Lucille George’s pie made her a town icon. Photography courtesy of JEANNE WAGNER
A man once put a $10,000 check on the counter of Lucille George’s Carolina Café — or so one version of the story goes — in an attempt to buy her peanut butter pie recipe. Countless others tried, too. But Mrs. George always chuckled and waved them off. “I’m not going to give [the recipe] away,” she told the Rocky Mount Telegram when she closed the community institution in 1987 after 45 years of business. “I’m going to carry it with me.”
The dense, rich pie topped with a towering layer of merengue — the standout on her country menu — had made Mrs. George an icon in Rocky Mount. She gladly shared recipes celebrating her Lebanese heritage with the local paper, but she took the recipe for her signature dessert to the grave in 2008.
All his life, people who connected Matt Kannan to his great-aunt Lucille asked if he possessed the cherished recipe. And now, unexpectedly, he does. Someone secretly slipped a copy to his wife, Brandy, and after significant trial and error, she perfected the preparation. The couple invited 30 locals — including the mayor, who pined for the original — to test her rendition. All attested to its authenticity; overcome, one man started crying.
Now, hundreds of “Mrs. George’s Pies” are once again sold locally, but this time, the packaging is a portrait of the “strong but gentle” businesswoman and family matriarch.
To learn more, visit mrsgeorgepies.com.
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