Julian apple pie

Now that fall is here I can’t help but being excited for all sorts of hearty fill you up foods. I can’t keep my mind off of slow braised dishes, meatloaf, chili, and of course, warm apple pie. I feel that I myself can make a pretty mean apple pie, but in the name of research I decided to head to San Diego’s local apple pie resource, Julian.


Julian is a cute little town with orchards and wineries galore as well as many parks and tails for camping and hiking. If there is ever any snow in San Diego County, this is where you will find it. It’s a nice little get away for couples and families. Visiting in the fall can be quite nice especially as it is one of the few places in San Diego that you really get to see trees with leaves that change color as opposed to palm trees. In any event, this is where I wanted to go to taste, ahem, research some apple pies.

First let me start by saying, I have been to Julian once before on a Saturday and planned on getting some pie only to realize that just about any place that advertised pie had a line out the wazoo. We ended up not even getting any pie on that trip, because they do sell out, but we did get some apple cider. Let me say again, apple cider, not apple juice which is VERY different. Apple cider is cloudy and unpasteurized. It’s great cold or hot mulled with or without rum (but let’s be honest…with rum is better).

So, that first trip was not entirely unsuccessful. This trip we were fortunate enough to be able to go on a Thursday day, thus avoiding excessive lines. I had done quite a bit of research on the town and where was the best place to get apple pies, but let’s be honest; even I can only eat so much pie. I decided to go to Mom’s because they offered lunch and pie and I had read that their chicken pot pie was really delicious. I also found the thought of having pie twice in one meal was quite compelling. By the time we got there I couldn’t think of anything but pie. We found a parking spot practically right in front of Mom’s and walked in to see only one couple in line in front of us which was amazing all on its own. The really amazing thing was that once we walked through the door the wonderful scent of comfort flooded my nostrils. The whole place smelled like apple pie, I thought I had died and gone to heaven!

We ended up ordering a ham and cheese sandwich, a chicken pot pie, and two pieces of the apple crumb pie aka Dutch apple with ice cream. All the pies at Mom’s either have the regular double crust or the crumb topping. I believe they make the sandwich rolls there as well. The pot pie had a nice flakey crust and big chunks of chicken and vegetables. It was very good; the only thing missing there was a nice sprinkling of flakey sea salt on the top crust, which I always do when I make it.

Now for the pie…it was wonderful! The crust was nice and flakey. The apples were still a little crisp, just enough so you knew that they were real apples and not canned apple sludge. The crumb topping was good, but in my book needed just a tad more cinnamon and maybe allspice, not a huge deal because the apples had plenty of that flavor. As a whole the pie was really delicious, it wasn’t too sweet, and it really let the apples be the star.

All in all I give this pie and Mom’s 2 thumbs up. Please note however, that I have not tried the other places which also always have long lines. This is just the beginning of my pie research and I intend to find the best apple pie in Julian and then make my own.

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