July 2, 2007
SFist Eats: Mission Pie
We've been meaning to try Mission Pie since we read about it in the Chron -- it's a homey dessert cafe (which we need more of in the Mission!), whose pie ingredients are grown by Mission High students at a local organic farm, to teach them agricultural, environmental, and nutrition skills. The students then staff the cafe behind the counter. (The pies themselves are currently baked off-site, but they're hoping to get a professional pastry kitchen built into the space, to teach the students cooking skills next.)
Yay, everyone wins! Students get good job skills, the owners give back, and we get some yummy organic pies in the neighborhood. Plus -- Mission Pie stays open late! (until 10 p.m. on the weekends.) This is PERFECT.
It was kind of a quest to find the store -- the directions say it's at 2901 Mission, but after some frantic running around back and forth, we finally noticed the "Mission Pie" sign at the corner of 25th and Mission pointing down 25th Street. So turn the corner at the Southern Exposure gallery and the cafe entrance'll be right there: you can't miss the neon EAT PIE sign, or the board of today's specials.
As you can see, the specials the day we stopped by were strawberry-ollalieberry galettes, banana creme, walnut, and peach. And how were they?
They were GREAT! We tried the banana creme and the strawberry galette, but ate those slices before thinking we should probably have taken a picture of them for you. The picture to your right are the walnut tartlets instead, which also looked great.
The crusts were whole wheat, all-butter, and like homemade, only much flakier (yet more solid) than the all-butter crusts we make at home. The berries were fresh and sweetened just enough to take the edge off, but without drowning their pleasing tartness. And the banana creme was smooth as a pillow, if your pillow has just-right thinly-sliced pieces of banana at the bottom.
The inside of the cafe is exactly what you imagined! It's sunny, there's books about responsible agriculture on the wall, cheerfully-painted signs, a picture of a map with a sign that says "HOORAY! We bought a combine!" (for a farm they're working with in Michigan), and probably enough seating for about 15-20 people. When we went, the crowd was equally mixed between early-adopter Mission hipsters and teenagers going through a mild Goth/emo phase.
SO GOOD. You should totally go!
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I've been meaning to check them out for months! I definitely will now!
"Nutrition skills?" Pies are just sugar and fruit wrapped in a flour crust, no? I have a hard time imaging how much nutrition skills one could learn from a pie. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pie-hater. This sounds like a great idea and a place I'd like to check out, but "nutrition skills" when talking about pies made me laugh.
Mission Pie rocks. That place has a comfy homey wholesome vibe. Those walnut tartlets are delicious. They also have two varieties of tasty fair trade organic coffee.
And that combine they bought is going to the farm down by Half Moon Bay where they grow all of their stuff. They had a map on the wall where they were tracking the progress and indicating what kinds of pie the truck driver was eating on his drive out from Michigan.
The nutrition skills bit was part of a nutrition class at Mission High where they're trying to get the kids into eating organic and non-processed foods. But you're right, Guest. Pie isn't exactly the most nutritious stuff in the world.
- (NotSFist)Jeremy
#2, my doctor told me I need more pies in my diet, so this is perfect for me.
Did anyone know that pie consumption in America has decreased significantly over the past 25 years? I am dedicated to doing everything I can to change this shocking trend...
has anyone noticed that as pie consumption has gone down, gang violence has gone up?
scary!
Delicious pie? All organic? Fair trade coffee?
Staying open late? I just found my new favorite spot. Thank you sfist, thank you thank you thank you!
YES! This place is awesome. The wonderful people at Underdog in the Sunset, 18th and Irving, serve up these pies in their corn-based biodegradable plastic containers. Max told me "We like to cook it like we roll."
Mission Pie and Underdog rocking the green living.
You know what? I had a horrible time trying to find it too. They could do a better job of making it more visible--but I guess that's not part of the curriculum yet. :)
Heh. Even better, #6: as pie consumption has dropped, obesity has skyrocketed.
More pies: less obesity.
This country really need to wake up to the meat pie. Without it you're only enjoying half the pie universe. It's easy, just brown some meaty chunks and onions, throw in some stock, red wine and Lea & Perrins. Simmer the whole thing for an hour, then por it into a pie crust, top it with shortcrust, then bake it for 40 minutes.
the farm/nutrition class also taught the students about other ways to cook and serve fruits and vegetables. i know the professor who takes the students there and she has talked about how they are also hoping to get a cow!
Hey! If you like pie and love Mission Pie - check out Nathan Lynch's project, Between Courses, at Southern Exposure! Nathan is running a bicycle-powered pie delivery system out of the gallery, which is connected to this hot new pie shop. Call 415-282-4PIE between 3-6pm Tue-Sat during the month of July!