What's the secret behind Tom Douglas' famous pie in Seattle?

More than thirty years ago, a kitchen counter was dusted with flour, mirroring that of a quiet street’s first snow. Gentle hands crimped blankets of dough across the rims of silver pie dishes, plump egg yolks dropped into shallow bowls, and showers of coconut accompanied pillows of sweet custard.

Now, more than 30 years later, it’s one of Seattle’s most beloved desserts.

Restaurateur and culinary guru Tom Douglas debuted his Triple Coconut Cream pie alongside his flagship restaurant, Dahlia Lounge, long before he opened 12 more restaurants across the Emerald City.

The pie has now accompanied birthday parties and weddings. When former President Barack Obama hosted fundraisers in the Seattle area, he asked for it by name. The pie is so famous, it even found its own place featured as an ice cream flavor from Portland's cult-favorite Salt and Straw.

But it doesn't stop there. The humble coconut cream pie was so beloved by local Seattleites, it even kickstarted a bakery for itself by the name of Dahlia Bakery.

Now, on National Coconut Cream Pie Day, what better way to pay our respects to the tropical custard pie than with a backstory on its claim to fame across the Emerald City?

The pie was originally crafted by Douglas and his head pastry chef, Shelley Lance, who co-authored Douglas’ cookbook and devised the original recipe before cutting the ribbon on Dahlia Lounge.

Inspired by one of Douglas’ friends, Jim Dodge, the recipe’s original DNA was adopted from Dodge’s book “The American Baker" prior to its later experimentation.

Though pie was a tad unconventional on a fine dining restaurant’s menu at the time, Douglas was insistent on a feeling of hominess and comfort, even atop white linens.

“At the time, pie was on every casual diner menu, it was a very popular American dessert,” Douglas said. “People had this notion about what pie was, and no fine dining restaurant had pie on the menu. Pie was not cool enough for fine dining, and that’s where I feel like we helped change the conversation.”

Though back in its day the pie was simply sold by the slice out of Dahlia Lounge, it soon gained acclaim across every Tom Douglas restaurant menu, and became Douglas' best seller across the company. Prior to restaurant closures in wake of the novel coronavirus, approximately 125 triple coconut cream pies were sold by the day across the Emerald City.

“That’s a lot of custard,” Douglas said with a laugh.

All things considered, it's a relatively simple recipe, which Douglas believes contributes to its claim to fame.

“Coconut naturally doesn’t have a ton of flavor, so when you’re not using coconut flavoring, you really have to work with it in a lot of ways to achieve the coconut flavors you want,” Douglas said. “Toasting the coconut, for example.”

The flaky pie crust is comprised of butter and shaved coconut, smothered with a coconut pastry cream in a custard style with eggs, then topped with whipped cream, white chocolate shavings, and toasted coconut flakes.

Very little has changed over the decades; if anything. Although, Douglas says the pie has become a tad more coconutty as some of the cream in the filling has been replaced by coconut milk.

Making it a quadruple coconut cream pie, perhaps.

“I believe when you put food in your mouth your body has the ability to identify and recognize real ingredients as opposed to chemicals,” Douglas said. “Oddly, what we didn’t perceive happening, was customers really appreciated that. People recognized the real coconut, and the pure butters and creams.”

By Douglas’ standards, it simply reminds guests and customers of home.

“It really is what grandma used to cook,” he said. “Grandma didn’t have all of those fake ingredients, so people resonate with the pie as it once was in all its original beauty.”

Although Douglas has temporarily closed his restaurants, he recently opened the doors to one new venture, and hopes to have pies back on the menu soon.

Serious Takeout is the new kid on Ballard’s block, doling out no-contact takeout, drive-thru service, and delivery via Caviar, DoorDash and ChowNow.

Nestled at 5118 14th Ave. N.W., the hub for all manner of fire-roasted pizzas like that of buffalo mozzarella, sweet fennel sausage showered with roasted peppers, and seasonal mushroom dolloped with truffle cheese, works as a replica of it’s former Serious Pie chain.

And for the first time in 25 years, Douglas is back on the cook line dishing out his culinary skills once more.

“I haven’t been on my feet for 14 hours a day in quite some time, so I’m getting used to that,” he said with a laugh. “But to be back on the line, I feel f***ing awesome.”

Their no contact walk up, pick up and delivery is open 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. (or until they sell out) Wednesday through Sunday.

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