Apple Lucy’s is known for their pie but for the summer edition of Edible Idaho I journeyed out to my old stomping grounds to see what else they are cooking up.
In past years, if you’ve ever arrived at Boise’s Capital City Public Market late on a sunny Saturday morning you knew the disappointment of seeing the “sold out” sign at the Apple Lucy’s booth. It was a sad sight for a palette prepared for sweet huckleberry filling sandwiched between flaky, buttery crusts.
This season, that disappointment will be more pronounced as that booth will be filled by another vendor. For the first time in 11 years, due to changing family obligations, Apple Lucy’s won’t be a regular at the Saturday market.
Thankfully, fans of Apple Lucy’s won’t be deprived of a slice of huckleberry pie, or any of the other many varieties they bake. They just have to make the drive to Parma.
Apple Lucy’s Drive-In is not exactly a pie shop. Sourcing beef from Homedale, they serve up fresh burgers, fries, finger steaks and milkshakes, including their pie shake which is exactly what it sounds like – your choice of pie blended with soft serve ice cream. Order at the counter and hope to find a spot among the locals at one of the six indoor tables.
Michelle Davis and her family have a decades-long history of running restaurants and serving legendary pie in Parma. In the ‘50s, her great-grandma, Helen Anacabe, ran the Dutchess Restaurant just down the street from the drive-in, formerly known as Rory’s. The Davis’s took over the latter in 2007 to supplement the pies they were selling to a few restaurants, grocery stores and at the farmers market.
Pie making starts by 6am most mornings in the commercial kitchen located next to the Davis’s home, taunting the field hands with the smell of country air infused with fresh-baked pastry. The pies are all handmade using a family recipe handed down by Michelle’s aunt. When asked if the recipe is a secret, Michelle’s husband Steve said, “Sort of. Michelle has given it out to a few select people but no one ever seems to be able to reproduce it the way she does.”
To make pie fillings, they hand peel hundreds of apples each year, sourcing as much of the fruit as possible from local orchards such as Symms Fruit Ranch. At the height of the season, they bake 100 4-inch pies and 50 to 60 full-size versions each week. With all that baking, it’s not just the recipe that comes from family. The Davis’s daughter, Holly Mote, and Michelle’s dad, “Doc”, are on deck to lend a hand.
If you’ve noticed by now, there’s no Apple Lucy mentioned as a member of the Davis family. So then who is she? Turns out, she was the beloved family golden retriever that had a taste for apples. Even though she’s gone, her legacy for fresh fruit lives on at her namesake drive-in.
203 N 9th Street, Parma
facebook.com/AppleLucysBakeryAndDiner/
Open Monday – Saturday 11 am – 8 pm