St. Louis, MOPie Shops

Sauce Magazine's pie roundup says St. Louisans go to the Tamm Avenue storefront on Fridays and Saturdays for the chocolate cream pie, a semi-sweet, pudding-like filling. Reviewing the shop again after Megan and Derrick Cobb took it over with the old recipes in hand, Sauce ordered three of the small meat pies and called it the best meat pie in recent memory, praising shreddy beef, peas that popped and woods mushrooms under a delicate, robust crust. Order both.

Sauce Magazine found this Tower Grove Farmers' Market bakery had taken a corner of Shaw to call its own, a small room with a chessboard floor, a few leather stools at the window and a patio under candystriped umbrellas. The crust is so rich and flaky that Sauce says the pies should not be skipped, and a recent grilled summer vegetable version held yellow squash, zucchini, Marconi peppers, red onion, mozzarella and basil. Order a savory hand pie and the brown butter apple fritter.

Sauce Magazine's pie roundup says the deep-dish apple pie sold at this Chesterfield market is what every apple pie aspires to be, starting with a flaky, layered crust dusted with sugar for crunch, and apple slices that keep their texture under a little sugar and a house spice mix. Order a slice next door at Annie Gunn's first, which is how Sauce suggests deciding whether to carry a whole one home from the market counter.

The dessert room on East Lockwood Avenue in Webster Groves earns its place on Sauce Magazine's pie list for one slice. The crack pie sets a candy-like brown sugar filling that Sauce says whispers of vanilla inside an understated, ultraflaky crust, and the magazine warns the name is accurate, calling it habit-forming. Order it at the end of a meal rather than as a takeaway, since this is a sit-down dessert menu rather than a pie counter.

This College Hill kitchen on West Florissant Avenue is the St. Louis branch of an Oakland pie business running since 1981, whose profits go to the African People's Education and Defense Fund. Sauce Magazine lists the scratch-made range: apple crumb, blackberry, chocolate bourbon pecan, lemon chess, pumpkin, pecan and sweet potato, with some made vegan. Order the sweet potato pie, and check the farmers market schedule, since the same pies are sold at market stalls.