Thomas Keller is exactly like that. If the sugar hasn’t melted correctly on his cookies he throws them away. I’m so enamored of him. To spend a week with him I can’t even imagine. I can’t imagine how fastidious his kitchen must be not even his restaurant kitchen but his home kitchen.”

Leesa and her helper, Mattie Devine

Although Leesa never eats her own pie, she enjoys having a cup of coffee with one of her scones or a slice of banana bread.

“When I travel I actually can’t wait to get back here for my coffee and a scone,” she says. “I spend a lot of money on my coffee [at Hope Valley Resort Cafe] because I drink it. I don’t skimp. I don’t do Folgers. I do Uncommon Grounds out of Berkeley.”

For Leesa, whose parents were in the restaurant business, operating a café is almost genetic. Her mother owned a pizza parlor in Santa Ana and her father a five-star restaurant in Newport Beach. A former actress, Leesa ultimately returned to her roots in the restaurant business.

She believes part of the appeal that pie has for Eastern Sierra visitors and locals is because pie is synonymous with Ma and Pa type restaurants. Plus, the West is also synonymous with America and pie is such an American dessert that it’s only logical that many places in the Western United States as a whole would serve it. And yet, she says, “I traveled to Missoula, Montana for pie and I could not find pie. I found more pig than I found pie. Idaho I found huckleberry pie. But there weren’t as many types of pie. It wasn’t like our Sierra.”

Leesa’s lease at Hope Valley Resort Café expires in April. She may renew it or she may move on to other endeavors. She is seriously considering a reality TV show, where the proceeds raised would benefit people who mentor kids. But, at the same time, she loves Hope Valley Resort Café, and may find a way to remain as the owner. We hope so, because even though Patrick and I don’t eat a lot of dessert, it’s comforting to know her pies and scones are there when we need a treat.

Hope Valley Café Resort is located in Hope Valley on State Route 88.

Meadowcliff Restaurant: Pies and Giant Pancakes

“We’re really more of a breakfast place,” says Sue Fowler, the chef at Meadowcliff Lodge near Walker, California, pointing out that they’re only open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Even so, she keeps a pie on hand daily to satisfy the cravings of Eastern Sierra travelers.

The mud pie is always there, waiting for people who like their pie cold and creamy. Most days, you’ll also find at least one other variety of pie, including banana cream, deep-dish apple, cherry, or chocolate chiffon. Sometimes she’ll have deep-dish blackberry cobbler. Because she does all the prep and all the cooking herself, the amount of pie she can bake on a given day is limited.

Sue’s Banana Cream Pie

Sue flips a pancake the size of a dinner plate as she talks to me. “When I started here in 1981 the only thing they made was a deep dish apple. The lady who made that retired so I started making it.”

In fact, even though Sue worked in restaurants since she was 12 years old, when she arrived at Meadowcliff she had never baked a pie on the job.

In addition to homemade pie, Meadowcliff is known for its giant pancakes and cinnamon rolls. People from all over the world post photos of Sue’s pancakes on review sites on the Internet. Some days she goes through at least three gallons of pancake batter.

She laughs. “They want to know my recipe but they can’t have it.”

Cinnamon Roll. Getting hungry yet?

The pies, the pancakes, and the cinnamon rolls are all served in a café that looks out at the mountains to the east of the Antelope Valley. Across the street from the restaurant, cows graze in peaceful meadows. The pies, pancakes, and other baked treats like Sue’s carrot cake all seem to taste better in this relaxed place, as you’re looking out at the serene scene to the east. To the west, behind the restaurant and lodge, dramatic pillars of rock reach toward the sky.

Meadowcliff Restaurant’s winter hours are Wednesday – Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s located on U.S. Highway 395 between Coleville and Walker.

Lake Sabrina Boat Landing: Pie Served With a View

Patti’s Cherry Pie.

Patti Apted, chief pie baker at Lake Sabrina Boat Landing, has received a lot of compliments on her pies. A lot of people tell her, “This is just like my grandma used to make.” But the most memorable compliment came from a little boy in a high chair. He showed his appreciation when he finished off the pie then picked up the pie plate and licked it.

“It was just the cutest thing,” Patti says.  “Later, I thought why did I not take a picture of this kid?”

Patti is known for her fruit pies topped with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream served against one of the most beautiful backdrops in the Eastern Sierra—a spectacular view of Lake Sabrina. Even with the low lake level, on the day I was there in late September the yellow aspens on the other side of the lake contrasted with the blue of the water and beyond that the Sierra Crest towered up against the sky, making for a view as sweet as the pies.

Your pie comes with this beautiful view.

I had my choice of about five fruit pies the day I was there including apple and cherry. I chose the peach pie a la mode with a blonde streusel topping, which added an extra layer of sweetness. And, oh, yes, the day I was at the boat landing there was something else on the menu—Castrated Brownie. A what?

“What do you think a Castrated Brownie would be?” Patti asks me.

The man sitting at the table next to mine answers her, “No nuts.”

“He got it,” Patti says. “It’s probably 70 percent more women that get it than men because men don’t even want to go down that road.”

Patti’s mother-in-law Juanita, who has owned Lake Sabrina Boat Landing since 1974, taught Patti how to bake pies. Patti bakes two to four of each flavor of pie per day. But ask her which flavor she likes best and she can’t answer.

“I don’t eat the pies,” she says, “but you know what? I check every batch of ice cream that comes out. And I taste the pie crust before I cook it.”

Decades of Good Memories

It’s obvious from the way Patti greets visitors that she loves her job—and most importantly she loves her customers. Four generations of many families have visited the Lake Sabrina Boat Landing Café.

“After so many years we have too many friends up here,” Patti says. “We may only see them during the summer but we know about their kids and now their kids are coming up and they’re bringing their kids.

If there’s one thing Patti loves as much as the customers it’s the scenery that surrounds the café. When she was dating her husband Rick, he was living at Lake Sabrina year round. One of the first times she ever visited him at the lake the mountains were blanketed in snow. At night, when she laid down on the pullout couch that even today still sits in the restaurant, she had a hard time falling asleep.

“It was a full moon and everything was white,” she says. “I couldn’t close my eyes because it was too pretty.”

Patti believes that the reason why pie has become such a popular dessert in the Eastern Sierra is because very few restaurants in visitors’ hometowns make it anymore. So it’s a rare treat.

“You have Marie Calendar’s, but it’s difficult to get a deep dish pie back in your hometown,” Patti says.

Lake Sabrina Boat Landing Café serves pie on the weekends from late April to the weekend before Memorial Day and then every day but Wednesday through early October. In 2015, Patti stops serving pie on October 4, so hurry on up to Bishop Creek Canyon or plan a trip for May.

Where is your favorite place to eat pie in the Eastern Sierra? Post it in the comments below.

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