STREATOR, Ill. (AP) - She celebrated her 90th birthday this past August, and made 28 pies for the party. That was no problem for Louise Sullivan, a.k.a. The Pie Lady. As of last week, the chef had baked 78,497 pies for Country Cupboard in Streator.
She thought it would be interesting to keep track when she started working at the family restaurant 28 years ago. She bakes about 50 pies per week, she said, and keeps count on the calendar next to her work station.
“I made 15 this morning,” she said.
Four of those were for a funeral, but the other 11 would be consumed by patrons, who keep the small dining room busy.
“Everything she makes goes,” said waitress Cheryl Swital. “She’s got people coming in from all over - California, Pontiac - for her pie.”
Almost every seat was taken around 1 p.m. on a dreary Tuesday, and another waitress commented that it was a slow day.
Sullivan prepares the hot meals served at the restaurant also, but she is best known for her pies.
“I don’t go anywhere they don’t say, ’Did you bring a pie?’” Sullivan said. And she usually does.
She even brought a pie to her son when he graduated from the University of Hawaii.
Apparently, pie can be carried on an airplane.
“I wrapped it and put it in a box and put it under my seat,” she said.
That was 40 years ago, but her friends visiting from California more recently have carried her pies on their flight home.
“My kids, whenever they have a birthday, they don’t want cake, they want pie,” Sullivan said.
She even had a license plate on her van that read: PIE LADY. It is now on display in the home of her son, Robert “Bob” Sullivan, in Odell.
He stopped by to visit and enjoy a plate of her beef and noodles.
“I was going to have a tenderloin,” he said, “but I saw this was the special, and I knew how it would be.”
He’s retired, but his mother works six days a week.
“I think she’s just an amazing woman,” said Country Cupboard owner Mary Lee Shobe, “and the food is good, home-cooked food. She learned years ago how to make food, and her pies are the best.”
Even at 90, Sullivan is a hard worker, and Swital said she’s also a genuinely pleasant person to work with.
“I’ve known her for years,” she said. “She’s a sweetheart. Couldn’t ask for a nicer person.”
The Pie Lady makes a variety of pies for the restaurant, ranging from sweet to tangy to chocolatey. Her personal favorite is coconut cream. In the summer, though, it’s rhubarb.
Waitress Lynn Watson said the cherry pie is delicious, and the blueberry pie also is one of her favorites.
“I call it Blueberry Dream,” she said. “I have names for her pies.”
The flakey, homemade crust encases a generous amount of filling.
Bob Sullivan’s favorite is apricot, followed by lemon. He even planted an apricot tree in his backyard, so his mother would be able to turn the harvest into pies.
“I really don’t like the really sweet stuff,” he said. “She does make a mean custard pie. It’s kind of an old-style cheesecake type thing.
“The custard is kind of plain, but it’s just more of a comfort food.”
Swital’s favorite? Chocolate cream.
“Coconut is one of the biggest sellers,” she said.
There are a dozen types of pie on the menu, but Sullivan also takes requests. Such “secret menu” items include raisin cream pie and butterscotch pie.
Louise Sullivan mixes the flour and Crisco the night before in case something happens and she can’t make it to work - diners could still get their pie. The mixture sits on the counter in a large, covered bowl.
“If I break my arm, somebody can come in (and finish the pies),” she said. “All they’ve got to do is add cold milk to it and roll it out.”
The filling is prepared and waiting in the refrigerator.
In the mornings, Sullivan rolls out the crust and bakes her pies, four at a time in each of two ovens.
First, the chef puts 30 pounds of potatoes on to boil for American fries, she said.
“Then I go out and I have my coffee, and I start my pies.”
She doesn’t do any pie-baking at home, she said, but makes a few extra at the restaurant whenever she has a special event to attend.
In her spare time, The Pie Lady likes to travel.
She’s been on four cruises (most recently five years ago), and frequently travels to visit her daughter in Colorado, friends in California and a granddaughter in Washington, D.C.
“I go places. Anybody says they’re going out, I’m going with them,” she said. “That’s why I’m working. I like to eat, and I like to go.”
Her son commented that she does more traveling than the average person, not to mention the average 90-year-old person.
How does the restaurant get by while she’s away?
“I don’t worry about it,” she said. “I don’t. When I come back, I just take my hearing aid out so I can’t hear all the complaints.”
Louise Sullivan started keeping track of the number of pies she made simply out of curiosity, not with a goal in mind.
“You just wonder how much flour and sugar and Crisco you used,” she said.
And the Pie Lady said she isn’t sure she’ll make it to 80,000 pies.
“I don’t look to get that far. I don’t worry about it if I don’t,” she said. “I hope to quit so I can have a little time to myself.”
She’d like to be able to visit her daughter without having to cut her trip short to get back to work.
Bob Sullivan isn’t buying it, though.
“That’s what keeps her going, and that’s what keeps her busy,” he said. “I think it’s more of a hobby for her.
“I think she should retire and enjoy herself, but I think she enjoys herself now. I don’t think she considers this work.”
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Source: (LaSalle) News-Tribune, https://bit.ly/2k8yqD8
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Information from: News-Tribune, https://www.newstrib.com
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