Take a tasty journey on Montana pie trail

Editor's note: This story originally published in March 2015.

Pie, it seems, is omnipresent in most small-town restaurants and diners.

And many of those small, locally owned rural eateries serve some awesome pie. That's something Gayle Fisher, executive director of the Central Montana Tourism Region, has noticed on her travels.

Last spring, Fisher started thinking about ways she could promote central Montana's pie to visitors and also encourage tourists to get to rural towns.

"My first goal was to try to come up with something that would disperse visitors to our small communities," Fisher said.

Fisher came up with the idea of a pie trail, a map marked with places that serve pie. After some brainstorming with board members, the project was titled "Pie a la Road."

The result is a list of 19 places around central Montana that serve pie. The list is available online at the Central Montana Tourism Region's website, centralmontana.com/pie_trail, and in its annual travel planner.

Fisher did some tough research to develop the pie trail.

"I went to all of the places and ate pie," Fisher said. "It was a fun gig."

Fisher didn't set out to be a pie judge. She included all the eateries she could find that served pie. However, she did leave out chain restaurants and franchises.

"It was all locally owned," she said.

Fisher solicited lists of places with pie from her board members, but pie was not hard to find.

"Some of them I came onto by accident," she said. "In Denton, I stopped to use the bathroom."

She planned to order a snack at the Shade Tree, a restaurant in the small town.

"I walked in, and the first thing I saw was a blackboard with three pies listed," Fisher said.

She ordered the walnut pie, which she had never heard of before.

"It was really, really good," she said.

Fisher found a great variety of pies.

During the summer she had a lot of rhubarb pie. As summer turned to fall, pumpkin pie appeared more often on the menu.

At the Lighthouse in Valier, Fisher had pumpkin praline pie with a vanilla custard sauce.

"It was interesting as the seasons changed how the pies kind of changed a little bit," she said.

Some pie was easier to acquire than others. Fisher attempted to get pie three times from the Kozy Korner in Winnett. Once the road from Ingomar to Winnett was washed out and twice the restaurant was sold out of pie.

"I think that's a testament that this lady is known far and wide for her pie," Fisher said.

Fort Benton's Golden Age Center holds a pie day once a month as a fundraiser. Pie is served at 2 p.m. on the second Friday of the month and often sells out quickly.

Beyond the delicious pie Fisher sampled, what stood out was the emotional, sentimental connection so many people have to pie.

Fisher often found herself in conversation with people sharing memories about their grandmother's pie recipe or holiday get together.

"Pie brings out a lot of memories in people," Fisher said. "It became incredibly heart warming."

Anyone who has ever made pie knows that it is, in fact, not easy. Time and time again, the pie bakers Fisher talked to told her how much work went into their pie.

"Several of them said that to me, but then they all said, 'It's worth it,'" she said.

Erin Madison covers the outdoors for the Great Falls Tribune. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_EMadison.

Have some Pie a la Road

See the central Montana pie trail at centralmontana.com/pie_trail or in the Central Montana annual travel planner available at area visitor centers.