In the spirit of all the previous food recommendation threads, I have yet another request for all you Clutch BBS'ers: I want to get some pies and/or cakes for my family's Thanksgiving meal. Can anyone recommend a local bakery? I live on the NW side of Houston (290 & BW8) but am willing to travel a reasonable distance, so don't leave out any place you might recommend thinking it would be too far. Hopefully other BBS'er will find this thread useful as well, so let's not limit this to the NW quadrant of Houston. Tops on my list is getting an excellent pecan pie. Next on my list is that I'd like to support an small business, and not a chain. Other than that, I'm open to pretty much anything. To start off, I've already crossed of Sam's Club from my list (The last pecan pie I had there was groos IMO). I'm not sure if I should even consider other grocery store bakeries. Although they are cheaper, I'm willing to pay more for this occasion for some higher quality. Also, I know that Empire Cafe has great cakes, but I have never gotten a pie there and really don't know if they make pies. They have 1/2 price cake (slices at least) on Mondays, but I doubt they would sell whole cakes at 1/2 price. Besides, 3 day old cake doesn't sound so appealing. Thanks in advance to everyone who adds their opinions to this thread!
I don't how much of a chain Goode Company is, but I'm pickin' up one of the best pecan pies I've ever had on Tuesday.
hey neighbor! um. there might be a place in oak forest that does pie if i recall. that's a bit of a drive though.
Goode company definitely does not equal chain in my book. I guess I should have said LOCAL instead of familiy...I just don't want some "cookie cutter" mass produced PIEce of cr*p that you pick up onthe way to a party at a typical neighborhood grcoery store bakery. B4L- If you don't mind can you tell me (us) how much you paid and if you have to order ahead. Thanks for your input and for reminding me that Goode Co. carries excellent desserts! I guess with my brain in Honeybaked Ham and WHOLE turkey (GOode Co. has great sliced turkey) mode, I totally blanked with Goode Co.
Not to derail the thread, but does anybody know of any bakeries in Houston with good muffins. I own a few coffee shops and am looking for a new bakery to provide us with muffins. Used to get em from HEB but switched over to Central Market. It has been a total disaster. Central Market muffins taste like crap! Should have gone with Whole Foods, but....
I called them today and they said they'd have a tent set out on Tuesday to take drive thru orders. If you want to pick it up in Houston (on Kirby is the place I believe) they have it listed on their menu as $13.95. I assume if you show up you'll be dropping $14.00 on the whole pie. http://www.goodecompany.com/pdf/BBQ-ToGO.pdf Online they list the pie as costing $27.00 if you want to have it shipped somewhere. That price also includes the nice box it comes in. http://www.goodecompany.com/detail.aspx?ID=1
If it is the same company that I am thinking of..........their products are excellent. They also sold at wholesale and used to have a driver make stops at hotels and other businesses overnight. That was 5 - 6 years ago and their business model might have changed since then. It wouldn't hurt to ask.
Thanks guys. Will definitely go check them out on Monday. Anybody eaten any muffins from Central Market though? They use the best ingredients, but their muffins are ridicoulously dry. Perfect for me would be Whole Foods. But that cant happen because the bakery manager at CM and WF are best freakin friends and the CM guy wont allow it to happen.
Dacapo's bakery in the Heights is really really good. I live in West Houston, but I drive over there every once in a while to pickup a cake or pie for special events. They can be a bit pricey, but it's good stuff. http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/reviews/rsv2214.asp
These guys are a local legend and fit your requirements. The lines are long at Thanksgiving, so plan ahead. I do get my pecan pies from Jim Goode though. From the Houston Press Best of Houston 2003: 2003: Dishes & Drinks Best Pie Flying Saucer Pie Company Flying Saucer Pie Company 436 W. Crosstimbers, 713-694-1141, www.flyingsaucerpiesho p.com Reader Choice: Flying Saucer Pie Company A long, long time ago, Publius Syrus said that to do two things at once is to do neither. Sorry, Pub, but having visited the Flying Saucer Pie Company, we strongly disagree. Since 1967, co-owners Bill Leeson and Marilyn Smith have been doing at least a dozen things at once, each one of them brilliantly. Cherry, coconut cream, pecan, fresh strawberry cream, pumpkin, key lime, chocolate cream...Maybe their loophole is that they do pies and pies alone -- no sandwiches, no tables, no drinks. No matter. On Tuesday through Saturday mornings at 8 a.m., Flying Saucer's legions of loyal customers line up at the modest Garden Oaks-area store to get a whiff of the tantalizing aroma of baking and take home a perfect pie (or two) straight from the oven.
Flying Saucer is great..picked up a Dutch Apple and Peach just this past week.....AWESOME!...the Key lime is good too. Can't vouch for Pecan though, never had it there.
The best pecan pie I have ever eaten is from Treebeards on Travis near Congress across from Market Square park.
My wife runs a cake business, so you may want to check the link in my sig for cakes. Pie isn't her core business. Maybe she'd make some anyway, and it'd be better than anything you get at Flying Saucer (I see everyone recommends it, but their pie tasted terrible to me -- well, not terrible, but not good). Btw, she could do good muffins too, if you wanted to work with her. Everything she does is top-notch ingredients, traditional methods, etc.
