In 2008, as Engler was preparing to give a talk about the bean pie at a Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance symposium, he realized how hard it had become to find one. A number of independent bakeries had gone out of business, and Muhammad University’s Supreme Bean Pie had just gone back into production after a mysterious absence. With some difficulty he managed to get a half-dozen pies delivered to the conference through a semiofficial bean pie courier.
It still isn’t easy to find them. Last month I spotted a stack of business cards at the register of the Nation’s Respect for Life Bookstore, across 79th Street from the headquarters of the Final Call. It advertised a distributor of the Nation’s Supreme Bean Pies. The bookstore has a refrigerator case that used to stock pies, but it was empty at the time, and repeated messages left at the number on the card went unreturned. The same was the case with the many calls I placed to Muhammad University after our visit.
So where does one get a bean pie these days? Of course, you can always make your own; recipes and YouTube tutorials abound on the Internet. The Nation’s Salaam Restaurant & Bakery, across the street from the bookstore, has them on the menu—$3 a slice and $10 for a whole pie. And there are still a few independent operators around the city. You can even find house-made “Taste of Heaven” bean pie ice cream at Flippin & Dippin Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream on 87th Street in Burnside (it’s really good).