Feed Your Pie Hole Here

The Pie Hole

177 N. Glassell St. 

Orange, CA 92866

I have to admit that when I heard that the Pie Hole was headed to OC, I had to reread the news article numerous times. It seemed almost unreal. Like we were winning the dessert lottery or something. To have one of the best pie joints I have ever had the pleasure to dine in, come to our neck of the woods, it was a dream come true, but not for my waistline.

The Pie Hole came across my radar about five years ago when I was reading a Foodbeast article, which was listing the best spots to eat pie in each state. Of course, you can probably guess that the California representative was Pie Hole, but if you want to plan a pie lovers trip around the US, read the rest of their article here. Anyways, we made a trip up to their original Arts District location about a year after that article was published, and became big fans of Pie Hole. You can read about that first visit by clicking here.

Pie Hole is now starting a thoughtful and slowly evolving expansion process. They are taking things nice and slow by picking locations to open up that meet certain criteria. They of course want high-traffic areas, but they also want places that will allow them to become part of the community. They want to be a meeting place for the neighborhoods they occupy, which also helps them keep advertising costs down since they do not seem to advertise at all.

Even though they now have four locations, (the original Arts District spot, along with Pasadena, Hollywood, and Orange), they are still a family-run business. Started by mom, Becky Grasley and her son, Mathew Heffner, they are also joined by Matt's friend, Sean Brennan. Becky always dreamed of selling her award-winning pies, and once she retired from a nursing job, this trio set out to make their dream a reality.

Opened in the forgettable Old Towne Grinder spot on the corner of Glassell and Maple, right across the street from the Filing Station, they started selling their pies in early May. Their menu not only features sweet pies but savory pies as well. The current menu on their website has four breakfast pies offered, along with 7 pies more suited for a meal than a dessert. We had already eaten a few doors down at Burger Parlor, so we got in line, ordered our slices of pies, and waited for them to come out. Let's see if the quality has been diminished as Pie Hole has expanded.

This Mexican Chocolate Pie ($6.50) is probably one of the Pie Hole's most well-known pies, so of course, we needed to give it a try. Not an overly sweet pie, the chocolate comes through, but was not sickeningly sweet, like others tend to be. The crust is good here, and I'm not even a real fan of crust. It's not just a vessel for the filling of the pie, it's actually part of the pie. I like that they incorporated the sugary crystals in the crust. A very well-rounded slice of pie.

The first pie I ever had at the Pie Hole in Downtown LA was this Mom's Apple Crumble Pie ($8.75 with ice cream added). It blew me away then, and it did the same now. The apples in here are not drenched in syrup like almost every other apple pie out there. They allow the natural sweetness of the apples to shine, with very good cinnamon crumble topping the slice. Just the right amount of sweetness here, this really is a balanced piece of pie that is brought together with the optional, but I say necessary scoops of vanilla ice cream. To my knowledge, my grandmothers never baked, but this is the kind of pie I'd imagine a grandmother would bake.

My dad is always a little screwy when it comes to pies that he likes. When we were growing up he always would get coconut cream or sour lemon. I never really understood why he did this until he let it slip that he got these weird flavors, so he wouldn't have to share with anyone. He probably thought this trend would continue when he ordered this Maple Custard ($7.25), but he was wrong. This was another winner this evening. The custard was nice and smooth, and the maple flavor came through strong. I really enjoyed the texture of this unique pie. Of course, the crust was just as good as the other pieces we had. Very impressive for a pie I would normally not order.

If you could not tell from the preceding, I love the Pie Hole. I know what some of you are probably thinking. How can I justify paying over $7 for a piece of pie, when you can go to Marie Callender's, Polly's, or Coco's and get a whole pie for that same amount? Those places are fine, everyday kinds of pie shops, but for a real, homemade style pie, you will want to make it to the Pie Hole. Their pies are just better and do not taste like mass-produced, overly sweetened pies. Ordering is done at the counter, and then the food is brought out to your table. We had no problems with the service this evening. So happy that the Pie Hole has come to OC, and look forward to finally trying their savory pies in the near future.

Out of five teeth, (because a pie hole is a slang term for a mouth, and of course, you can't eat without teeth), five being best to zero being worst, the Pie Hole gets 3.5 teeth.

