NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Elliston Place Soda Shop has been amid its 12 Pies of Christmas, offering a different variety each day. We catch up with the woman behind those legendary pies for reflections on 30 years of holiday memories.
When you're at the Elliston Place Soda Shop, you see a coconut pie without the meringue, you know it's not finished. It's certainly not finished when Linda Melton's around to give it that crowning glory.
Watch Ms. Linda work her pie magic in the player above.
"People walk through that door, and the first thing they see is that pie case and they go, 'look at the meringue!" she laughed.
"This place is well-known for [the pies]," chimed in a customer. "Make them give you a piece of it before you go!"
"That is super high," said another, staring at the meringue in the case.
Anyone seen meringue this high before?
"Never! No," said a mother visiting with her two sons. "We've been around the world! Never."
"I am the Pie Lady," Linda said.
"What do you make of that title?" I asked her.
"I don't know! Sometimes I wonder about it. I think it's funny, actually."
The story behind the towering meringue goes back to Linda's childhood.
"Oh, honey. We were from way back in the country. Decaturville, Tennessee, actually," Linda began. "[My grandmother] had 10 kids and kept all the grandkids. So, she cooked. As you got older, you had to learn to help her with the food. I took a liking to the pies."
Linda became the general manager of the Po' Folks chain of restaurants. When the chain closed came a new opportunity.
Thirty years ago, Linda first walked through the doors of the shop and began working. Of course, this was a very different neighborhood then.
"Course, there was the EXIT/IN," Linda remembered. "Then you had the Gold Rush. That was pretty much it. 30 years later, here I still am!"
Thirty years brought great memories. In 1994, Linda appeared in a photoshoot at the shop with Marty Stuart.
"You see all that hair, honey?" she laughed, looking back at the picture. "I got tired of messing with it!"
Thirty years have brought many changes, including the shop moving into a new building next door to the original. What has not changed over 30 years is the lessons and measurement systems taught to Ms. Linda by her grandmother.
"My granny taught me with a coffee cup and a regular ole teaspoon, and I still use a coffee cup and a regular ole teaspoon," she smiled. "I think she'd be proud of me altogether for continuing to do this."
"I've been told it's OKto get a banana split for breakfast here?" a customer said.
"I think the menu actually says that," laughed Ms. Linda.
Christmas is Ms. Linda's busiest time of the year. She loves hearing what these pies mean to others.
"They just remind me of my mom," a customer said. "She was a great pie maker, and she's gone. These just bring back such fond memories. Nostalgia."
"That's a lot of pie, baby," Ms. Linda said, holding up a coconut pie topped with tall meringue. "That's what I love doin!"
Merry Christmas, Ms. Linda.
Ms. Linda also asked that we mention Elliston Place Soda Shop has just brought back their Sunday brunch.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
