I was yearning for a nice Lemon Meringue pie yesterday so I went to my go to spot, Modern Snack Bar, but they were closed on Mondays.
I hit Briermere and found what looked like a nice Lemon Meringue pie for $25.00. Sticker shock since the same pie is $4.00 less at Modern Snack Bar.
Got the pie home and it was a big disappointment. Meringue was thick and gloppy when it should have been airy and light.
The lemon was more like pudding and had little lemony taste.
Junior’s in Brooklyn is my favorite for Lemon Meringue pie with Modern Snack Bar a close second.
Briermere has a reputation for being most wonderful for their fruit pies which I find good but not great.
I often wonder if they actually make their own pies or just bring them in and bake on premises.
For fruit pies on the North Fork I prefer:
Schmitt’s Family Farm
Windy Acres and
Modern Snack Bar
All three of these places make their own pies.Reminder: please include [City] in your post title above. If the topic is about a specific eatery, please click the ‘Add Location’ button to enter the address, so your topic shows up in the Topic Map.
I never understood the popularity of Briermere Farm’s pies. I went to college near there and am a big pie fan. But I found other, much better pies on the north and south forks than BF. I wish I could remember the names, but that was awhile ago.
The best Briermere pie IMHO is their fresh fruit cream pies, known in my house as fruit fantasy. We particularly love the one with mixed fruit like peaches, raspberries and blueberries. I mostly make my own pies, but that one I will always buy.
I’ve been searching (eating) for good fruit pies in Westchester. One of my comparisons has been blueberry pies. By far the best has been from pie lady and son. Some of the farmer’s markets carry their pies , but they do sell-out. Tried nutmeg and at least with blueberry was not even close. My only complaint with pie lady was her seasonal peach, She does not add much seasoning of any kind and the peach was too bland - needed something ( brown sugar?). The other flavors were very good from pie lady.
For blueberry pies I go to Schmitt’s Family Farm in Laurel and Windy Acres in Calverton.
Both use fresh berries and not the gloppy canned stuff.
Perfect warm with vanilla ice cream.
Westchester, I don’t know.
Pie Lady has an actual shop over in Nyack, but unless going over there, seems foolish to pay for the bridge. Quite a few of the farmer’s markets have her pies. Most of the “rustic” fruit pies that some of the farms put up are not as good . Her blueberry, both two crust or crumble top are excellent. Don’t know if fresh or not, but they are the very small berries and a good consistency -now i have to get some vanilla ice cream
