Open for dine-in on Thursdays and Fridays 11-2 and Saturdays 11-5. Pre-orders also available through the week. Located at 1013 Echols St. Bismarck, MO 63624
Growing up, every Sunday was reserved for Granny Barb’s house. After church or other activities, we would all gather there for lunch. It was an open invitation and you never knew who would be stopping by for her chicken ‘n’ dumplings, barbec
ue pork steaks, or the only meatloaf in the world the grandkids would be excited to eat. But the main attraction, at least for most of us, was the dessert that would follow. As a young girl, growing up during the depression, she knew how to make ingredients stretch. There was always plenty to go around and we would often witness so many people packed in her house, she would be pulling extra things out the refrigerator in order to make enough food for everyone. Some of our fondest memories growing up, were joining our extended family, church friends, and every once in awhile a random stranger she met at her resale shop and invited for Sunday dinner, around Granny Barb’s kitchen table connecting with one another and eating delicious food. It was our desire to recreate those experiences that the idea for Granny Barb’s Pie Shop came to be. In 2011, Annie was asked to attend a mission trip to Jamaica. On a teacher’s salary, she had limited resources. She pulled out Granny Barb’s pie crust recipe and began experimenting. Before she knew it, she had made her first apple pie…and it was delicious (I can speak from experience)! She started getting asked to make pies for other things: family events, church dinners, birthday surprises, and even weddings. She called in Aunt Joyce to help her master the art of meringue. She recruited all her family and friends to be taste testers, which we all readily agreed to without hesitation. She was constantly being asked to open a pie shop or bakery, but the opportunity just never seemed to present itself. In 2020, I had recently resigned my job in residential/social services after a 20 year career working with youth with elevated needs and trauma and moved back to the Park Hills area. I wanted to take a mini sabbatical through the holidays and then decide what my next step would be. I still wanted to give back to my community, but I wasn’t sure in what context. As Annie, Mama Deb, and I spent the few months around the holidays together, we were blessed with another surprise. Annie was asked to foster a 5 year old girl and a 5 month old boy. We were suddenly reminded of the importance of family meals together; the importance of being able to sit down together, discuss our day, and laugh. We realized in our busy society this piece of connectedness was often missing and we started considering how we could recreate it for busy families, and Granny Barb's Pies and More was created.
