Can a pie be a celebrity? To judge by the thousand—yes, 1,000—people who show up for a slice on a sunny day in tiny Stockholm, Wisconsin, the answer is: Yes! Janet Garretson; her brother Alan Nugent; and his spouse, Steven Grams, opened Stockholm Pie and General Store in 2008. Is this the summer you get in line? N2030 Spring St., Stockholm, Wis., 715-442-5505
Crust Secrets
The magic ingredient? That flaky crust. “My sister was a pastor’s wife in rural northwest Kansas,” Nugent explains. “A woman in her church, an elderly German immigrant, taught her, and it’s exactly what we use today. Flour, salt, water, Crisco. But the secret is how it’s put together: all by hand, every one.”
Door County Cherries
Stockholm Pie’s most popular pie is its coconut cream, but the one made with Montmorency cherries is truly stunning: black with fruit often sourced from Wisconsin’s Door County, fragrant as a cherry orchard in full flower. “We use flash-frozen cherries so we can have the pie year-round,” Nugent explains.
Pie Flight?
Stockholm Pie’s building was once the little railroad town’s opera hall. Nugent’s recent renovations allow for private dinners, but he now also hosts “pie flights,” ticketed events that let you try loads of pie around a particular theme, like all the chocolate or rhubarb variations.
Insider Tip: Pot Pies
Every day, Stockholm Pie makes a number of chicken pot pies to eat in and more whole pot pies for customers to take home, but they sell out within an hour or two of opening. Need a sure thing? Order ahead.
Road Trip Tips
Maiden Rock Winery and Cidery is also in Stockholm; the antique-hunter’s paradise of Red Wing is nearby; and don’t forget the spectacular vistas along the river valley in Minnesota’s Frontenac State Park.
Shop Local
What if you end up in a line of 100 people on the weekend? Leave one line-stander and go shop! Stockholm Pie’s general store and marketplace is a locavore’s gourmet haven full of local cheese, cider, and old-fashioned penny candies.
August 7, 2023
11:24 AM