Steve’s AUTHENTIC Key Lime Pies – Treats “On the Waterfront”
Going to Steve’s AUTHENTIC (all-caps!) Key Lime Pies is like visiting a crazy sea captain, if said sea captain kept a hermitage on a pier in Red Hook and baked delicious pies all day. Just follow the sign on Van Brunt & Van Dyke Sts., past the little garden crowned with a boat, and you’ll find the promised: “Pie’s Here.â€Â Hooray! Inside you’ll find a relatively dark, vaguely nautical-themed space which is the wholesale bakery itself with a small counter for purchasing pies. Steve’s is very insistent on making sure you understand that getting an actual key lime pie is rare. Key limes are a specific variety of limes that are named after the Florida Keys and are much smaller, more yellow, and more acidic than regular Persian limes you’d buy at the store. They’re rare because they’re annoying to deal with: the thornier the key lime tree, the more fruit it bears, and the little buggers are chock full of seeds. Steve’s is proud to take on the burden: they import the limes, squeeze and deseed them, make the pies, and sell them in Red Hook and through various lucky establishments throughout the city. The menu is simple: you get either a key lime pie in various sizes or you get a Swingle, which is a 4″ tart dipped in dark, semi-sweet Belcolade chocolate and frozen on a popsicle stick. I’ve had it once, and I’m not sure whether the sourness of the limes marries well with the bitterness of the chocolate– it’s a bit much to ask of the tongue, perhaps. I always get the regular 4″ personal tart with its smooth and citrusy filling in the tasty Graham cracker crumb crust. It’s not too sweet and not too sour– the perfect balance.
Red Hook too far out for you? Well, either pay the markup for one of these suckers at the St. Regis or Peter Luger’s, or make a day of it in the Hook: gorge yourself on pupusas at the Ball Fields you’ve heard so much about, visit the Barge Museum (featuring a Rube Goldberg machine and live lop-eared bunny), then be good and get some shopping done at nearby Fairway.
Steve’s AUTHENTIC Key Lime Pies Pier 41, Red Hook 204 Van Dyke St. Brooklyn, NYÂ 11231 718-404-6911 888-450-5463http://stevesauthentic.com
2 Comments to Steve’s AUTHENTIC Key Lime Pies – Treats “On the Waterfront”
Yum, that sounds delicious. I love key lime pie. I’m curious how much Steve is charging for one of these tasty pies – key lime are notoriously a pain in the bum to work with, providing little juice and zest for much effort. I also read that most people prefer the “key lime” pie made with regular limes, but I would not be opposed to evaluating the true key lime pie myself during my next NYC visit… and making the definitive judgment, of course.
Ooh! I’m going to Redhook today! cant wait to try the pie.
September 4, 2009