FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Despite the flags that have...

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Despite the flags that have been waving over our plates recently, a good piece of pie is still a hard thing to find. Oh you can get great tartes and tortes and trifles, and the restaurant landscape is dotted with desserts with unpronounceable names like tira mi su and dacquoise and yes, sanglione, but go looking for a plain old piece of American pie and you encounter a wasteland.

Well, someone has finally decided to breach this culinary gap; Michael James and Billy Cross, (who pioneered the Great Chefs of France program in the Napa Valley), have just opened Mike and Billy’s American Pie Shop (445 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. 213/271-3588). The fruit is fresh, (apricots, apples, peaches, boysenberries, raspberries), the crust is golden and if you’re lucky they will just be taking the pies out of the oven. Sit at the counter, ask them to put a scoop of Schrafft’s vanilla ice cream on the top (it’s made without eggs), and then sit back and dream about your childhood. This is one American creation that will make you positively proud.