America's Best Pies

You’ll find pie shakes and “pie fries”—but we still love the traditional tart lemon curd. (1622 South St.; iluvmagpie.com) —Carey Jones

The triple coconut cream is the signature sweet at Tom Douglas’s shop (and an off-menu special at his other restaurants in town). (2001 Fourth Ave.; tomdouglas.com) —Carey Jones

The cult-favorite treats—including the salty honey walnut—are sold at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market. (threebabesbakeshop.com) —Carey Jones

Best Pie to Try: Key Lime Pie

In 2009, legendary pie-maker Paula Haney opened this “artisanal bakery” in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood and started cranking out pies. Chicagoans can’t get enough. Her fans include chef Graham Elliot. His favorite? The Key Lime Pie, which is distinguished by its gingersnap crust. The crunchiness stands in perfect contrast to the filling’s creaminess, while the spice provides an unexpected but winning complement to the tart lime. (hoosiermamapie.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Plum Frangipane Tart

Named for the district in which it resides, this seven-year-old pie shop uses only seasonal ingredients, which are locally sourced whenever possible. (This is San Francisco, after all.) The must-try pie is actually a tart prepared with plum and frangipane, a sweet paste made from almonds. The sweet nuttiness of the almonds comes through with impressive clarity, as does the fleeting flavor of the ripe fruit. (missionpie.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Shaker Lemon Pie

Phoebe Lawless’s trademark crusts are made with plenty of butter (for maximum flakiness) and very little sugar (to showcase the milk’s natural sweetness). Most of her pies are stuffed with the season’s bounty—native persimmons, for example, available for a short stint during the holidays. But her double-crusted beauty Shaker Lemon is offered year-round. Lawless fills it with whole, sliced lemons that have been macerated for up to three days. Once baked, they take on the consistency of marmalade. Pucker up! (piefantasy.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Pumpkin Pie

The holiday season in the Big Apple wouldn’t be the same without pies from City Bakery, where Maury Rubin is also known for inventing the pretzel croissant. When it comes to pumpkin pie, Rubin wisely sticks to tradition. After all, few desserts are more associated with nostalgia, comfort, and a sense of season. And Rubin’s tastes much like any other homemade pumpkin pie—only better. The buttery graham-cracker crust should be considered the archetype for all others, and the filling delivers a well-calibrated punch of spice. (thecitybakery.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Bluebarb

“I have 11 sisters and they all have gardens and pick rhubarb for me. Some of the neighbors around here let me pick theirs,” says Maggie Gergen, who dishes out at least a dozen kinds of pie each day at her shop in southeastern Minnesota. There’s the timeless rhubarb custard and strawberry rhubarb, but her Bluebarb takes the cake. Gergen made it first—a combination of blueberry and, yes, rhubarb—at a nephew’s request. With so many sisters, let’s hope for more inspirations from the family. (618 Main St., Whalan, MN; 507/467-2623; thearomapieshop.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Rhubarb Cream Cheese Pie

In 1982, Judy Faragher and her sister sold their first apple pies at a hometown festival. That original crowd-pleaser is always on the menu at her shop, but so are a host of other, less-conventional pies. She uses fresh local ingredients whenever possible, but when the cupboard is bare Faragher opts for frozen, not canned, fruit. Her rhubarb cream cheese pie “comes out of the pan almost like a cheesecake would.” Make it extra decadent with a topping of sour cream. (85130 Hwy. 13, Bayfield, WI; 715/779-5365) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Chocolate Ice-Box Pie

At the original Strawn’s Eat Shop on Kings Highway in Shreveport, LA—established in 1944—you’ll hear customers talk about the fresh strawberry pie. It’s delicious, to be sure, but follow the advice of waitress Brandy Snow: order the chocolate. Like its strawberry spotlight-stealing cohort, the chocolate pie comes with a whopping pile of whipped cream and features a homemade crust that’s low on sugar. “It’s everything else on top that makes it sweet,” says Snow. (125 Kings Hwy., Shrevenport, LA 71104; strawnseatshop.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Tahitian Vanilla Salted Caramel Apple Pie

This Portland favorite serves a lovely version of the classic American apple pie. But after you’ve tasted their other apple pie, you might decide that the original is a bit dated. This version is oozing with caramel, spiced with vanilla, and sprinkled with salt. It proves that time-old techniques and recipes can coexist with unexpected, mold-breaking tweaks. It’s not so much reinventing the wheel as giving it a makeover. (1800 NE Alberta PDX 97211, Portland OR; 971/340-6995; randomordercoffee.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Fried Apricot Pie

Nancy Fulton inherited her pie-making skills from her grandmother, who made deep-fried desserts for ranchers in the late 1800s. Fulton’s pies are surprisingly light—thanks to her use of a pastry, not biscuit-like, dough. This doesn’t always work in her favor. Because the pies aren’t greasy, some customers “question whether or not they’re really fried.” Of her 20 flavors, Fulton recommends newcomers try the apricot, a local favorite. “We sell more of those than anything else,” she says. (Highway 77 and I 35, Davis, OK; 580/369-7830; theoriginalfriedpieshop.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Strawberry Pie

According to Jimmie Tweel Carder, whose father opened his namesake restaurant 75 years ago, nobody remembers when the strawberry pie madness began. It may have been a waitress with a bumper crop of berries and not enough mouths at home. Today, crowds gather for one week in May, when Carder sells more than 1,000 freshly baked pies. Slices are priced differently every year, depending on the price of strawberries, and there is a limited number of slices per person. (920 5th Ave., Huntington, WV; 304/696-9788; jimsspaghetti.com) —Charlotte Druckman

