A friend of mine recently visited from out-of-town. She looked up places to visit on Time-Out Chicago’s Instagram posts and came up with First Slice Andersonville, a pie place, to visit. I rode up there with her to check it out and eat some pie
My friend comes from PA farm country and has been making pies from scratch most of her life. Her mother was also a master pie baker. She knows a lot about pies, including how hard it is to make a good one
Although I’ve tasted great pie, this is my first try at being a food critic. So swallow these opinions with a grain of sugar.
This place is up on Ashland in Andersonville, obviously, across the street from the Edgewater Historical Society. It’s a little corner store front with a seating area in the back.
We tried four different slices of pie: Balsamic Raspberry Pear, Strawberry Rhubarb, Michigan Sour Cherry and Traditional Apple.
The first one I had was the Traditional Apple. Not good. Tasted terrible. There were no discernable slices of apple. The crust was the texture of a wet paper towel. The filling was overly sweet drowning out any chance the apples had of shining through. No tartness or apple taste at all.
The second slice was Balsamic Raspberry Pear. Let’s just say it did not taste good. It had the consistency and texture of Jello. The crust was extremely thin and a little chewy-Not a good traits in a pie crust. It had a raspberry flavor , but if there was supposed to be some discernible pear or vinegar flavor, I missed it. So did my companion.
The third slice was Strawberry Rhubarb. I have fond memories of my grandmother’s strawberry rhubarb pie from my childhood. The only thing I tasted in the Fresh Slice pie was dull strawberry. The bigger problem again was the texture. My friend said it had also been overly thickened. The filling did not have any natural fruit flavor or juice. Because rhubarb is naturally sour, the idea of adding the strawberries adds natural sweetness to balance the rhubarb. The Fresh Slice offering was a missed opportunity.
The fourth and final slice was the Michigan Sour Cherry. Before last Thanksgiving, my friend paid $100 to have some Michigan sour cherries shipped to her to make pies. She knows a good deal about cherry pies. The Fresh Slice piece of pie was actually pretty good, something of a pleasant surprise given its predecessors. Although, it too was over thickened and had no natural fruit juice, the crust was better and the filling did taste like cherry. Worth eating but it also had some issues. The crust was drier than the others but not exactly flaky. This pie was okay, edible but not much better than okay.
Fresh Slice Andersonville did have something a little interesting. There is an interesting bench to sit at in the front window, and the coffee was good.
Since the city offers lots of amazing coffee and good benches, we are not likely to return to this spot.
