Sister Pie is the pie shop that looks like a tornado swept it from fashionable Brooklyn into Detroit’s gritty West Village. The 2014 winner of Hatch Detroit’s $50,000 prize transformed their dream into a comfy brick and mortar store that is inviting and warmly chic. It is a sharp contrast from the abandoned houses a short walk away. The open professional kitchen allows you to watch the bakers create Salted Maple Pie, the dish you must try because it is so good.
The sweet maple filling was inspired by head baker Lisa Ludwinski’s experience in New York City creating Momfuku Milk Bar’s Crack Pie, which is a chess pie, and Four & Twenty Blackbirds Salty Honey Pie.
“I really liked the sweet and salty elements of those pies,” said Lisa. “It hearkened back to this old, traditional Southern pie. I took both of those ideas and created a salted maple pie.”
Chess pie tastes like a buttery stripped down version of pecan pie, without the pecans or the brown sugar. Cornmeal is chess pie’s unique ingredient. Lisa uses stone ground cornmeal, which you are able to taste in the pie, from Hampshire Farms in Kingston, MI. Lisa uses Grade B maple syrup, the most flavorful and rich kind, to give a Northerner’s twist to a Southern classic. The pie is sprinkled with Maldon Sea Salt, which hits that bliss point between salty and sweet.
Each pie costs $4 a slice or $28 for a 9 inch whole. It is so worth the splurge because one bite will make you hooked for life.