Sweet as pie

STOCKHOLM, Wis. — Voted America’s best pie shop by USA Today in 2024 and 2025, Stockholm Pie and General Store started as a small section in the building on the corner of Spring St. and the Great River Road near the banks of the Mississippi River’s Lake Pepin.

Siblings Janet Garrettson and Alan Nugent have transformed their building into a centerpiece of Wisconsin products, with a foundation of flaky, buttery, decadent goodness.

“Pie equals love,” Nugent said. “There is something magical about pie that I don’t think we had any concept of when we started. When you get the emotional reactions that we get from people every day about the pie, it’s unbelievable.

On the menu at Stockholm Pie and General Store are several dairy-centric pies, including a coconut cream, chocolate cream, sour cream raisin and peanut butter fudge. In addition, the classics, including apple, blueberry, bumbleberry, cherry, pecan and more, can be purchased by the slice or shipped across the country. A lunch menu is also available with a variety of sandwiches and cheese options.

Annually, Stockholm Pie and General Store uses 600 pounds of cheese, 1,000 pounds of butter, 1,000 pounds of cream cheese, 700 gallons of milk, 275 gallons of heavy cream and 150 gallons of half and half to create its delicacies. About 100 gallons of Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream are consumed monthly, too.

“Dairy products are a huge part of what we do; so much of it is used in our pies,” Nugent said. “Without dairy, we would have a very boring pie list.”

Online demand for pies is largely seasonal.

“We ship pie three days a week,” Nugent said. “It could be 40 pies, it could be four, it just depends on the time of year. We’ve shipped to all 50 states, and we get to showcase our corner of Wisconsin to the rest of the country.”

Nicknamed “Her Pie-ness” by her brother, Garrettson was the founder, owner and primary baker for 12 years before retiring.

“This was (originally) supposed to be a weekend gig for my sister,” Nugent said. “She was a nurse when we bought the building and this little space. It was 400 square feet for the ovens, the counter and seating, and now it’s 8,000 square feet, all built on pie.”

“She always wanted a coffee shop and was going to make five or six pies a day and slice them out,” Nugent said. “Within a few months, we had lines out the door and we had to add another kitchen to make more space for pie.”

As Garrettson churned out more pies, the lines kept pace at the 125-year-old building. The building housed the bakery as well as Nugent’s art gallery and design studio. As pie continued to pick up steam, the art gallery gave way to pie.

“My gallery and design studio was a great, dynamite business,” Nugent said. “But pie just took over the world. We slowly shrunk it, and I finally shut it down. Five years ago, I went full time into the pie shop and it just exploded.”

Nugent, who also worked in interior design, uses that skill set to take people back in time as they walk in the door.

“It’s like stepping back into grandma’s house,” Nugent said. “It’s comforting and provides a legitimate experience. We’re able to pair that with some of the best pie you’ve ever had, and it creates something that all fits together.”

Stockholm Pie and General Store makes everything by hand, using a crust recipe that Garrettson learned 50 years ago from a woman at her church in rural Kansas. The first time Nugent tasted the crust, he was amazed at the flakiness and flavor, reminding him of pies his mother and grandmother made.

“There’s a 15-year difference in our age,” Nugent said. “I never knew she baked until one day she brought a pie out and it was stupid good. I thought ‘we could sell this’, and she loved making pies. We didn’t know what we had gotten ourselves into.”

The pies are made through a labor-intensive process, without a mixer in the building. Crusts are made by hand with dough forks and a wooden press, just as Garrettson was taught. Everything is made from scratch, and fresh ingredients are an essential.

The goodness of Stockholm fruit pies relies on butter, whipped cream, half and half and cream cheese, along with hand-peeled apples and fillings made from real fruit.

In the general store, Nugent has a supply of handcrafted Wisconsin spirits, ice cream and cheese from Eau Galle Cheese and Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery and other artisan cheesemakers in southern Wisconsin.

“The whole Wisconsin element of what we do, I think, is very important,” Nugent said. “We are the epitome of the Midwest in Wisconsin, and we’re the face of that when we have people from around the country buy our pies.”