Eyes on the pies

Summerlin bakery boosts production for Thanksgiving

Pies Unlimited video Jason bean/VIEWPies Unlimited owner Mike Teliska, right, checks on a batch of pumpkin pies made by employee Dale Smith at the bakery, 9310 Sun City Blvd., Suite 104, Nov. 4. Pies Unlimited has been taking orders for Thanksgiving since mid-October and sold an estimated 7,000 pies for the holiday last year. jason bean/viewDale Smith loads the oven with a batch of pecan pies at Pies Unlimited, Nov. 4. jan hogan/viewGift boxes sit on display at Pies Unlimited, 9310 Sun City Blvd., Suite 104, Nov. 3. The bakery said traditional Thanksgiving pie flavors such as pumpkin, pecan and apple are among its top sellers. Advertisement

Turkey. Stuffing. Pie. What would Thanksgiving Day be without them?

At Pies Unlimited, 9310 Sun City Blvd., Suite 104, the holiday is its busiest time of year.

Between corporate accounts and retail sales, the bakery created an estimated 7,000 pies last year for Turkey Day, and it hopes to do the same this year.

Susan Cooper, sales associate at Shift 4, a technology company in Summerlin, regularly orders from Pies Unlimited for the company's monthly birthday celebrations. But Cooper also plans to buy three flavors to take to family on the East Coast when she flies there for Thanksgiving.

"They (airport security staff) say you're not supposed to take food, but it'll be all packaged up real nice," she said.

And if security gets a whiff and decides a taste or two is needed to verify the contents?

"Then I'll decide security is hungry, and I'll give it to them," Cooper said.

Pies Unlimited bakes its pies daily, making everything from scratch. There are 30 fruit pie flavors, starting at $8.95. All of them are available in the no-sugar-added style. It also has cream pies, meringue pies and specialty flavors such as key lime and coconut custard.

"Usually, the no-sugar-added pies sell better than the regular ones," said Mike Teliska, who owns and operates the bakery with his wife, Treasa. "But they go for the regular ones at Thanksgiving. It's like they saved up the calories all year just for that day."

Pies Unlimited has been taking orders since mid-October for the holiday. Customers can also walk in and buy pies that are in a display case, but the supply and choice of flavor is limited for walk-in traffic.

Pumpkin and pecan are the most popular flavors this time of year, followed by a tie between apple, cherry and lemon meringue. That holds true for both retail and wholesale sales. About 70 percent of its business is from wholesale accounts, most with major hotels. It takes a crew of 11 to fill all the orders.

The bakery's strangest order has been to have two pie flavors baked side by side in one pie, sort of like a pizza ordered half-pepperoni, half-mushroom. The order was for a pie that was half-apple, half-cherry.

"The first time it happened, we went, 'Is this for real?' " Mike Teliska said. "We had to pamper it through the whole process ... When you're making 600 to 700 pies, and there's one floating in there that's a strange one, you have to make sure it doesn't slip in and get mixed up."

The special order also came with a special price tag: $15, instead of $9.45, he said.

Making the desserts means two industrial-sized, 40-quart dough mixers, each almost 4 feet across, mix and fold the dough. Then the dough is divided up, the fillings are added, and the baking begins. The ovens are fired up about 1:30 p.m. almost six days a week and run until about 10 p.m.

Even Christmas is not as high a seller as Thanksgiving for Pies Unlimited. The December holiday sees about a third less orders than Turkey Day.

This year, the economy has taken its toll, knocking off non-holiday sales by about 25 percent. It is uncertain exactly how the economy will affect this year's Thanksgiving final sales. But in a failing economy, diversity is wise.

"We just added cakes, though we didn't promote it for Thanksgiving," Treasa Teliska said. "People were going, 'Why can't you make cakes?,' so we added it about two months ago. It's just that we didn't market it too much."

Pies Unlimited has a club card, jokingly referred to among the staff as its "frequent pie-er club." Buy eight and get the ninth free.

Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Pies Unlimited is closed Sunday. Call 433-7437, or to order online, visit www.piesunlimited.com.

Contact Summerlin View and South Summerlin View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.