What's a Hubig's Pie?
(Editor's Note: I'm re-posting this post directly to make sure it stays current)
I've noticed that people come to YatPundit occasionally because they Google the term "Hubig's Pies." When I originally wrote the subtitle of the blog as "Politics, Funky Music, and Hubig's Pies," I pretty much assumed that everyone knew what a Hubig's Pie was, or wouldn't really care.
Hubig's Pies are a fried turnover, originally created in Dallas by Simon Hubig. Hubig was a German immigrant who set up his first bakery in Dallas. When he saw the popularity of his hand-held fried pies, Hubig expanded operations into Houston, New Orleans, Birmingham, even into Illinois and Georgia. Simon Hubig's dreams of going national were crushed in the stock market crash of 1929. Hubig was forced to sell his all of his bakeries and warehouses except for the one in New Orleans. Hubig also had to take on a partner, which is how the Bowman family came to be the current owners of the bakery.
Hubig's makes three main items: hand-held fried pies, individual deep-dish pies, and nine-inch "family pies."
This is the classic fried Hubig's pie. It's cut from the same half-moon die they've used on Dauphine street for over 80 years. The pies are fried, smothered in sugar icing, packaged, and sent to over 3500 retail outlets in southern Louisiana. They come in a number of flavors, including apple, lemon, peach, pineapple, chocolate, cherry, coconut, blueberry, banana, blackberry and sweet potato.
In addition to the fried pies, Hubig's sells individual deep-dish baked pies. While not as popular (and only marginally healthier) than the fried pies, the deep-dish pies nonetheless have a strong following.
Mr. Hubig didn't start out thinking he would be the king of hand-held fried pies in the south. His original plan was to sell regular-sized "family" pies. The Dauphine St. factory still makes nine-inch pies in a number of flavors. These are served as dessert in a number of New Orleans restaurants, and are sold at many local groceries, as well as local Wal-Mart stores.
Stumble It!
So - - can one go to a Hubig's outlet & buy a specific flavor?? Suppose you have an envie for sweet potato and you don't know if your local Wal Mart is going to have that flavor or not? Or just suppose you want to go check out the outlet & see the pies being made. Perhaps it would kill our addiction if we were to see all that fat and sugar piled into one little fried turnover eh??
Ah... those were the days (in my 20's) when i could eat one of those a week and not give a damn about how many calories it had!
I must say, now that i'm (ahem) mature, there's nothing like a chocolate Hubig's pie to cure a stress-filled-mind.
d deBois
Funny you should ask - we stopped by just last week to see how they were made and got a full blown tour with hot sample just off the icing waterfall. Sweet potato pies are available only during sweet potato season. I don't know about the other fruit pies. They don't sell pies at the factory, but it's worth a stop if you're in Bywater.
My mouth watered when I read this. I can't wait to try them when I visit NOLA and bring some back home with me! :)