Introduction

I have a friend who orders a turkey club sandwich for lunch at every restaurant he goes to. If there's a turkey club on the menu, that's what he gets. There's something nice about that; his hope is that he'll see something familiar on his plate, something he knows. My father, on the other hand, orders chili for lunch whenever it appears on the menu. His hope is quite different. Because the word Chili means very different things to different people, he always hopes that the chili he gets is something he hasn't seen before.

This blog is somewhere between those two ideas of ordering the same thing in different places. For years, I've loved key lime pie. The best I've had was down in the Florida Keys when I was a teenager going to visit my cousins. But that was a long time ago and I had a teenager's large appetite and low standards. How different are the various key lime pies from each other? What makes for a good or bad key lime pie experience? I'm not sure, but I'm going to try to find out by tasting a bunch of them.

The posts on this blog will illuminate the key lime pies available in Michigan (and possibly other places as well). Each entry will judge a different restaurant's idea of just what a key lime pie ought to be. Criteria for judging include presentation, crust, filling, topping, originality, and tradition. All that will be cooked down to a rating in limes--one, two, three, or four limes, with four limes being the highest.

If you know of a truly wonderful or original key lime pie, e-mail me and I'll check out, giving you credit of course.

Happy reading,

Jon

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

KLP 6: Weber's Inn

Weber's Inn is an Ann Arbor institution.  The hotel is lovely and the restaurant has a nice assortment of steaks and mainstream American fare.  The key lime pie is one of half a dozen desserts on the menu.

Presentation: A not very exciting presentation, especially immediately following the Quarter Bistro's flamboyant plate.  Light dusting of graham cracker crumbs was pretty.

Crust: A thin graham cracker crust.  No distinctive flavoring, but fresher-tasting than some of the other pies.

Filling: Very flavorful.  The menu boasts that it uses Florida key lime juice in the filling.  It shows in the amount of flavor.  One of the better fillings in this group.

Topping:  A dollop of a topping that I couldn't identify.  Thicker than whipped cream, softer than fondant.  Decent taste, reminiscent of sweet butter.  Probably some type of mousse.  I asked the waiter and he didn't know, so he went off to the kitchen to ask.  No one there knew, either.  Probably not a good sign.

Original elements:  None.  Like Weber's itself, this is all about the traditional elements.

Traditional elements: This one had all the traditional elements.  Graham cracker crust, custard filling, dollop of topping, strawberry on the side, dusting of lime zest.  All there, all about as you'd expect.

Rating: Three limes. Unlike the Quarter Bistro pie, this one looks unexciting but tastes good.  Too bad the presentation of the Quarter can't be combined with the strong flavor of the filling of this one.
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