On January 19, 3 large groups of us went for a field trip to the Pie Factory at Quaker Square in Akron. For a fee of $7.95, each child was taken into the kitchen behind the scenes of the restaurant to stand around a prep table to "make" their own pie. Although the crusts were already made, the children used rollers to flatten the dough into a pie shape and place it into a pan. The filling was put in for them in many cases, and the children were able to choose a cookie cutter shape to cut the center of their top crust. This helped to identify their pies later when they were baked. They had a choice of apple or cherry pie.
Although the children seemed to enjoy their time, the tour was extremely rushed and the helpers seemed irritated and stressed. They didn't allow the children to do much on their own, even filling the pies and in some cases, placing the dough on the pie. There was no teaching at all about the baking process or the restaurant or even the history of the restaurant. Questions were discouraged or disregarded. I was also disappointed in the scheduling of the tours, as they were not straight with me about tour details until the last minute and we had to change our times, resulting in some people being late due to not receiving the information about changes.
We were told that the pies would be finished baking in about an hour, but it was more like 1 and 1/2 to 1 and 3/4 hours until the pies were baked and ready to go.
Although this does not reflect on the Pie Factory, there wasn't much to do for the 3 hours that we spent there that day (only about 30 minutes was spent making a pie). Quaker Square is hardly a fraction of what it was when I was a child and enjoyed strolling through the numerous unusual and interesting shops. Much of the shopping areas have been changed to business offices, so there wasn't much to see while we waited.
I did enjoy, however, getting to know some of the new members of our group during that time. Making new friends is always a worthwhile endeavor.
If you are interested in making your own pies, you can contact them at 330-252-0552. The pie making fee is $7.95 and there is also a charge for parking.
