Mind your Thanksgiving P’s and Q’s

Just have to say of all my food addictions, Chocolate Cream Pie from P’s & Q’s (Pies & & Quiches atMagazine and Nashville), towers above them all.I love to bake at home, but P’s & Q’s is putting me out of the pie business. I know when I can’t compete.

Remember Toddle House Chocolate Cream Pie? Well, forget it, that one’s not even in the same league as the version from Betsy Matthews. While husband Jude tends the front of the house, she bakes small batches of her stellar family recipe with a shatter-thin crust on the salty side, in contrast to the smooth dense very chocolatey filling, topped with whipped cream.

Jude and Betsy Matthews at P’s and Q’s

When Jude and Betsy got this bakeshop idea in their heads, armed with fabulous family recipes, they just did it.

Once or twice a week, I skip breakfast and lunch and inhale me one of their small Chocolate Cream Pies. I have a hard time ordering anything except that pie, but I’ve tasted the fruit pies and quiches, which are also fabulous.

The object of my desire.

And you need some coffee with those pies. Located in the shop with P’s & Q’s is the Uptown satellite branch of Hi-Volt, with one of the best Cortados I’ve tasted in NOLA. (I don’t know what a Cortado is officially, but it tastes like an intense cappuccino — short, strong, and velvety).

Thanksgiving is pie time.

I’m not a Pumpkin Pie eater, but the Pumpkin Ginger is one of the most popular of the shop’s Thanksgiving offerings, along with Apple Crumble and Pecan. The Bananas Foster Cheesecake and Sweet Potato with pecan crumble on top are the bakery’s newest additions. I can vouch for the Lemon Meringue Pie; it’s perfection.

And when we’ve all recovered from our feast, we can catch Jude at his non-day job: He will be DJing Thursday night at Siberia (2227 St Claude Ave).

Lemon Meringue confection perfection