My husband, Robert, and I discovered Nesselrode pie while poring over the New York City Public Library’s menu archives shortly after opening our shop. In our search for bygone pies, we saw endless varieties of cream pies, custard pies, and fruit pies à la mode—after all, up through the mid-twentieth century it was unusual for an American restaurant to not feature pie for dessert. Most of them were familiar flavors, but a mysterious name, Nesselrode, kept popping up on menu after menu. What an odd and undescriptive name for a pie! The name then turned up in emails from hopeful customers on behalf of their elderly parents, pleading with me to supply them with a pie to satisfy a very specific nostalgic craving. Curious, I looked further into the history of this pie, which was previously unknown to me, despite having grown up in a world of pie.
