Roadtrip IV

It wasn’t a recommendation that pointed Jill and me toward Louisa County for our fourth lunchtime roadtrip last week.

In fact, nobody we knew had ever eaten at the restaurant that was our destination.

What drew us to the town of Louisa, the county seat of Louisa County, was the restaurant’s name: Floozies Pie Shop.

(Note the absence of an apostrophe. Perhaps that means this is not a pie shop owned by floozies but a pie shop for floozies. I forgot to ask.)
   
Who wouldn’t want to have lunch at a place called Floozies Pie Shop?

On a rare, beautiful July day with heat but little humidity, Jill and I drove west on Staple’s Mill Road, also known as state route 33, for about an hour. And there we were. Finding the restaurant was easy. It’s on Main Street, right across from the elegant classic-revival brick courthouse, built 110 years ago.

Floozies sells all kind of pies, whole or by the slice. The restaurant is a cozy place with a few tables inside and several more outside the front door. The interior décor is folksy and kitschy, with lots of knickknacks recalling the 1940s and ‘50s on a wall of shelves.  Admiring them while we waited to be served passed the time quickly. An old-school ice cream scoop brought back memories of riding my bike to the drug store soda fountain on summer Sunday afternoons to fetch a hand-packed quart of chocolate for my mom, my father and my little sister and me.
   
Floozies also sells standard cafe fare at lunchtime -- sandwiches and soups, salads and quiche -- but it’s the pies that take center stage.

A refrigerated display case holds at least a dozen varieties, many using locally sourced ingredients: apple, peach, blueberry and strawberry rhubarb, among many others, were available when we were there, along with one I had to ask the waitress to explain. It’s called Pucker Up and Kiss Me. She told me the secret to the Pucker Up was thin slices of candied lemon. But both Jill and I decided we had to have a slice of the double-crust peach pie. The crust was perfect, reminiscent of my mom’s crusts, and the filling was luscious. We had eaten a big lunch -- so we took the pie slices home with us.

Next time, I really want to try the Pucker Up pie.

And there will be a next time. The drive to Louisa alone is a treat. Floozies makes the trip even more worthwhile.

And you gotta like the pie shop’s slogan: “Take home a floozie today.”