- Kat Robinson
- HOT AND READY: Ms. Lena’s fried pies draining on a rack
Summer seems to be the season for fried pies… which, while not set in a pie tin or topped with meringue, are indeed pies. There’s no denying the appeal.
This week marked the introduction of a new restaurant in the tiny community of Casscoe. That’s where Carl’s makin’ his mamma’s pies. Ms. Lena’s Fried Pies and Café opened Monday. There you’ll find the famed pies, along with pork BBQ sandwiches, burgers and beignets, five days a week. Carl plans to be open Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Thing is, it ain’t easy to get there. While the instructions don’t include the term “turn off the paved road,” Casscoe is a good hour and a half from Little Rock. And Ms. Lena’s is tucked far back in the community, past the post office and off the main highway. The good thing going for the place is that it’s on Cooks Lake Road — which is be-speckled with large duck lodges that will be full come this fall.
I tried my first strawberry fried pie there last Monday. Man oh man, it’s just strawberries and sugar, no gelatin or spices or none of that, wrapped in Ms. Lena’s own recipe fried pie dough — which only Carl makes. Don’t worry, pie worshippers, he’s still cranking that dough out on Saturdays for the original Ms. Lena’s in DeValls Bluff. More, plus directions, over at Tie Dye Travels.
