As American as apple pie: The Pie Safe offers slices of pie, nostalgia

The Pie Safe Bakery & Cafe stands in the former Bank of Pocahontas, a village in northern Cape Girardeau County tucked into an area rich in beauty and tradition.

The building dates to the early 1900s.

Owner Sharon Penrod has operated the Pie Safe with husband Monte Penrod since 2012.

She's rolling out pie crust on a Wednesday morning. It's been raining, but the sun is emerging, and she's awaiting a lunch party of five.

It's a pretty typical weekday, if there is such a thing, she said.

Penrod said she and her husband started as farmers market vendors in Jackson and later Cape Girardeau, selling pies and other goods.

Sharon Penrod works with pies Wednesday at The Pie Safe Bakery & Cafe in Pocahontas.Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian

"We've grown," she said, wryly.

The walls are hung with whimsical, cheerful pieces, from a vintage Candyland board to an Easter wreath. Fanciful glass pieces filter light through the window. Framed photos of the Penrods' ancestors help illustrate the family's history, while Sharon uses heirloom recipes and long traditions to create.

Originally, she wanted to just serve pie. The bank's safe inspired the name, she said, and she designed the dining room accordingly, never thinking she'd have much of a crowd all at once.

But people often don't want just pie. They want to be fed first, she said.

So she obliges, serving up what she has on hand that day: Soup, sometimes quiche, salads. She makes her own house salad dressing -- on a recent day made with some leftover pickle juice -- and she has sandwich fixings to serve.

It just depends on the day, what she has.

The safe itself is now a tiny candy shop.

Sharon Penrod waits on customers (counterclockwise from woman in purple by wall) Carol Kluender, Charlie Meeks, Carol Barron, Ruth Graham and Sue Baugher, all of Perryville, Missouri, on Wednesday at The Pie Safe Bakery & Cafe in Pocahontas.Jacob Wiegand ~ Southeast Missourian

The main room is dominated by the food-preparation area, sectioned off by a display case and long counter. There's a kitchen in another room.

A wall of shelves houses rolling pins, cookie cutters, stand mixer attachments, pastry cutters -- the works.

"My baking is not the latest, Pinterest thing," Penrod said. "It's more like, if you came to your grandmother's house, and this is what was made today."

Penrod's pie fillings reflect that same sense of making do. If she doesn't have quite enough apples, she'll add some berries she has on hand.

The Blue Hawaii is a pineapple and blueberry pie she makes, after a customer requested a low-sugar pie and suggested pineapple.

And, she said, she was listening to Elvis in January, when not a lot of fruits are in season.

"Raspberry pineapple is another good one," she noted.

Penrod bakes often so people can select from the freshest quality.

And select they do. Penrod sees customers make the trip to Pocahontas from miles away, some from Chester or Anna, Illinois, or Dexter, Missouri, but she's also had tourists from France and former nearby residents who've relocated as far away as Alaska.

Wherever her customers originate, Penrod's door is open to them, with a sign above: Meals and Memories Made Here.