I liked pie before it became popular. It’s a weak proclamation, equivalent to  saying one liked Coachella before it became popular enough to sell out in a week. Even if you are telling the truth, you might be confused for a new follower.

After several dessert items became trend foods (doughnuts, frozen yogurt, cupcakes), the public settled on a new, worthy victim: pie. It’s a classic dessert, formally lumped into the category of family holiday dishes. Often packaged in plastic and chosen at the last minute in a supermarket hustle for a potluck, pie was once poorly received. Now, pie is “hot.”

When I first settled into my neighborhood two years ago, my roommate and I walked a couple of miles each night after work. One night, we came upon a restaurant called “Four N 20.” It featured a charming logo of blackbirds in a pie, and the sign said "open." We sat down and ordered different fruit pies and coffee. The atmosphere was old-fashioned; I felt like I was in a friend’s grandma’s house. And the pie, which was under $5 for a generous slice, became an incentive to walk to the restaurant on a weekly basis. 

Sometime between discovering this pie shop and enjoying homemade pecan pies from my roommate, pie became popular. It was never an unpopular dessert, but now foodies were paying attention. Writers predicted new pie shops would open this year, but why reinvent something that is already perfect? If pie shops sprout up, they will change classic lattice patterns in exchange for graham crumbles or sell miniature versions of the famed, 9-inch baked circles.

I visited Four N 20 last week after a prolonged absence. It was a special occasion: National Pie Day. I usually don’t give in to such whims; it appears that every month is filled with seemingly dubious days dedicated to a food or condiment. But ordering pie at a place that served it before it became a trend was like voting for a candidate I admired in an election. It was a show of loyalty for classic, old-fashioned pie.

I ordered a slice of the pie of the month, French vanilla cherry, and marked my decisive vote for the dessert that may define the year.