Daily Ask SAM Column

This was in today's Winston-Salem Journal:

Q. After living out of the country for quite awhile, I have now retired and moved back into the Winston-Salem area. I have found plenty of great barbecue and Cheerwine, but I cannot find my old snack favorite that I believed was called B&G fried pies. I remember having them in plenty of choices, and there was a bakery where you could purchase them also, perhaps at the factory? Can you help me locate a retail outlet? - C.C.

A. B&G fried pies are still made in Winston-Salem, but in a different place and by a different company.

King Foods Inc. makes the snack-size pies, in five flavors: apple, peach, cherry, lemon and chocolate. The manufacturing building is at 2400 Old Lexington Road. There isn’t a retail store or sales hours, but “we sell to anyone that comes in the door,” said Helen Baker, who owns the company with her husband.

“We start working in the morning and work until we’re finished manufacturing for the day so we leave at different times,’’ she said. “But we are thrilled when customers come by and want a pie as fresh as they can get them.”

The original B&G Pie Co. began in the 1940s. Longtime residents may remember the company’s headquarters on South Marshall Street. King Foods bought B&G in 1989.

Baker said that such local restaurants as Kermit’s Hot Dog House, Little Richard’s Bar-B-Que and P.B.’s Takeout sell the pies. You can’t really say you’ve been to Winston-Salem unless you’ve been to at least one of those joints.

We’ve also seen the pies at Lowes Foods, near the frozen-food section. Not that you would want to eat one heated with vanilla ice cream or anything.

Thanks
To the people who helped when my wife and I were stranded on the highway when our car broke down while traveling north on U.S. 52 close to King. We want to thank Butch and others at Stokes Tire and Automotive, who received our car after it was towed. Someone from the shop gave us a ride to the Winston-Salem airport to pick up a rental car. Butch later had to retrieve my wife’s camera from the car used to take us to the airport, and he mailed it to her. All of this help was provided at no charge. Thanks also to the anonymous woman who stopped to check on us and brought us bottles of water, as well as the gentleman who stopped and called the police for us so that they could help us get a tow truck, which showed up very quickly. This car problem was very stressful, but the care and service received helped us get through it. We will be forever grateful and won’t forget your small, thoughtful town. - Alan and Sue Boyd, Athens, Ohio