Amy Hyde-Klaiber, who owns the restaurant with her sister, Ashley Hyde-Tuley, said pie has always been part of the restaurant’s 77-year history. Their grandfather’s brother’s wife originally started baking pies and the recipe was passed down through the years.
“Prior to Covid we were really very much about fried chicken, beef and noodles, meatloaf and all those very home-cooked foods. Post-covid lots of people know about our pie,” Hyde-Klaiber said. “That’s our namesake.”
Hyde’s most popular pie is the Banana Cream featuring a banana base with vanilla filling topped with meringue, followed by their Pumpkin. During the holidays, the restaurant also has a Pumpkin Crumble pie featuring oatmeal streusel topping with caramel.
Credit: Submitted Photo
Credit: Submitted Photo
The restaurant is expecting to sell between 600 and 800 pies during pie-palooza. Customers must pre-order pies online and pick a time for pickup. On the day before Thanksgiving, the restaurant will offer a drive-thru pie service under a tent in the back of their parking lot. Employees work around the clock to meet the demand. Sometimes the pies are made within the hour of pickup, Hyde-Klaiber said.
Hyde’s pre-order cutoff is typically the Monday prior to Thanksgiving, but sometimes they have to cutoff sooner and put customers on a waitlist due to capacity. At times the waitlist has been 10 pages long, but Hyde-Klaiber said they “really take a lot of pride in getting through that waiting list.”
“It’s our signature in a way of being apart of so many families,” Hyde-Klaiber said. “When people tell me it’s not Thanksgiving unless we have our pie, I take that as a really great compliment.”
On a typical day, Hyde’s sells around 20 to 25 pies. The restaurant also has a pie trailer they bring to Operation Pumpkin each year. In the future, they hope to bring the pie trailer to other events, but right now they don’t have the staff to do it.
Credit: Submitted Photo
Credit: Submitted Photo
Making pies is a form of art, Hyde-Klaiber said. She credits her employees behind-the-scenes who not only make the pies, but care about the flavor of the pie, how it looks and the overall freshness. Some employees know their pies so well that all they have to do is take a look at the color or consistency to know how much longer it needs to bake.
When asked what helps her going throughout their busiest time of the year, she said it’s the customers.
“There’s nothing better than a warm pie out of the oven — the smell, the look,” Hyde-Klaiber said. “It’s one of my favorite parts of my job to deliver a pie because that makes everybody happy.”
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