Best Pie to Try: Apple Mountain Berry

Gold once brought folks to the small mountain town of Julian in San Diego County. Now apples are the main draw—and Julian Pie Co. your requisite first stop. Founder Liz Smothers purchased an apple farm in 1989 and has built a family business out of its bounty. The Apple Mountain Berry combines raspberries, strawberries, and boysenberries under a crumb top, while the Natural sticks to apples and apple cider (no preservatives, sugar, or artificial flavors added). You can request your slice with cinnamon ice cream, but that may not cut it. Don’t be surprised if you leave with a frozen whole pie and a bag of piecrust cookies for the road. (julianpie.com) —Kate Appleton

Best Pie to Try: Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick

Acid green toque-wearing Kermit Carpenter has been capitalizing on Key West’s most famous product—the area’s small, fragrant, and ultra-acidic limes—since 1993, when he opened the first of his two shops. Leave the Key lime shower gel for the tourists. Instead, go for his similarly gimmicky (but delicious) frozen Key lime pie on a stick. It comes smothered in Belgian chocolate and has fans worldwide. (keylimeshop.com) —Adrien Glover

Best Pie to Try: Salted Caramel Apple

Sisters Melissa and Emily Elsen opened this pie shop on the border of Park Slope and Gowanus in 2010. While flavors change with the seasons (strawberry balsamic and lavender blueberry in summer; chamomile buttermilk in spring; brown butter pumpkin in fall and winter), you’ll always find two staples: salty honey, a sweet custard pie topped with flaky fleur de sel, and salted caramel apple, a mix of sweet and tart apples with handmade sea salt caramel. With original tin walls, wood floors, and soft natural light, the shop is so charming that it’s best to order a slice (or two) to stay and while away the afternoon at the communal wooden table. (birdsblack.com) —Lyndsey Matthews

Best Pie to Try: Michigan Four-Berry Pie

It’s a numbers game at Achatz Handmade Pie Company: eight shops around the state offer a menu of 12 fruit pies, 17 cream pies, six traditional pies, and six savory pot pies. All those varieties are made with as much local produce as can fit between the hand-crimped crusts: more than a million pounds of fruit a year. Michigan Four-Berry Pie, with tart cherries, blueberries, Marion blackberries, and raspberries, is a sweet taste of summer and the most popular choice. (And, yes, the owners are second cousins of Chicago chef Grant Achatz, who’s been known to serve the pies at staff meals.) (achatzpies.com) —Ann Shields

Best Pie to Try: Baltimore Bomb

The brainchild of Baltimore rocker Rodney Henry, who learned his sugar skills from his Indiana grandma, these edgy bakeries (done in red, black, and white) trade on pies being a little, well, sinful. Some 15 to 25 varieties are available on any given day. First-timers should try its top-seller, the Baltimore Bomb, made with the Maryland city’s famous chocolate fudge-topped Berger Cookies melted into vanilla custard. (dangerouspies.com) —Adrien Glover

Best Pie to Try: Bourbon Chocolate Pecan

Founded by Renee “Petsi” McLeod in 2003, in a town just north of Boston, Petsi serves pies not only at its original Somerville bakery, but also at a southern comfort-food restaurant in Cambridge. At lunchtime, follow up a savory pie like spinach ricotta or mushroom Gruyère with a slice of bourbon chocolate pecan pie (the southern brown butter pecan pie is another favorite). Show up hungry enough, and you can try the popular berry scone too. (petsipies.com) —Lyndsey Matthews

Best Pie to Try: Cheddar Bacon Apple

If you focus for a moment on the ingredients while waiting for your order of cheddar bacon apple pie, you’ll notice a perfect example of Honeypie’s goal of making “great, Midwestern-inspired food from scratch.” Local farms and dairies supply many of the building blocks for the entire café menu, including most of their 36 pies. Okay, okay, maybe the bananas in the black-bottom banana cream pie aren’t from Wisconsin, but one bite and you’ll agree to an exception to the farm-to-table credo. (honeypiecafe.com) —Ann Shields

Owner Mims Bledsoe cares deeply about the art of made-from-scratch pies and turns customers into converts with Pie Shop’s baking classes and monthly happy hours (try 15-plus varieties for $20). The menu changes by the month; in July, peach or coconut cream is the thing to order, while pecan takes center stage come December. (the-pie-shop.com) —Kate Appleton

Lab is an appropriate term for this Main Street bakery on a mission: to foster ideas, provide job training, and generally improve community life in the small town of Greensboro. Locals gather in the beautifully designed space for live music and meetings over treats like cranberry-glazed pumpkin pie. (pielab.org) —Kate Appleton

Chef and owner Toni Chiappetta began her business in an apartment kitchen with an oven just big enough to bake one pie. Now Sweetie Pies is booming, with 17 varieties (eight of which are seasonal) ranging from meringue-topped s’mores to coconut cream with a coconut shortbread crust. For a refreshing summertime treat, try a slice of the strawberry rhubarb. (sweetiepies.com) —Maria Pedone

At Norske Nook bakery, pies are serious business—as if all were baked from scratch by your Norwegian grandmother. It won an impressive total of three awards at the 2013 National Pie Championship. Sample a winning bite of Kaffe Mocha, pecan fudge, and chocolate mousse pie at one of its four Wisconsin locations. (norskenook.com) —Adrien Glover

Only homemade gourmet pies are sold here, and such regulation keeps creations from this bakery at their sweetest. While a nine-inch pecan pie is the signature treat, other three-inch varieties include apple, peach, chocolate chip pecan, and “jus’ like chess” pie—a more sugary version of southern chess pie made simply with eggs, butter, white and brown sugars, and vanilla. (sweetcreationsllc.net) —Maria Pedone