The Beloved Fast Food Dessert Still Made Fresh In-House (But Only At One Location)

It’s easy to imagine nostalgic desserts pulled piping-hot from everyday ovens, or at the very least, baked in small cafes with checkered tablecloths and a server named Flo. But one classic fast-food dessert actually meets the usual criteria for home-style goodness: the beloved lemon pie from Chick-fil-A. First served in the original location outside Atlanta, the pie is still made fresh in-house. However, that only happens now in that original restaurant, known as the Dwarf House. 

Longtime customers still dream of that luscious, creamy, tangy-sweet lemon pie, which once occupied mainstream menu space across the vast Chick-fil-A empire. But it fell from the limelight in 2012, along with its sidekick cheesecake dessert, after being replaced by two chocolaty newcomers and a selection of creamy sundaes.  Despite passionate customer yearnings and even a Facebook campaign launched in 2013, identifying as “Bring Back the Lemon Meringue Pie to Chick-Fil-A,” the company remains committed to its discontinuation decision. According to one campaign devotee, who says they reached out and received a corporate response, the pie was discontinued because of “numbers/not selling enough, wanting to try new products, etc.” 

That leaves the lemon pie in nirvana-like limbo for most patrons — unless they drive all the way to The Pie Shop inside The Dwarf House. The restaurant retains its longtime Dwarf House name given by Chick-fil-A’s founder, Truett Cathy, but serves the full Chick-fil-A menu, including the Original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich birthed in that very location. And, of course, it still dishes out that lemon pie, originally made from scratch by Cathy himself, followed by only two other pie-makers in the restaurant’s history. However, there’s a lesser-known twist to this story, and it involves the actual lemon pie recipe. 

Though lemon-pie lovers can no longer buy the dessert at Chick-fil-A venues across the country, the corporate powers-that-be offer a very good alternative: The actual Chick-fil-A Dwarf House Lemon Pie recipe, which includes at least one unusual revelation regarding the two-faced pie-shell ingredients. Instead of choosing between the two standard crust options for Southern-style lemon meringue pie — a graham cracker crust or one made with vanilla wafers — this recipe features both. 

The bottom layer is a graham cracker crust, but it’s rimmed with upright vanilla wafers around the sides of the pie pan, thereby supporting the creamy filling — while also appeasing both sides of the Southern pie-crust debate. Having grown up in the Deep South myself, I’ve always been in the nilla’ wafer camp for lemon meringue pies, but this dual approach is admittedly a lightbulb moment. The filling is pretty straightforward, calling for sweetened condensed milk, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and pasteurized eggs. They’re all mixed together and poured into the waiting crust. 

It’s important to note that the pasteurized eggs in this recipe are not the ordinary type of raw eggs sold in grocery stores. This version of lemon pie doesn’t get fully cooked in the oven (just a few minutes to brown the meringue), so using standard raw eggs can lead to bacteria-induced foodborne illness. A few mainstream supermarkets carry pasteurized eggs, but you can also use pasteurized liquid eggs or “egg products”. All that’s left then is spreading the homemade meringue across the top, and browning in a 375-degree Fahrenheit oven for about 2.5 minutes. 

For other current and yesteryear yearnings, check out these 15 fast food ice cream treats and eight discontinued fast-food desserts that deserve a revival.