For more information about the Pie Hole, head over to their website here: http://www.thepieholela.com/

Stuffing Our Faces at the Pie Hole

The Pie Hole

714 Traction Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90013

This is another one of those places that have been on our list for so long because we never make it up this way. Unlike the others, I remember how this pie shop got on our list though. I read quite a few food blogs, and one that posts with great regularity is Foodbeast. In an article that they posted almost a year ago, they listed the best pie shop in each one of the fifty states. You can read that article here. I am sure by now you have guessed what was voted best pie in our great state of California, of course, it was the Pie Hole.

The Pie Hole is located in the Arts District of LA. This area of LA is being reborn from an industrial habitat, into a trendy, artsy-type location. The Arts District boasts some of the most desired lofts and condos in LA, which will of course bring hipster-type shops and restaurants. This area is bordered by four major freeways, the 5, 10, 110, and the 101. Not coming by car, well they have the Metro Gold Line which is new and only one block away from the Arts District.

We arrived at the Arts District on a recent Sunday afternoon at 4pm. There was some kind of bike festival going on, so the streets were packed and it was very difficult to find parking. After making numerous circles around the Arts District, we finally found parking about three blocks away from the Pie Hole.

I thought all of the people around the Pie Hole would be packed, which it was, but the line to order was not crazy long and it moved along quickly. There were about fifteen occupied tables, but we were going to be having our pie to go because we were on our way to dinner. The menu here is pretty low-key. They not only have regular dessert pies, but also savory pies, such as Mac and Cheese Hand Pie, a Meat Pie, and of course a Chicken Pot Pie. We stuck to the dessert pies, which there were about six offered on the day we were here. After a less than five-minute wait, our pies came out and we were on our way. Let's see if these are some of the best pies in California.

What's more American than apple pie? At the Pie Hole, they don't just have apple pie, they have Apple Walnut Pie ($6.00). We were still a little full from our dinner, but Katie gobbled this pie up as quickly as I opened the container. This was one of the best apple pies I have ever had. It reminded me of a pie like a Grandmother would make and leave sitting out on the window ledge to cool. The apples were tart and still had a slight sweetness to them. The apples were obviously very fresh and lacked that fake-tasting, jellied aspect that most apple pies have. You could really taste the cinnamon, and the walnuts really brought an earthiness to the pie. The crust here is not just a placeholder for the fruit and nuts. It was flaky and sturdy, without getting in the way of the filling. Soft, and with no burnt pieces, this is one crust I would have been happy to have eaten if Katie had saved any for me.

When I saw Banana Toffee Cream ($5.00) on the menu, I knew I was meant to consume it. This pie was not over the top sweet like I was expecting. The bananas and cream had a slight sweetness to them, but the striking feature was their creaminess of them. The toffee could have been more prevalent here, but it balanced everything out nicely the way it came out. Once again the crust needs to be spotlighted here. I believe this was a graham cracker crust, but probably one of the better-made ones I have had. Held the filling well, but also added some flavor to the pie on its own. We have another winner.

Not exactly the most beautiful-looking dessert, the Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt Crostata ($5.50) proves that beauty is not just on the outside. This rich crostata had the richness that I thought it would provide. I learned that a crostata is an Italian baked dessert and a form of pie. Whatever it is, it was delicious. The chocolate and caramel were pretty rich, but the sea salt cut it ever so slightly so that it was not overbearing. As quickly as Katie slurped up her apple pie, this one disappeared just as quickly.

I think the Foodbeast article might have gotten this one right. Besides having one of my favorite names for any place we have visited so far, these pies were some of the best I have had. Everything we had was so good and fresh. The folks over at the Pie Hole are really passionate about using only responsibly sourced ingredients and baking all their items from scratch. You can tell that this is unprocessed food, that was made that same day. I am not going to kid you by telling you these pies are a great value, but in this case, you definitely get what you pay for. Slices of pie range in the $4.50 to $6 range, but after tasting these you know your money was well spent. Want a whole pie? Call at least a day ahead and order it, and be prepared to fork over $30. We will just stick to these wonderful slices for now.

Out of five warehouses, (because the Arts District was previously called the Warehouse District before the artists moved in to revitalize this area), five being best to zero being worst, The Pie Hole gets 4 warehouses.

For more information on The Pie Hole, click here: https://www.thepieholela.com/