Flying Saucer Pie Co.

Ok so Freepress Summerfest, despite only happening about a week ago, is already a distant memory in my head but because I said I would talk about it here are a few brief points:

Houston bands by and large are very good and we are very lucky to have such a diverse and fruitful group of musicians making music in our fair city.

Austin has some very nice bands that came down to help out, though I kind of wish some more Houston bands had been allowed more time than they got, especially Los Skarnales who have been around as long as I can remember (which actually is through most of high school)

Some guys started a fight during Broken Social Scene's set which doesn't even make any kind of sense. Kevin Drew stopped the set to yell at the two guys. His solution to the problem was one dick go one way and the other dick go the other way. The crowd cheered afterwards. The band picked up more or less where they left off, which for 8 or 9 people is very impressive.

Explosions in the Sky were definitely the best show I've seen in quite some time. It was a balmy summer night and the sun was setting, it was all very dramatic. I would highly recommend seeing them under these or any conditions.

It was really hot, but the vitamin water was free and beer was only 5 dollars.

There was a lot of weed, and the cops didn't seem to mind.

Devin the Dude was fucking fantastic, though whomever was working sound wasn't really on their game. The bass during "She Want that Money" completely overwhelmed the sound system and the hook got totally lost in the mix which is a shame because it's a good hook.

All in all it was great to finally see Houston with a music festival. We're a great city with a great scene and it was great to see all those bands assembled in one place for so cheap. If I can offer only one praise for this festival (not that I don't have more) it was that the whole thing seemed as non-commercial as possible. Beer and water were both plentiful and cheap and security allowed attendees to bring their own water. Despite the big names performing prices for weekend passes never rose above $20 which would have been enough to see any of the national acts alone.

It was a spectacular festival and despite the heat I had a really great time. I really hope to see something like this happen again next year.



Anyway, on to the main event, an institution Nathan and I have been trying to visit for at least 2 years, the Flying Saucer Pie Co. This has been difficult due to its opening hours, which end at 6 in the evening and Nathan and I constantly forgetting that we wanted to visit. Well a few months ago I discovered a program that emails your future self and reminds you to do something you've promised yourself to do in the past (it also does much more than that, also that last sentence was a little confusing but whatever you just deal with it ok). We both sent ourselves emails and were finally reminded of our duties to flying saucer.

Now unlike House of Pies, which is open 24 hours a day pretty much everyday except Christmas (where it really isn't open I don't think), Flying Saucer Co. is only open till 6. Also unlike the House of Pies it does not make a wide variety of pie, and once they run out of a particular variety they will not make any more for the day. So naturally working around their conditions for pie are a little difficult but not impossible. As it turns out they make more than enough pie to last them to 6 and even if you get there at around 3 or 4 you'll have more than enough to choose from.

So anyway I pick up Nathan from his house and we make our way to the loop. The trip was filled with discussions of my brother's idiocy and Devin the Dude. Eventually we find Flying Saucer Pie Co. The sign outside encourages visitors to try the pecan and strawberry pies, and had ample parking. Once inside we saw that there was no place to sit and everything was to go. So Nathan and I got slices of pie, I got the pecan and he got the strawberry The pecan pie was really good, the insides were gooey but not too runny and the pecan layer on top was nicely caramelized. Nathan's strawberry pie was made with whole strawberries and also looked quite good. We both raved about our pie and proclaimed that it was worth the trip which really hadn't taken that long.



I go back to Iowa in less than a week, I still need to pack.