SANDBRIDGE — A couple of days before Thanksgiving, Martha Gaione, co-owner of Simply Steamed in the Sandbridge Shoppes, gave the kitchen oven a workout, cranking out pies in time for the holiday.
The phone was still ringing with pie requests, though 60 pies had been made to order for pickups. And it rang again.
“They want a pecan and an apple,” said Walt Smith, handling the caller. His wife, Toni Smith, owns Simply Steamed with Gaione.
“I think that’s it for apple,” Gaione said.
“Does this kill the pecan?” Smith asked.
Gaione did the math.
“We’ve got one more,” she said.
Pies have been a growing part of the business, perhaps best known for seafood, take-home steam pot meals and catering.
Simply Steamed has been holding its baking sessions with Gene Estes, whom Gaione called the “pie master,” though he was away visiting family that day.
Gaione, back in the days of her restaurant Zest, remembered fixing big holiday meals, sometimes cooking up turkey from folks from the shipyard who had been given them at the job. She’s also catered big Thanksgiving meals, but that wasn’t in the plans this time.
“This year, I’m cooking for my family at home,” she said.
A favorite pie?
“Chocolate pecan,” she said.
“Also,” Smith noted, “whatever we don’t sell.”
© 2017 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC
