Food Worth a Drive in Indiana: Pie, Amish Country

Food worth a drive in Indiana is mostly baked and served family style. The state's roads connect farm towns, courthouse squares and Amish communities, and the cooking along them is built around pies, noodles, fried chicken and thick slices of bread. Visit Indiana publishes a pie trail for the east.

Pack a cooler, small bills for roadside stands, napkins and a thermos of coffee. Many Amish restaurants are closed on Sundays, so plan other days.

What is the Indiana pie trail?

Visit Indiana publishes a culinary passport that includes a Hoosier pie trail, and local writers have mapped their own versions. The trail connects bakeries, family restaurants and roadside stands that sell pies by the slice or whole. Fillings change by season, with strawberry and rhubarb in spring, peach and berry in summer, apple and pumpkin in fall and cream pies all year.

Plan the trail as a half day or a full day, and eat a slice at each stop rather than a whole dessert. A fork and a napkin, and a thermos of coffee, make the day pleasant.

Pie is a Midwestern habit with a practical history. Farm kitchens baked pies from what the season provided, and the habit of selling slices at a roadside stand or a church bake sale grew from that. The result is a landscape of small bakeries, each with a house crust and a few signature flavors, and a driver who stops often will find more than any list names.

Why is Indiana sugar cream pie the state pie?

Indiana sugar cream pie is a custard pie with a simple filling of sugar, cream and flour, and it is sometimes called Hoosier pie. The Indiana Senate voted to adopt it as the state pie in 2009, to honor a Winchester family business that makes pies.

A Winchester restaurant and pie shop is the place to eat a slice on site, and a factory outlet store sells pies to take home. Check hours before you drive. Winchester is a small town in the east of the state, so it makes a good anchor for a day of driving.

What is Amish country food Indiana serves?

Amish country food Indiana is a style of cooking centered on large tables, fresh bread and desserts. Menus often include fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, noodles, green beans, slaws and pies. Many restaurants serve family style, meaning bowls pass around the table, or offer a buffet.

A Middlebury restaurant serves family style, buffet and menu dining prepared from family recipes, and its property includes a bakery, a gift shop, gardens and a quilt barn. You could spend hours wandering the grounds. Its bakery offers pie, and the sugar cream pie is classic Amish style, thick and sweet.

Which Shipshewana restaurants should you try?

Shipshewana restaurants cluster around the town's famous flea market and the streets near it. A Shipshewana restaurant and bakery is another popular stop, and Visit Indiana lists it as a stop on its pie trail. A route that links Winchester, Middlebury and Shipshewana makes a long day of pie, though the two ends are more than an hour apart by car.

Confirm opening days before you go. Many Amish owned businesses close on Sundays, and some close on other days as well.

What makes food worth a drive in Indiana?

Pick a region, not the whole state. The north has Amish country, the east has Winchester and the pie trail, and the south has small towns along the Ohio River. Allow time for scenic detours and slow roads, and be ready to share the road with horse drawn buggies in the north.

Pack a cooler for pies and breads, and carry cash for roadside stands. A homemade pie stand along a county road is often the best find of a trip. Keep a few napkins and plastic forks in the car.

What should you order at an Indiana family restaurant?

Order what the room does best. At a family style restaurant, the fried chicken, mashed potatoes and noodles are the core. Ask about the soup of the day, and finish with a slice of pie. If the menu has a dessert case, look at it first and save room.

Do not rush. Meals in Amish country are social, and the pace is slower than in a city. The staff are used to visitors and happy to explain dishes you have not seen.

Buy something to take home. Bakeries sell breads, cookies and jars of jam and apple butter, and a loaf of fresh bread is a good souvenir. Pay attention to photography customs in Amish communities, and ask before you take pictures of people.

What else should you eat around Indiana?

For a city meal at either end of the trip, read the Mass Ave Indianapolis restaurants guide or cheap eats in Indianapolis. For the state's signature sandwich, the best pork tenderloin sandwich in Indiana guide is the place to begin. The US guides page lists more.

How do you plan an Indiana food road trip?

A road trip is better with a route. Rate each pie, tenderloin or diner breakfast by the dish as you go, and add a Worth the Trip tag when the detour paid off.

Build an Indiana list in driving order and share the invite link with whoever is in the car.

A pie is the sort of food that deserves a note. Download the Mosey app, rate each slice by its crust, its filling and its freshness, and build an Indiana list that records the best pie you tasted on the road.