Pie Lady & Son does a mean apple pie — and you can pick it up after your hike. Take our Crusty Challenge, below, for a chance to win $50.00 in pie from this li’l Sugar Shack in the Upper Yack. ©suzy allman/myharriman.com

Pies and Muffins, but Mostly Pies.  Oh: There’s Coffee, too. 

I’ve been on a quest for Great American Pie — in restaurants or shops — for what seems like a lifetime.  Why is it so hard to get our National Dessert wrong, and often so miserably wrong?

I’m almost always disappointed by store- or restaurant-bought pie, with its title, “Homemade”, that so often feels as though it’s been pulled from the freezer and reheated, or bought from the grocery store down the road:  indifferent crust that, with sad resignation, bares its mute and forgettable  fillings.  “Homemade” pie in a restaurant is a built-in lie already.

So it comes as a mild shock to find one of the best pie purveyors in the country is less than five miles from my house, and almost directly on my route to the southern part of Harriman State Park.

Pie Lady & Son, in Upper Nyack, NY, is just a little roadside house, almost a stand, but step inside and you’ll appreciate that this is a business that lives and breathes warm, buttery flakiness and just enough sugar to thicken the apple juice.

The thing I’ve come to believe about good pie is the best pies are made by people who believe they are making about the best pie there is.  They have to.  Because the margins on homemade pie are so slim that nobody’s going to strike it rich making them, the pie maker of perfect pie is not a person who thinks too much and acts too little.  They are doers, perfecters.  They believe, and if you are going to have a pie stand that’s open every day, you better believe that pie is going to be exceptional.

“This must be where pies go when they die”, said Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, giving off an air of authority and stupidity.  I never understood that claim — who wants pie corpse? — but still, even now, it always springs nimbly to mind when I pick up a PL&S pie.

“Where pies go when they die.” Exterior of Pie Lady & Son shop in Upper Nyack. And from 8 am to 7pm, every day, that sign holds true. ©suzy allman/myharriman.com

And I might be the last person to learn this, but those pies are so good, they were almost the undoing of Pie Lady.  Years ago, the popularity of her business almost sank the whole ship, and she closed shop and moved to Cooperstown, before returning to the little stand in Upper Nyack.

I like it here.  I appreciate the earnestness, the simple portrait of a slice of pie that hangs sincerely on the wall, reminding me vaguely of the Seventies portrait of my Uncle Doug that smiled down from the pine paneling of our Seventies family room in North Syracuse, where I grew up.  “Keep it up, kid”, he seemed to say to nobody in particular.  Pie Lady’s pie portrait reminds me of that, and I like it.  It’s right near the milk cooler.

I like the way you only have so much room to stand at Pie Lady’s shop, and how little tableaux of critters enjoying kitchen products cavort in the corners of the place.  I like how, when I left my wallet on the Pie Lady counter one day after a long hike, it was Mrs. Lady herself who called me at home to tell me, and even entertained my questions about her pie business, patiently listening as I told her, idiotically, how good her pie was. It had probably been a long day for her but there, at the end of day, Pie Lady was as happy — almost tangy! — as a cherry filling.

Most of all, I love how you can pick up a perfect pie any day of the week, for indeed Pie Lady & Son has the air of one of those places that is never open when you need it, the kind of place that you are lucky to hit just right.  Your blood sugar will spike as you walk through the screen door, but pay it no mind!  Take a hit of white vinegar (one shotglass will do) to head off that spike, and you’re golden.  Propped up on your passenger seat, your pie will be just fine jolting along 287, as you stab it with your plastic fork.  And it will be just wonderful.

Pie Lady & Son is located at 366 N. Highland Ave/9W Upper Nyack, NY — about 15 miles east of the eastern edge of Harriman State Park.  They’re open seven days a week, 8am-7 pm (except for Sunday hours: 9am-6pm).  5″, 7″ or 10″ pies are sold.  The price of the pies varies but is always reasonable.

Interested in Taking the Pie Lady & Son Harriman Hiker Crusty Challenge? Win $50.00 Worth of Pie!

Take our Crusty Challenge with a hike, a snapshot and a Pie Lady pie: Just stop by Pie Lady & Son and pick up a pie — size or filling doesn’t matter.  Hike to a very nice Harriman State Park viewpoint with your pie, and whomever else you want to bring, and take a snapshot.  Make sure to include both the pie, and the Harriman view.  Then, show us: upload to our Facebook page, OR hashtag it #crustychallenge on Instagram,  OR email it to us: dan@myharriman.com.

On January 17, we’ll draw one winner for a $50.00 gift certificate to Pie Lady & Son.  Nom.

Thank you to Pie Lady & Son for being the unwitting participant in our unsanctioned, crusty caper.

MyHarriman.com doesn’t write paid advertising content but we’d love to learn about interesting, unique, new or established businesses, products or gear that are (however remotely) related to Harriman State Park.  Drop us a line: suzy@suzyallman.com.