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Guide to celebrating National Pi Day in Birmingham, including JaWanda’s—Alabama’s best pie shop
Happy #PiDay! Here’s where to find the best pies in Birmingham according to the Bham Now Team.
Everyone, stop what you’re doing! It’s National Pi Day (!!!!), and I’m maybe a little too excited? Technically, it is Pi Day, not Pie Day, but I’ll take any excuse I can get to talk about (and eat some) pie. To celebrate the day, I asked the Bham Now Team to share their favorite Birmingham pie places. Here’s what I got:
First Thing’s First… What is Pi Day?
For all of you who aren’t mathematicians or don’t remember from your high school geometry class, π (Pi) is the greek symbol that represents a mathematical constant. The first three digits of that number are 3, 1 and 4—hence today, March 14, being Pi Day.
The Best of Bham Pies
Your Pie
You can never go wrong with a pizza pie… Sheila McCallum, one of our amazing newsletter authors included the Pi Day Your Pie special in our Monday newsletter. According to Sheila, “a 10″ pizza pie on Pi Day will only set you back $3.14 this Thursday, March 14 at Your Pie in Uptown—you don’t have to be an Einstein to see that’s a good deal.” P.S. Don’t miss out on all the fun things happening in Birmingham. Sign up for our newsletter for specials, events, and more.
Golden Rule BBQ and Grill
Sharron Swain, another awesome Bham Now content producer, kept it short and sweet when telling me about her favorite pie from Golden Rule in Irondale:
“Peanut Butter Pie. Because it’s deelish.”
No explanation needed.
Iron City Grill
The Cottage Pie from Iron City Grill is one of my personal favorites. I like dessert pies, but I pretty much always choose savory over sweet. It’s also one of the most popular dishes on their brand new menu—and the chef, Ian Barker’s, favorite.
Gus’s Fried Chicken at The Battery
Gus’s, which opened last month, already takes the cake (or pie in this case) for Terri Robertson, one of our newsletter authors and our senior content producer. Her favorite pie? “The Chocolate Chess Pie— It’s like a super fudgy brownie pie, which is perfect because I’m a chocoholic.”
Tortugas Pizza
Want to know how good Tortugas is? Just check out all of their accolades on the homepage of their website. According to Gabi Hembree, our marketing coordinator and resident foodie (seriously every recommendation she gives is 100%), Tortugas’ Carne Special Chicago-Style Pizza is her #1 pie pick. Why? She has two words for ya: “It’s bombbbbbbbbbbb.”
Bright Star
The Bright Star, Alabama’s oldest restaurant and ‘American Classic’ according to the James Beard Foundation, in Bessemer can do no wrong according to Cliff— our resident tech guy and roaming photographer! When asked about a favorite Bright Star pie, his response was, “Pretty much any of them.” Relatable, Cliff, very relatable.
JaWanda’s Sweet Potato Pies
It wasn’t too long ago that Pat Byington, our content director and resident Birmingham enthusiast, published a story about how JaWanda’s was named “Best Pie Shop in Alabama” in USA Today’s road trip guide! And who are we to argue? JaWanda’s located off 280 on Valleydale Rd. has a myriad of sweet potato pies that all Birminghamians have to try—so why not on Pi Day?!
Johnny Ray’s
Johnny Ray’s Chocolate Pie actually tied for favorite between our
DIY PIE!
Not in the mood for a sit-down pie taste testing? Stay home and bake your own. Here’s the recipe for Johnny Ray’s Chocolate Pie, and a recipe for a Black Bottom Pumpkin Pie with local Match cocoa powder!
What’s your favorite Birmingham pie? Let us know on social @BhamNow!
